The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Wednesday 22 September 2010
A letter about the possible shutdown of the BBC World Service's Burmese-language service quoted the BBC's motto as: "Nation shall speak truth unto nation." That should have been "speak peace"
I was living in Burma in 1988 during the magnificent nationwide protests against the junta (World Service broadcasts to Burma to face axe, 8 September). In an account based on my diaries (Back to Mandalay, 1990), I noted how people were ignoring the Burmese Broadcasting Service and relying "more and more (and more and more openly) on the BBC, so that the sturdy strains of Lillibullero filled the balmy Mandalay air at 07.15 hours and at 20.15 hours". A few days later I recorded that the BBS "had started to inveigh against the BBC in an attempt to discredit it, but the only result was that the BBC's Burmese Service was now avidly listened to. That night, at 8.15, I could hear radios all around the neighbourhood blaring out the truth as far as the BBC could get at it." To the noble motto, "Nation shall speak truth unto nation", I suppose we must now add "unless it's a bit expensive".
Gerry Abbott
Manchester
