'..given the sea of disinformation spreading across Russia, the BBC has an important role to play.'<blockquote>'SIR – Margaret Thatcher once said that truth is what the Kremlin feared the most. The Russian interference in Ukraine has been accompanied by an unbelievable volume of propaganda and outright lies aimed at discrediting the new Ukrainian authorities, whipping up hysteria among ordinary Russians and pointing a finger at an “external enemy”.
In the past, the BBC played a key role in breaking the state-sponsored information cacophony. In the dark years of the Cold War, its Russian service was listened to by about 25 million people in the Soviet Union alone. The BBC provided intellectual and moral leadership via news and analysis and feature programmes on the arts.
Today the BBC’s Russian service is a mere internet-based news platform, which produces only about eight hours of radio programmes a week.
The Ukrainian crisis points to the need for the BBC to reassess its priorities. Recent technological advances make it easier to reach large audiences and smartphone apps like TuneIn can already provide an effective channel. Russia is the world’s tenth largest smartphone market. All that is needed is to turn some of the existing written online content into radio.
As a modern, well-staffed and well-funded global broadcaster, the BBC is better placed than many to move with the times. As truth becomes an ever-more precious commodity, given the sea of disinformation spreading across Russia, the BBC has an important role to play.'
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The BBC should revamp its Russian service, June 2, 2014</blockquote>
Context<blockquote>
'..Lenin destroyed freedom of the press..'</blockquote>