British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Location
headquartered at Broadcasting House, central London
Politics
The BBC’s output, funding model, and governance structure are perceived as center-right. While the BBC says it operates in the public interest, critics say its domestic and international coverage lacks impartiality. In Britain and elsewhere, it has been accused of a pro-establishment, pro-Israel, pro-Western bias.

Money Matters

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a statutory corporation, governed by the BBC Trust. Its Chair Rona Fairhead is also non-executive director of HSBC, while its Vice-Chair Roger Carr is Chairman of arms giant BAE Systems. The BBC’s funding comes from taxpayers’ license fees, government grants, rental collections, its commercial wing and royalties from foreign broadcasts. The corporation boasts the second-largest budget of any UK-based broadcaster (the largest being Sky), with its total revenue standing at about £5.1 billion (US$7.8 billion) in 2013/2014.

Essentials

The BBC is the world’s longest-running broadcasting outlet. Its global audience surpassed 300 million on May 21, with television trumping radio as its most sought-after form of news for the first time in history. The broadcaster produces content across radio, TV and online platforms.

The BBC’s Executive Board dictates its editorial output in line with a framework laid down by the BBC Trust. Members of the Trust are selected by the British monarchy based on a recommendation from government ministers. The Trust is independent of external bodies and BBC management, and claims to serve the public interest.

Key People

Rona
Fairhead

BBC Trust Chairman Rona Fairhead also acts as a non-executive director of disgraced banking giant HSBC. The bank was rocked by scandal earlier this year after it emerged its Swiss banking arm aided wealthy clients in evading tax. Fairhead, who earned in excess of £500,000 (US$774,000) as an HSBC non-executive director in 2014, was dubbed "incredibly naive or totally incompetent" by Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chief Margaret Hodge after the scandal emerged.

Although Hodge demanded the British government sack Fairhead from her £110,000-a-year position at the BBC Trust, Fairhead claimed she was unaware of HSBC’s criminal activity and retained her positions both at BBC Trust and at the bank.

The BBC Trust chair was also invited to the notoriously secret Bilderberg conference in 2015. British comedy writer and journalist Charlie Skelton, who covered the event for the Guardian, noted her attendance would leave HSBC "well represented" and the BBC "in safe hands."

 

James
Harding

A former Editor of Rupert Murdoch’s the Times, James Harding was appointed to a £340,000-a-year ($527,000) role of Director of BBC News and Current Affairs in 2013. He is reportedly a friend of Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. Harding, who authored ‘Alpha Dogs: How Political Spin Became a Global Business’, previously worked under Fairhead at the Financial Times (FT). He joined the FT in 1994, became the paper’s China correspondent in 1996 and was promoted to the position of head of its Washington bureau in 2002.

Between 2002 and 2006, Fairhead had served as chief financial officer for Pearson PLC which controlled the Financial Times Group at the time.

In this context, Fairhead and Harding would likely have crossed paths over editorial concerns. Both are currently based at the BBC.



Harding joined the Times in 2006 as business and city editor. He then worked as editor from 2007 to 2012.

Back in 2002, Murdoch gave Harding, then FT media editor, a face-to-face interview. However, while announcing his resignation in 2012, Harding told the newsroom: "It has been made clear to me that News Corporation would like to appoint a new editor of the Times. I have, therefore, agreed to stand down." And it looks like some scorn is still left on the Murdoch side. In June 2015 the media mogul accused Harding of "going native" after the BBC news chief denied the allegations of leftwing bias during the election coverage in May.

 

Laura
Kuenssberg

Recently appointed political editor of BBC News, Laura Kuenssberg rose to prominence as a reporter during her coverage of Britain’s 2010 general election. She later left the BBC and became business editor of rival channel ITV News in 2011.

Kuenssberg returned to the BBC as chief correspondent and presenter of its current affairs program Newsnight in 2013. She made headlines after becoming the station’s first female political editor in 2015.

In an interview on the BBC’s News at Ten program on September 30, Kuenssberg attacked Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s position on nuclear weapons. Following a brief exchange with Corbyn, she hinted his refusal to "push the nuclear button" could jeopardize Britain’s national interest.

UK media watchdog Media Lens sharply criticized her conduct in the interview, calling it "comically biased" and "scornful."

 

Nick
Robinson

Nick Robinson, a former chairman of the Young Conservatives, began hosting the influential BBC Radio 4 program in November 2015.

At the height of the Scottish independence campaign, when Robinson held the position of BBC political editor, the broadcaster was accused of slanted reporting. In particular, it faced allegations of bias against the Scottish National Party (SNP), which was campaigning for an independent Scotland.

In the run-up to the vote, pro-independence Scots gathered outside the BBC’s Glasgow headquarters to demand Robinson resign after he produced a report that claimed SNP leader Alex Salmond had failed to answer his question during a heated press conference.

Salmond’s lengthy answer, in which the first minister implied that the BBC should be investigated for airing "market-sensitive" information from within the Treasury, was edited out.



Some 10 months after the vote on Scottish independence, Salmond told the Telegraph that Robinson should be "embarrassed and ashamed" over his coverage of the referendum.

Controversies

The BBC has been accused of biased reporting on a number of key issues including the Israel-Palestine conflict, the 2003 Iraq War, historical sex abuse allegations and Scottish independence.

Accusations of pro-Israel bias

Critics argue the BBC’s coverage of the 2014 Gaza conflict was blighted by bias. The outlet’s reporting on the crisis sparked protests in cities across the UK in 2014.



As Israel’s military assault on the besieged coastal strip intensified, protesters presented an open letter from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and other groups to the Director-General of the BBC, Lord Hall. The letter, which attracted over 45,000 signatures, accused the BBC of framing Israel’s military assault on Gaza as retaliation to Hamas’ rocket fire without offering context on the conflict.

Among its signatories were famed linguist and critic of American foreign policy Noam Chomsky, world renowned journalist John Pilger, veteran socialist and filmmaker Ken Loach and musician Brian Eno.



In May 2015, the BBC upheld complaints that the broadcaster breached its editorial guidelines in an interview with the Israeli defense minister. The complaints focused on BBC journalist Sarah Montague’s alleged failure to challenge controversial claims made by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

According to the interview, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on March 19, Ya’alon said that Palestinians enjoy political independence. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) subsequently challenged Ya’alon’s statement at the time, stressing that Palestinians live under occupation.

Head of the BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit (ECU) Fraser Steel later admitted the interview with Ya’alon fell below the standards of impartiality required of the BBC.

In 2006 the BBC’s governing body commissioned an independent report which came to the finding that BBC coverage "does not consistently constitute a full and fair account of the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict but rather, in important respects, presents an incomplete and in that sense misleading picture."

In 2007, the BBC successfully blocked the release of an internal report into allegations of bias in its coverage of Middle East affairs, which reportedly cost £200,000 ($310,000) of license fee-payers’ money. Although a ruling sought under Freedom of Information (FoI) legislation required the Corporation to publish the audit, the decision was reversed by Britain’s High Court.

Ex-BBC Middle East correspondent Tim Llewellyn said in 2012 the BBC’s coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict is manipulated by a wealthy pro-Israel lobby.

Reflecting on his 10-year career at the corporation, he told crowds gathered at a book launch that Israel unleashed a meticulously organized and "well-financed propaganda campaign" in Britain post-2000.

Llewellyn was echoed by Al Jazeera reporter Jacky Rowland at the time, who said the BBC’s duty to remain accountable and impartial has been exploited by pro-Israeli lobby groups. She claimed a BBC insider told her about 85 percent of complaints against the broadcaster were issued by members of the Israel lobby over the outlet’s Middle East coverage.



Scottish independence campaign coverage

In late 2014, the BBC’s coverage of the Scottish independence campaign was marred by allegations of prejudicial reporting. Speaking to RT’s Going Underground in the run-up to the anniversary of the referendum on Scottish independence, then-First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond said he was appalled by the anti-independence bias of the BBC. He branded the corporation "a disgrace to public broadcasting."

In the aftermath of the vote on Scottish independence, a petition calling for an independent inquiry into the BBC’s reporting on the referendum attracted over 87,500 signatures.

Child sex abuse cover-up allegations

Top BBC executives have also been accused of covering up the historical child sex abuse cases.

In March 2015 it was alleged that BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead had blocked the release of information uncovered by an investigation into pedophilia by late entertainer Jimmy Savile.

The potentially damaging correspondence she had allegedly sought to supress sparked claims that corporation executives were attempting to delay the release of a report on Savile as a means of shielding the BBC from reputational damage.

The broadcaster had previously been hit by scandal after its influential Newsnight show dropped an investigation into allegations of child sex abuse by Savile in 2011. An internal inquiry set up to investigate the matter found in 2012 the BBC’s shelving of the investigation had unleashed "chaos and confusion" across its ranks. After the £2 million ($3.1 million) report was published, Newsnight Editor Peter Rippon and his deputy Liz Gibbons were replaced.

While the inquiry rejected allegations of a BBC cover-up, critics continue to argue otherwise.

Iraq War coverage

The BBC’s coverage of the 2003 Iraq war was condemned by its chief defense correspondent Paul Adams. Adams, who was stationed at a command center in Qatar at the time, said in a leaked memo the Corporation was misrepresenting how the war was unfolding.

The memo, which was disclosed to the Sun newspaper, had been sent to BBC bosses such as the broadcaster’s head of TV news programs, Roger Mosey.

Breaking broadcast rules

The BBC came under fire in August 2015 for breaking UK broadcast regulations. UK media regulator Ofcom revealed that the broadcaster had screened a series of programs which it acquired for low or nominal fees from foreign governments, charities and other bodies, while viewers were not told it was sponsored content. The regulator warned the breaches posed inherent risk to the broadcaster’s editorial integrity and independence.

Staff gagging

The BBC has also been accused of gagging hundreds of staff. Freedom of Information (FoI) figures spanning a period of eight years revealed in 2013 the broadcaster had spent £28 million ($43.3 million) on gag orders. The money the BBC had invested in silencing staff sparked allegations the broadcaster was using suppression orders to stop those who had been exposed to sexual harassment or bullying at work from blowing the whistle.

Digital Media Initiative failure & license fees

The BBC’s funding model has also been subject to sharp criticism. BBC’s Digital Media Initiative — a project which was launched in 2008 and ate up about £100 million ($155 million) of license fee-payers’ money — was branded "a complete failure" by the chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in April 2014.

Several weeks prior to this, a petition had been launched calling upon the government to end the BBC’s license fee, which takes the form of a £145.50 ($225) tax. The petition’s signatories accused the corporation of straddling a business model that "relies upon fear of criminal sanctions" for those who are unable to pay the tax in a time of austerity. It also said the BBC’s funding model leaves the broadcaster open to government manipulation.

Despite the BBC’s pledge to uphold the public interest, its ex-chair warned in July 2015 the corporation is in danger of becoming an arm of government.

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