“The BBC is and always has been independent,” read a statement in response to Twitter’s description as a “state-funded” broadcaster.
The British broadcaster BBC According to Twitter, it does not want to be described as a “state-financed” medium. “The BBC is independent and has always been,” the broadcaster said, according to reports on Sunday. “We are funded by the British public through license fees,” the statement said. The company has turned to Twitter on the matter.
Recently on the Twitter account @BBC, which is followed by around 2.2 million users, the category designation “state-funded media” has appeared. Other BBC-Accounts for individual programs or news programs do not have a corresponding mark.
The criticism of BBC follows a dispute 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.
(APA/DPA)