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MPs to take up campaign against BBC ads
DATELINE: 10/11/06
The NUJ's parliamentary group of MPs is to table a motion to Parliament objecting to plans to introduce adverts on the BBC website's international-facing pages.
The ads would be visible to all overseas users and, it is estimated, hundreds of thousands of UK readers accessing the website via overseas servers.
More than 170 website staff - including managers, editors, technical staff, correspondents and reporters - have so far signed a petition opposing the scheme.
The NUJ's parliamentary group will table An Early Day Motion (EDM) against the BBC's plans, ahead of a potentially crucial Governors meeting in December.
The BBC's commercial arm Worldwide wants overseas users to access the BBC website via its, as yet unlaunched, bbc.com portal which would contain ads.
Under current proposals, banner adverts would also appear on news pages, from which Worldwide estimates about 50-60% of advertising revenue would come.
When the BBC website ran a story about the proposals an overwhelming majority of readers from both the UK and overseas were opposed to the commercialisation of the website.
Those opposed to advertising on the website have cited several reasons, including:
* It will damage the editorial integrity and reputation of BBC News as an independent public service broadcaster
* It will undermine the future of the World Service and the licence fee
* Overseas readers, and UK licence-fee payers, emphatically do not support it; and many UK readers who access the internet via overseas servers will see the ads
* Once a profit element is introduced to the website it will inhibit 'user-generated content'
* It will slow downloads speeds
* It will make the site more expensive to run, diverting resources away from public service
* It will destroy the uncluttered look of the website
Supporters of the scheme say there is a need to introduce advertising to the news website to raise money for the BBC's 'global ambitions' and to deal with the fact that part of the audience are "getting something free" because they don't pay the licence fee.
As one reader told the website: 'Adverts affect independence. I'm not bothered if people overseas can see or hear BBC content. They've been hearing World Service broadcasts paid for by the taxpayer for years.'
NUJ General secretary Jeremy Dear said: 'The BBC should not launch itself down this slippery slope. The public - in the UK and overseas - do not want to see the creeping commercialisation of a world-renowned public service broadcaster. They respect the BBC for its editorial integrity, its public service values and its ad-free space, all of which are under threat from this crass commercial adventure.'
You can download the full campaign document, 'The Case Against Ads' and a copy of the NUJ's letter to the EFJ Broadcasting Expert Group below.
Read more comments from BBC News website readers here
If you want to express your opposition to this scheme, email
DG Mark Thompson: MarkThompsonandPA@bbc.co.uk
Deputy DG Mark Byford: Mark.Byford@bbc.co.uk
Richard Sambrook, Director of the BBC's Global News Division richard.sambrook@bbc.co.uk
Send copies of protests to fightforourbbc@nuj.org.uk
LINKSBBC news forum
The Case Against Ads
Letter from the EFJ
Last modified: Monday, November 13, 2006
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
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