Twitter has designated one of the BBC’s 2.2 million followers accounts as government-funded media. The title, however, has not been applied to the network’s other accounts, such as BBC World, which has 39.7 million followers, and BBC Breaking News, which has 51.6 million followers. The BBC account – @BBC – publishes updates about the network’s TV series, radio broadcasts, podcasts, and other non-news content. After applying a similar tag to the American media group NPR(National Public Radio)., the social media giant made the adjustment to the official BBC account.
Twitter had initially labelled NPR as “state-affiliated media”, a tag which is given to Russia’s network RT and China’s Xinhua News Agency. However, it was changed to “government-funded media” after the backlash from the American broadcaster, which said it would not tweet from the account until the label existed. It was then changed to “government-funded media”. According to Twitter, state-affiliated media outlets are organisations “where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution”.
“The BBC is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee”
According to CNN, NPR receives some income from governmental institutions, but the great bulk comes from business sponsorships and NPR membership fees. Twitter, on the other hand, has not defined what it considers “government-funded media,” a label that the official BBC handle still bears. The BBC has objected to the label and is tweeting about it on its @BBC account to “resolve this issue as soon as possible.” “The BBC is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee,” it said in a statement.
On October 18, 1922, the British Broadcasting Company was established as the British Broadcasting Company. It was a private company in which British manufacturers had stock. On November 14, 1922, it went on the air for the first time, broadcasting short news bulletins and weather reports. The BBC captured the attention of the British people in 1926 after covering the general strike that year. The Parliamentary committee soon proposed replacing the private firm with a public, Crown-chartered corporation. That is when the BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation – as we know it today was established.
BBC is one of the most widely watched free-to-air networks
As a result, the organisation is ultimately accountable to the British Parliament. It does, however, have independence in its actions. The BBC controlled television in the United Kingdom until 1954 and radio until 1972. The century-old media network is supposedly transmitted in 200 countries and is among the most widely watched free-to-air networks today. While it is publicly funded, it is governed by a Royal Charter.
