BBC Says Producing Ads For China Propaganda Organs Is “Vital” For Funding Its Journalism
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: The BBC has defended its decision to produce glossy adverts for Huawei and Chinese state media, saying the contracts are important to funding its international journalism.
Sean O’Hara, the BBC’s Executive Vice President of advertising, said the corporation reports on China “without fear or favour” despite a Deadline investigation revealing that it has commercial ties to China Global Television Network (CGTN) and other organs of the Chinese government. “The commercial income generated from advertising provides vital investment in BBC News, ensuring that we are able to sustain our global network of journalists and continue to bring independent and impartial news to the UK and beyond.
I’d like to assure you that it has no influence on our editorial output,” he said. O’Hara made the remarks in a memo to Lord David Alton, a British lawmaker and member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.
Alton called on the BBC to review commercial unit BBC StoryWorks’ ads for China, arguing that it was “simply not realistic to believe that commercial relationships with the Chinese Communist Party have no bearing on behaviour.” Alton originally wrote to Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, but his office declined to respond, instead pointing him to O’Hara, who heads up BBC StoryWorks.
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