The Czech foreign minister, Cyril Svoboda, has appealed to his British
counterpart, Jack Straw, to preserve the Czech service of the BBC,
which is funded by Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Czech
BBC broadcasts five hours a day, but has a small audience: one survey
last year suggested it had a mere 0.1 percent of the market. Mr
Svoboda, speaking at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in
Wales, described the Czech BBC as world class.