HONG KONG — If there is one global voice that has a deserved reputation for truth, honesty, fairness, awareness, understanding and balance, it is the BBC, as almost everyone knows the British Broadcasting Corp., and its World Service radio programs.

For generations and millions of people living behind the Iron Curtain, for Burmese, Chinese and others brave enough to tune in to foreign broadcasts, for Africans repressed by civil war and turmoil, the BBC World Service in English and in local languages has been a voice of truth and hope penetrating the gloomy propaganda of communism, dictatorship, repression and, sometimes, criminally kleptocratic or stupid governments.

With the growing global reach of the Internet and world television channels, the BBC should be on the cusp of a golden age as an international broadcaster and promoter of debate about issues vital to the future of the planet. Instead the reputation is at risk from a strange mixture of little England and a tabloid mentality.