by Sunny Hundal
Editor

By Friday afternoon, once the Conservative shadow culture minister Ed Vaizey had “welcomed” the leaked report in The Times, it looked like the BBC Asian Network’s fate was sealed.

The draft report has been widely seen as a response by BBC executives to strong pressure by the Conservative party to get the corporation to cut spending.

They ask why, at a time when the commercial sector is reeling from a downturn in the advertising sector, is the BBC not sharing some of the pain.

It’s a fair question. And the result seemed to be a report written by a former Conservative party advisor who would make recommendations that could reflect the party’s thinking.

By leaking the report in advance, BBC executive could judge Tory response and make adjustments if necessary.

Except that Asian Network and 6 Music were caught in the cross-fire, and questions were asked why the expensive and relatively unpopular BBC Three was not facing the chop.

A backlash soon started online. On Facebook a page was created to, ‘Save the BBC Asian Network‘. It has already gathered nearly 9,000 fans.

A Facebook group was also set up by several Asian Network staff, including presenters Bobby Friction and Sonia Deol, titled ‘Keep the BBC Asian Network‘.

On Twitter too, word rapidly spread of Asian Network’s troubles and hundreds of people started using the hashtag #saveAsianNetwork.

The backlash took off when singer Jay Sean tweeted:

I can’t believe that they’re trying to shut down the BBC Asian network. This is crazy we have no mainstream platforms as it is. Messed up.

An Early Day Motion (EDM) in Parliament in support of Asian Network is also being planned but it’s too early to say yet.

It’s unlikely that British Asians are going to take the move without mounting stuff resistance.