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 Celebrities urge BBC bosses to save Asian Network08-03-2010STARS Jay Sean, Shilpa Shetty and Amir Khan were among a host of stars who urged the BBC to drop plans to close the Asian Network
radio station.
Hip-hop artist Sean, Bollywood actress Shetty and world light
welterweight boxing champion Khan said a key outlet for South Asian
talent would be "tragically lost" if the station closed down.
They were among 158 public figures who made the plea in a joint letter
to The Guardian newspaper.
"We are writing to express our profound shock at the BBC director
general Mark Thompson's proposal to close down the BBC Asian Network
as a national station," the signatories said.
"The BBC we have grown up with has always prided itself on celebrating
diversity.
"It provides a key platform for the national Asian community, and
offers an outlet to Asian talent, which is demonstrably
underrepresented in the more mainstream BBC. This would all be
tragically lost if these proposals are agreed.
"We urge the BBC Trust to reconsider this proposal and stop the
closure of a valued station which is greatly needed by your
licence-fee-paying audience nationally.”
Other signatories included Lord Karan Bilimoria, the founder and
chairman of Cobra Beer, England cricketer Vikram Solanki, film
director Gurinder Chadha, musicians Asian Dub
Foundation, comedians Sanjeev Bhaskar and writer Meera Syal (pictured).
Several parliamentarians, trade union leaders and musicians were also
among the signatories.
BBC said on Tuesday (2) it would close the Asian Network and 6 Music radio
stations from 2011.
The shake-up came after criticism of its market dominance.
The changes are to free up an extra £600m to be spent on
programme-making.
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