BBC Media Action
By Paul Homewood
http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2014/cop20/eng/inf02.pdf
As I mentioned earlier, BBC Media Action sent a couple of people to the UN Climate Conference in Lima this month. I would stress that these were listed by the UN under “Non-Governmental Organisations”, and not media. The BBC, of course, plenty of journalists etc as well.
So, just who is BBC Media Action, and why on earth does the BBC think it has a right to participate in the conference, and not just simply report on it?
The Climate Asia website has this to say:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/climateasiadataportal/about
This would appear to raise two serious questions:
1) If they are “independent”, how can they be “of the BBC”?
As they admit, they “have partnerships” with the World Service, and clearly work very closely with the BBC.
The BBC Media Action website goes one step further:
We now sit in BBC’s World Service Group (BBC World Service, BBC World News, BBC Monitoring and BBC Media Action).
But although BBC World Service and BBC Media Action share a joint heritage and enjoy a very close relationship through broadcast partnerships that reach millions of people, our organisations are distinct.
It is not clear how an “independent organisation” can sit in the “BBC World Service Group”.
2) Independent or not, it is not apparent why the BBC thinks it needs an organisation to “stimulate positive change in the areas of governance, health and resilience and humanitarian response”.
Is this mandated under their Charter?
As they point out, BBC Media Action receive no funding from the licence fee, and instead rely on donations. They have published this summary of where their funding came from in 2013.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/about/funding
Clearly, BBC Media Action, far from being independent, is in hock to its donors and will do their bidding. The fact that, as they say, they share the BBC’s values and have partnerships with the BBC World Service does not exactly reassure us about the independence of the BBC itself.
Just as worrying is the money they receive from the EU, UN and the Gates Foundation. It all sounds a bit too cosy.
And as for Climate Asia itself, they they tell us:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/climateasiadataportal/about
We have an organisation of the BBC taking an unashamedly activist position on climate change.
Well, they did tell us that they share the BBC’s values!
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
From BBC Media Action’s website “Contact Us” page:
Postal address: BBC Media Action, MC3A BBC Media Centre, 201 Wood Lane, London, W12 7TQ, UK
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/contact
What a coincidence … not …. 201 Wood Lane, London, W12 7TQ just happens to be BBC Media Village.
Click to access media_village.pdf
I wonder how much rent BBC-MA charity pay for their prestigious, architect-designed, serviced office accommodation at Aunty’s old White City site?
See this page. Bbc MA was and still is the bbc world service trust. The “independent” thing is just a veneer of respectability
http://wbi.worldbank.org/wbi/content/james-0
https://www.google.it/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=james%20deane%20bbc%20world%20service%20trust&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CCQQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fr4d.dfid.gov.uk%2FPDF%2FOutputs%2FMediaBroad%2FBBC-Media-Action-Policy-and-Research-Programme-Annual-Review-Narrative-2011-12_Final-submission.pdf&ei=LYijVNywK4_daJbigfAI&usg=AFQjCNHQZuTJvPKRnHJvXRKJ-repQ3x4lA&bvm=bv.82001339,d.d2s
This BBC WST aka MA document makes it clear they work for the DfID and they’re aware independence is not clear
Rightly or wrong, I consider the Gates money non-tax dollars. There may be some other money that is not taxes. Most of the money appears to be taxes from the UK & Europe, and the USA. Foreign and Commonwealth is ambiguous but sounds like tax money.
I’d be happy to travel world wide to nice places using other people’s money and would even listen and respond to audiences. Can you check and see if they can use an old white guy?
So much for the bonfire of the QANGOs. It’s no wonder Osborne has to borrow £10billion every month and the national debt is £1.4trillion and rising. One wonders who is lending the UK government all this money and how long this fantasy will last before it all comes crashing down like a house of cards. Will we become like Greece?
Almost half of their money comes from DFID who have more money than they know what to do with and they have a commitment to increase spending.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the whole thing wasn’t so labyrinthine, so you could actually tell where all the money goes and what they do with it. One things for certain, it provides cushy jobs for more administrators.
Paul, this isn’t doing my blood pressure any good. I am starting to think that your blog needs a health warning 😉
I go with Wolsten. How come DIFID feels authorized to use scarce tax funds to support a political campaign? How come BBC feels comfortable to be so compromised? Is there no end to the spillage of scarce UK tax funds on reprehensible activities?
It would be interesting to know much more about the folk in this organisation! Worth a little more digging, I suggest!
DIFID are committed to spending a certain percentage of UK gdp, yet with constraints on sending money to the worst tyrants they find it difficult to spend all their budget. This way they get to spend ‘foreign aid’ money in the UK and hope to get some positive publicity out of it.
Definitely requires an investigation, just don’t expect Panorama to do it!
The BBC’s charter mandates them to work on behalf of “civic society”. It doesn’t, however, explain, who gets to decided what constitutes “civic society”. I suspect that my vision of civic society would differ hugely from that espoused by the BBC.