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´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service has announced that it will be closing five language services – Albanian, Macedonian, Portuguese for Africa and Serbian; as well as the English for the Caribbean regional service.

This is part of its response to a cut to its Grant-in-Aid funding from the UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office. The cut is part of a ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service restructure in order to meet a 16% savings target announced in the Government's Spending Review of 20 October last year.

´óÏó´«Ã½ Global News Director Peter Horrocks said: "These closures are not a reflection on the performance of individual services or programmes. They are all extremely important to their audiences and to the ´óÏó´«Ã½.

"It is simply that there is a need to make savings due to the scale of the cuts to the World Service's Grant-in-Aid funding from the UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office and we need to focus our efforts in the languages where there is the greatest need and where we have the strongest impact."

Notes to Editors

´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service will not be confirming further details tonight ahead of briefing staff tomorrow. However, further information will be confirmed tomorrow at a press conference.

´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service Press Office