The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has proposed halting its radio broadcasts in a number of languages, including Arabic, and laying off some 382 jobs in its global broadcast service as part of a plan to cut costs and move its operations to digital platforms.

The BBC said in a statement that its global service needed to save around £28.5m (equivalent to $31m) as part of wider £500m cuts, stating that “Radio broadcasts in ten languages, including Arabic (which started broadcasting in 1938), Persian, Chinese and Bengali will cease,

In this context, she stated that “no language services will be closed, but many will move to digital work on the Internet outside of London to increase their impact on the masses”.

The Thai service will move to Bangkok, the Korean service to Seoul, the Bengali service to Dhaka, and Fox in Africa will be broadcast from Nairobi.

The network noted that it also intends to “transfer the work of CBBC and BBC Four to digital online platforms.”