Though no announcement has been made confirming local reports that downsizing is in the wind, the radio broadcaster has admitted it's weighing wide-ranging changes in its foreign-language programs and seeks to focus more on the Arab world.

Though the BBC attracts just 16,000 listeners here daily — a tiny share of the audience compared with domestic radio stations — experts says that its international outlook makes it highly attractive to elite opinion makers and that Czech radio would not be able to fill its shoes.

Foreign Affairs Minister Cyril Svoboda has appealed to his British counterpart Jack Straw to preserve the BBC's Czech-language section, which has been on the airwaves continuously for 66 years.

"It is a station that is world-class in its style and content. It covers topics that are not emphasized in the Czech media," Svoboda told reporters Sept. 2 after talks with Straw at a two-day meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Great Britain.

The BBC, which served as an important provider of uncensored news to the Eastern bloc during the Cold War, remains the world's biggest and best-known public broadcaster.

Insiders say that Prague employees of the BBC World Service, funded by the British Foreign Office, are now on tenterhooks, worried that they could lose their jobs.

Týden magazine reported last month that around 20 journalists from the station's Czech section may soon have to start looking for new work, some fearing that the Czech language could disappear from BBC airwaves as early as January after broadcast officials in London make a final decision on the Prague office in October.

One option may be replacing the Czech section's weekly output of 30 hours of original programs — including news bulletins, interviews and analysis — with broadcasts in English only.

The Czech press has also reported, without giving a source, that apart from the Czech services, most of the BBC's foreign-language sections serving Central Europe are under threat.

Mike Gardner, head of media relations for the BBC World Service in London, said that with the political landscape radically changing in many regions of the world, the British broadcaster has begun reviewing its 43 language services "with a view to significant change."

He said the BBC believes an urgent need has arisen to set up an Arabic television station service, adding that the British government has made it clear it will not provide extra money for new services. Funding must instead be found through "reprioritization."

Plans for a new Arabic TV service have gained considerable political support in Britain since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States; many hope such broadcasts will provide a counterpoint to Qatar-based satellite TV station Al-Jazeera, which critics accuse of inciting opposition to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

American officials also accuse Al-Jazeera of providing a platform for members of the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein, but the station insists it merely presents views from all sides.

Asked whether the Czech section of the BBC could be the victim of the broadcaster's changing priorities, Gardner replied, "No decisions have been taken and I'm unable to speculate."

Senior staff at the BBC's Czech section, based on Opletalova street, off Wenceslas Square, refused to comment.

Some 16,000 Czech people listen to the BBC for at least five minutes a day, a fraction of the 877,000 listeners who tune in to Radiožurnál, the most listened-to Czech station, according to Pavel Rusý of the Czech branch of GfK, a market research and opinion polling company.

However, Jan Jirák, an associate professor at the media department of Prague's Charles University, said that BBC listeners "include a very high share of the national elite, the so-called opinion makers. That's what the significance of the BBC has always been."

Jirák added, "The BBC offers a trustworthy style that's not very frequently seen in the Czech Republic. However, its exceptional role is also partly the result of the miserable state of Czech journalism."

During the Cold War, he added, the BBC played a similar role to U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe, which Soviet bloc states censored for championing democratic values in broadcasts.

"In fact, I think that many people trusted the BBC more than they trusted Radio Free Europe. The BBC was viewed as a media trying to spread information rather than commentary," Jirák said.

Radio Free Europe, whose focus has also increasingly shifted to the Muslim world in recent years, stopped broadcasting in Czech in September 2002.

Meanwhile, Rusý of GfK remains skeptical of the importance of the BBC to most Czechs today.

"Its usefulness is minimal," he said. "Czechs aren't interested in the BBC's broadcasts — they prefer to read [the tabloid daily] Blesk. Those Czechs who do listen in prefer the service in English as this not only provides information but also [a chance to learn] the language."

Jirák, meanwhile, acknowledges that with the Czech Republic safely integrated into the EU, "It no longer pays for the BBC to broadcast in Czech. ... In today's environment this no longer makes sense."