The BBC: A dark, sordid history of tainted reporting at the expense of taxpayer money. For a while now, many citizens and several leaders of the United Kingdom (UK) have been questioning the heavily biased and blatantly “motivated” reporting of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Inspite of a large number of questionable reports over the recent past and the British Parliament’s periodic questioning of possible ulterior motives behind some of its news coverage, the far-Left oriented BBC has been getting away with it, based on its past glory, its pre-world war credentials and its special status as a ‘public service’ for the citizens of the UK.
Where Does BBC Draw Its Power And Money From?
The royal charter is the constitutional basis for the BBC. It sets out the BBC’s mission and public purposes amongst other governance and regulatory arrangements such as the composition of the BBC Board. The BBC’s mission, as outlined in the charter, is “to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain”.
The BBC World Service also receives some funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The BBC is principally funded through a licence fee paid by UK households; the amount is set by the government in a periodic ‘licence fee settlement’. Although the BBC is principally funded through the licence fee paid by UK households, the BBC’s commercial operations, such as BBC Studios, provide supplementary income.
The current royal charter started on 1 January 2017 and ends on 31 December 2027. In January 2022, the government announced a licence fee settlement that would apply from April 2022 until March 2028. It also stated that it was considering how the BBC should be funded after this period.
The Gutter-Level Reputation Of BBC
As recently as 16 December 2022, the House of Lords was scheduled for a debate on a motion from Baroness Stowell of Beeston (Conservative) to take note of the report from the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee ‘Licence to change: BBC future funding’. A specially commissioned Committee’s numerous findings and recommendations presented to the UK Parliament, included the following observations:
• The BBC should provide a clear definition of its understanding of universality, detailing how this, alongside its strategic purpose, will shape its future decisions on programming and allocation of resource.
• The BBC should provide the government with scenarios and estimates to inform its work on the benefit of the BBC’s international output.
• The BBC should publish a comprehensive long-term vision which it should submit to the government’s independent review. The vision should include costed options for future funding mechanisms and details of what the BBC would stop doing, what it would do differently and what it would start doing. The vision “will require fresh thinking and a more open-minded approach than has been shown in the past”.
• The BBC should continue to work to show more overtly that it “respects, understands and reflects all sectors of UK society”.
The above findings of the special committee’s investigations are proof of the discontent of a large cross section of ordinary citizens and law makers, towards the BBC’s dissafactory reporting on national and international affairs. The BBC in its present avatar has severely misused its freedom in India. It is not welcome to stay in our nation, in its current form.
In July 2022, the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee published a report examining the future of BBC funding. All of the questioning, past inquiries, possibility of future inquiries, discussions around the nature, intent and scope of this news corporation, criticised by several leaders including former UK prime minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, stems from the BBC’s tarnished reputation for its choice of playing partisan politics, lack of fair and impartial reporting and a deep affiliation /nexus with the radical Left or Islamist organizations with deep pockets (those that can lobby/ influence/ pay substantially large amounts discreetly in return for favours).
The India Question
British Conservative party MP, Bob Blackman, on being questioned about the controversy surrounding the BBC’s docuseries on PM Narendra Modi, stated that the documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ is a “result of poor journalism, is badly researched, and completely unjustified”. He made it clear that the BBC’s prejudiced views do not represent those of the UK government.
Of late, the BBC has drawn flak from many quarters of British society and a cross section of its elected leaders on account of its apparent far-Left leanings and obvious support of the radical-Left, heavily woke, pro-illegal immigration, pro-Islamist narrative that the partially public/ taxpayer, government-funded news agency has been accused of. Almost a century of operations of this news reporting enterprise has resulted in its rank and file being filled with generations of Left leaning individuals with a God complex. Their pompous, holier-than-thou attitude, opinions on just about everything in the public sphere of life in the UK to citizens, earned the BBC a comical, sarcastic nick name “Auntie” alluding to a nosy, annoying, all-knowing ‘aunty’ who offers unsolicited advice to people on a wide variety of matters, based on the assumption that only the aunty knows what’s best for the country and its middle classes.
British PM had earlier stated that he “doesn’t agree with the characterisation” of PM Modi. US State Department spokesperson Ned Price’s earlier response was that he was not familiar with the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He further added that he was familiar with the shared values of the the United States and India as two thriving and vibrant democracies.
In light of the highly suspicious documentary on a respected, democratically elected leader of a large country titled “India: The Modi Question”, here’s some factual information on this Left-filled, inherently biased organization, masquerading as a news agency of some repute. Clearly, the so-called ‘documentary’ has been commissioned by ultra-Left, communally and politically motivated individuals and organizations from India and abroad with the obvious intent to interfere in India’s internal affairs by raking up one particular event, in the life of an internationally renowned world leader like Prime Minster Narendra Modi – conveniently, that carefully chosen event happens to be about the 2002 Gujarat riots and the ‘Muslim Question’ in India. The BBC has no right to hurt the sentiments of millions of Indians who consciously elected a highly popular leader like Mr. Modi. The BBC has crossed a line and it is not acceptable to all self respecting Indians.
The BBC had crossed the line several times in the past too, at the behest of Islamists and Pakistan, having always been motivated by a false muslim-victimhood narrative, cleverly spun & sold by the radical Left. In fact, PM Indira Gandhi and the Congress party themselves, took strong exception to the highly prejudiced, anti-India reporting of the BBC in the 60s and 70s and even considered banning the organization, which she eventually did in 1970 for about two years. The BBC has a long history of a vehemently biased, anti-India, anti-Hindu reporting. In fact, in almost every instance of its reporting on the South Asian community’s activities and issues including the recent Leicester Muslim-Hindu riots, Hindus in the UK have accused the BBC of open support to the Islamist narrative
It is not acceptable to India and its citizens to be fed false, motivated, sponsored news by a state sponsored news agency, claiming to be reputable yet being questioned by its own government and citizens on its real motives and the biased nature of its content.
The government of India is absolutely right in investigating the BBC’s long standing presence in India, taking away its special privileges and asking it to follow the country’s Law in every aspect. Nobody but nobody has the right to stomp into a strong, proud 21st century India, expect its citizens to mindlessly consume their biased news, insult its history, religion, culture, hard-fought independence, achievements and progress.. all, while taking this ancient land’s generosity for granted! India has the right to conduct thorough investigations of the BBC’s operations in India and take necessary legal action against it.
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