The passion with which we defend Aunty BBC reflects her importance in our lives

Like Lord Patten, I drift into the valley of slumber between the twin audio peaks of the Radio 4 shipping forecast.

Now before any aspersions are cast, I should explain that like Father Christmas, our nocturnal sprite has access to bed chambers across the land, and those who believe in her, remain unmolested and enriched.

‘On long-wave, on FM, on digital and on-line’, she is none other than Aunty BBC.

Of course, unlike those of us tucked up beneath our quilts, she doesn’t sleep between those reassuring bulletins to seafarers.

Indeed, should I wish, courtesy of the BBC’s World Service, I could tune in to her educating and entertaining through the small hours. Aunty is in fine voice, despite the recent efforts by political cash-crunchers to muffle her message.

Last Friday, 25 March, marked the end of an era. The BBC Russian Service, on air since 1946, ceased its radio broadcasts. When Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev was exiled to a Black Sea island during a short-lived coup in 1991, the only way he got news was via the BBC Russian Service broadcasts on his pocket radio.

It was perhaps the most cherished victory for the service which the KGB jammed for decades, trying to prevent it from voicing an alternative view on politics and society to the official propaganda.

But the closure of the Russian stream is not the only casualty. Shortwave services in Mandarin to China ceased that day too. So did English broadcasts to the Caribbean.

In all, five of the thirty-two overseas language services including Hindi Indonesian, Kyrgyz, Nepali and Swahili, along with programmes in

Portuguese for Africa and Latin America have gone silent or are about to. It is such a shame, for unlike SMS and the internet, dependable ‘old’ short-wave radio can’t be conveniently switched off by embarrassed or oppressive regimes. As was

evident during the Cold War, their only recourse was to attempt to jam frequencies, which is hugely expensive and ineffective.

Though in theory, the BBC has pulled the plugs, in practice, the initiative was forced by the UK government’s reduction in the overseas representation budget.

Predictably, the closures have sparked an influential wave of protest both from homespun idealists and loyal listeners in the zones where, unlike us, choice of information will no longer be an option.

By cutting the service the government risks cutting British influence in promoting democratic values in the rest of the world and also damaging the objective quality of international news.

The book-keepers may rejoice that jobs have been dispensed with, but the effects of a seemingly small amputation are disproportionately wide in a world of increased media manipulation, political destabilisation, corruption and human rights abuses.

While I have a special affection for overseas Aunty, her domestic cousin is under threat too – both from external predators and from within.

Financial stringency is again the motivator, against a constant barrage of press criticism about the expenditure of public money on programmes, pensions and salaries. The corporation’s on-air reputation has also taken a knock, courtesy of some well publicised examples of offensive behaviour by hired-in loudmouths.

Behind the scenes, there is disquiet over proposals for the BBC to be broken up and spread around the country in the interests of regional PC and flawed

economics.

The transfer of substantial operations to Salford Keys near Manchester, for example, is proving immensely disruptive and unpopular, particularly as those forcing staff to migrate aren’t actually going themselves.

Ironically, BBC Sport is due to colonise its new northern outpost just in time for … the Olympics in London.

If you compare the trend with national newspapers, you’ll find that over time all have gravitated to the capital and it makes even less sense in a world of instant megabit communication.

These are undoubtedly testing times for our national broadcaster. Having led the field for so long its confidence has been shaken by newcomers and the sheer pressure of an overextended portfolio.

But it is not simply a commercial enterprise – its peculiar funding demands a social connection and conscience. So, more than most public enterprises, it finds itself examined under the collective microscope.

Possibly the most frequently visited pressure is the need to ‘reflect the nation’. There has long been an uneasy tension between the metropolitan south-east of England and the ‘regions’.

It has inspired many bursts of reforming zeal, from introducing regional accents to improving cultural and demographic ‘accessibility’ – neither a cast-iron guarantee of improved quality. Personally, I have to confess the plethora of RP accents in the Archers never rang true, but they fulfilled their brief of reflecting a romanticised portrait of the countryside – with never a slaughterhouse in sight.

Yet it is hard to conceive of the national capital not providing the essential focus.

So the rumour factory is always well stoked. In the past weeks it has included speculation that in order to cut costs, Wimbledon and Formula One motor racing would disappear from BBC listings, or that Local Radio, the bold access

experiment begun in the late 1960s, which, in a community such as ours, does much to foster local spirit, could be reduced to a rump of morning news and drive-time programmes grafted onto national music and sport.

But while it means that Aunty’s foibles, successes and indiscretions are constantly under scrutiny, it also proves how central a pillar she remains for disseminating reasoned, moderated information at home and abroad.

Without that, we descend into a morass of cheap, unsolicited screech and twitter.