BBC protests against ‘government funded’ labels
He himself follows the BBC on Twitter, wrote Elon Musk
Which: via REUTERS
Like the ÖRR in Germany, the BBC is financed by license fees. The British broadcaster is now called “state-financed” on Twitter and complained indignantly to the short message service. Elon Musk answers personally.
DAccording to Twitter, the British broadcaster BBC does not want to be described as a “state-financed” medium. “The BBC is independent and always has been,” the broadcaster said on Sunday. “We are funded by the British public through license fees,” the statement said. The company contacted Twitter about the matter.
Recently, the category designation “state-funded media” appeared on the @BBC Twitter account, which is followed by around 2.2 million users. Other BBC accounts for individual programs or news programs do not have a corresponding mark.
The BBC also published a response from Twitter owner Elon Musk to the broadcaster. “We strive for as much transparency and accuracy as possible,” Musk writes in it. “To draw attention to ownership and sources of money seems sensible to us. In my opinion, media should be self-reflective and not falsely claim to be completely unbiased. All organizations are biased, some more than others, of course. I should mention that I follow BBC News on Twitter myself, as I think it’s among the least biased.”
The BBC’s criticism follows a row between US broadcaster NPR and the social network after Twitter temporarily described the @NPR account as “state-controlled”. The social network thus marked the US public broadcaster as well as the news agencies Xinhua from China or Tass from Russia. NPR chief John Lansing called Twitter’s move “unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, Twitter has also changed the label for NPR to “government-funded.” But even this classification is problematic: NPR is independent and funding comes from a public fund and donations and contributions from affiliated broadcasters. No tweets have been made from the @NPR account since April 5 because of the dispute.