UNESCO, BBC to distribute science programmes in Third World

New Delhi, Sep 25 (UNI) UNESCO and the BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation, have joined hands to provide high-quality television programmes on science and technology to developing nations in Africa and Asia.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the BBC and UNESCO, the UN cultural body has acquired the rights for one year to 46 titles in the award-winning BBC Horizon series for distribution in 41 African and 9 Asian countries.

Each of the 50-minute programmes will be distributed by UNESCO to public service broadcasters free of charge. The broadcasters will be entitled to air each film up to six times on national television.

Basic science, including life sciences, alongside ecology and earth sciences -including disaster mitigation and topics such as Einstein's theory of relativity; tsunamis, and gene therapy, are among the subjects covered by the programmes.

The British government is providing financial support to the project, notably to help defray the cost of duplicating and distributing the programmes.

Cooperation between UNESCO and the BBC is expected to be extended beyond the sciences, to the fields of education, culture and communication through the licensing of BBC Worldwide content.

The African countries, which will be covered under the programme, are: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia.

In Asia, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will benefit.

UNI/SKS VA HT1528