This year's lectures are also the first to be carried on a dedicated website. People around the world can join in the debate on the impact of f by e-mailing their comments.

Nineteen ninety-eight was the 50th anniversary year of the Reith Lectures. In a break with tradition they were recorded in different venues around Britain before an invited audience. Members of the audience were given an opportunity to ask questions, which were included as part of the broadcast programmes. That formula will be repeated this year. But - in keeping with the theme of globalisation - for the first time some of the Reith Lectures are being delivered outside the UK to audiences in New Delhi, Hong Kong and Washington. The Reith Lectures were inaugurated in 1948 by the BBC to mark the historic contribution made to public service broadcasting by Sir John (later Lord) Reith, the corporation's first director-general.

John Reith maintained that broadcasting should be a public service which enriches the intellectual and cultural life of the nation. It is in this spirit that the BBC each year invites a leading figure to deliver a series of lectures on radio. The aim is to advance public understanding and debate about significant issues of contemporary interest.

The very first Reith lecturer was the philosopher, Bertrand Russell who spoke on "Authority and the Individual". Among his successors were Arnold Toynbee (The World and the West, 1952), Robert Oppenheimer (Science and the Common Understanding, 1953) and J.K.Galbraith (The New Industrial State, 1966).

More recently, the Reith lectures have been delivered by the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks (The Persistence of Faith, 1990) and Dr Steve Jones (The Language of the Genes, 1991).

The three most recent Reith lecturers were Jean Aitchison (The Language Web, 1996), Patricia J.Williams (Race and Race Relations, 1997) and John Keegan (War and Our World, 1998).