Focus on Asia

Available for over a year

As national radio stations across Australia, New Zealand and China drop their live schedules to cover the 70th anniversary of Victory in Japan day, listeners question why the BBC World Service did not give an equally significant place in their schedule to the event. Senior Commissioning editor Steve Titherington discusses how the network approached this event and responds to listeners’ queries on whether the World Service’s coverage of Asia could be more varied, in-depth and wide-ranging. In particular, the audience questions what they see as a disproportionate focus given to countries such as India and China over smaller nations – namely Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Plus, members of the audience react to The Bin Laden Tapes – a documentary investigating audio recordings made by the former head of al-Qaeda.