Critisms of BBC

The BBC has long faced allegations of holding a left wing or liberal bias, many from right-of-centre organisations and pressure groups.[67] Similar allegations have been made by past and present employees such as Antony Jay,[68] former political editor Andrew Marr, North American editor Justin Webb,[69] former editor of the Today Programme, Rod Liddle[70] and former correspondent Robin Aitken.[71] By contrast left-wing figures such as the journalist John Pilger have frequently accused the BBC of a right-wing bias, a view supported by the left-wing website Media Lens. The anti-Iraq war MP George Galloway has referred to it as the "Bush and Blair Corporation".[72]

Criticism of the BBC's middle east coverage from both sides, including allegations of anti-Israeli bias, led the BBC to commission an investigation and report from a senior BBC editorial adviser Malcolm Balen, referred to as the Balen Report.[73] Attempts to force the BBC to release the report under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 were unsuccessful after the courts upheld the BBC's argument that the report fell outside of the Act's scope as it was conducted for journalistic purposes. This led to speculation that the report was damning, as well as to accusations of hypocrisy as the BBC frequently made use itself of Freedom of Information Act requests when researching news stories.[74] The BBC did make public the findings of an "independent panel report" written in 2006, that said that while there was "no deliberate or systematic bias" in the BBC's reporting of the middle east, their coverage had been "inconsistent," "not always providing a complete picture" and "misleading".[74] It suggested that in fact BBC coverage implicitly favoured the Israeli side. [75] Former BBC middle east correspondent Tim Llewellyn wrote in 2004 that the BBC's coverage allowed an Israeli view of the conflict to dominate, as demonstrated by research conducted by the Glasgow Media Group. [76]

The BBC has received criticism in recent times over its coverage of the events leading up to the war in Iraq.[77] The controversy over what it described as the "sexing up" of the case for war in Iraq by the government, led to the BBC being heavily criticised by the Hutton Inquiry,[78] although this finding was much disputed by the British press.[79]

In August 2007 Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price highlighted what he perceived as a lack of a Welsh focus on BBC news broadcasts.[80] Price threatened to withhold future television licence fees in response to a lack of thorough news coverage of Wales, echoing a BBC Audience Council for Wales July report citing public frustration over how the Welsh Assembly is characterised in national media.[81] Plaid AM Bethan Jenkins agreed with Price and called for responsibility for broadcasting to be devolved to the Welsh Assembly, voicing similar calls from Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond.[80] Criticism of the BBC's news coverage for Wales and Scotland since devolution prompted debate of possibly providing evening news broadcasts with specific focus for both countries.[80]

The BBC has attracted criticism for the large salaries paid to some of its employees such as Jonathan Ross whose BBC contract is worth £4.5 millions annually.[82] A recent report into the salaries of such BBC employees by the BBC Trust concluded that the BBC was not paying more than the market price for leading TV talent.[83]

The licence fee has also attracted criticism. It has been argued that in an age of multi stream, multi-channel availability, an obligation to pay a licence fee is no longer appropriate. The BBC's use of private sector company Capita Group to send letters to premises not paying the licence fee has been criticised, especially as there have been cases where such letters have been sent to premises which are up to date with their payments, or do not require a TV licence.[84] The BBC uses an advertising campaign to inform customers of the requirement to pay the licence fee. These letters and adverts have been criticised by MPs such as Boris Johnson and Ann Widdecombe, for having a threatening nature and language used to scare evaders into paying.[85][86] Audio clips and television broadcasts are used to inform listeners of the BBC's comprehensive database.[87] There are a number of pressure groups campaigning on the issue of the licence fee.[88]

The bbc

The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known more simply as the BBC, is a UK based broadcasting corporation and is the world's largest broadcasting corporation[1], employing 28,500 people in the United Kingdom alone with an annual budget of more than £4 billion/$8 billion.[2][3] The BBC is a quasi-autonomous public corporation as a public service broadcaster and is run by the BBC Trust; it is, per its charter, supposed to "be free from both political and commercial influence and answer only to its viewers and listeners".[4]

The BBC was the first national broadcasting organisation[5] and was founded on 18 October 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd; It was subsequently granted a Royal Charter and was made a publicly funded corporation in 1927. The corporation produces programmes and information services, broadcasting globally on television, radio, and the Internet. The stated mission of the BBC is "to inform, educate and entertain" (as laid down by Parliament in the BBC Charter);[6] its motto is "Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation".

The BBC's domestic programming is primarily funded by levying television licence fees (under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949), although money is also raised through commercial activities such as sale of merchandise and programming. The BBC World Service, however, is funded through a grant-in-aid by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. As part of the BBC Charter, the Corporation cannot show commercial advertising on any services in the United Kingdom (television, radio, or internet). Outside the United Kingdom the BBC broadcasts commercially funded channels such as BBC America, BBC Canada, and BBC World News. In order to justify the licence fee, the BBC is expected to produce a number of high-rating shows[citation needed] in addition to programmes that commercial broadcasters would not normally broadcast.[4]

Publishing Career:

Northern & Shell was the first company to move to the revamped Docklands and the Princess Royal opened the offices. When the company moved to the Northern & Shell Tower Prince Philip did the honours. Desmond's biggest publishing deal was the launch of celebrity magazine OK! in 1993.

After buying Express Newspapers in 2000 for £125m,[1] Desmond became embroiled in a bitter feud with Viscount Rothermere, publisher of the Daily Mail, the rival of the Daily Express, largely derived from stories relating to Rothermere's private life. The Daily Mail ran several articles describing Desmond as a pornographer and Private Eye christened him "Dirty Desmond". Mail editor Paul Dacre, despite an eventual truce between the competitors, commented on Demond in the British Journalism Review (2002):

“ Richard Desmond is an appalling man. He is bad for British journalism. He’s bad for public life and he’s bad for civilized standards. For Tony and Cherie Blair to court him so assiduously speaks volumes for their moral elasticity. As long as I’ve got energy in my body, I’m going to devote everything to try to see him off.”

In April 2004, the Daily Express shifted its support from Labour to the Conservatives. On the same day Desmond caused a scandal by accusing the Daily Telegraph, which was then considering accepting a takeover offer by the German Axel Springer group, of giving in to Nazis.[3] Desmond reportedly harangued The Daily Telegraph's chief executive and associates in faux German at a business meeting and imitated Adolf Hitler, before erupting in a tirade of four-letter words.On March 19, 2008, Express newspapers were forced to pay the parents of missing four-year-old Madelaine McCann £550,000 damages and publish a humiliating apology on the front pages of the Daily and Sunday Express, the Daily Star and the Star on Sunday after publishing more than 100 defamatory articles about the couple.

Personal life:

From a Jewish background, Desmond grew up in north London and left school at 14. His first job was for Thomson Newspapers, working in classified advertisements. He moved on to another company and by the age of 21 he owned two record shops. He acquired an interest in publishing and in 1974 published a magazine called International Musician and Recording World.
He is prominent in several Jewish charitable institutions and in 2006 was appointed to head Norwood, which is devoted to helping children in need.
Desmond currently lives in north London.

Richard Desmond:

Richard Desmond,born 8 December 1951 is a British publisher and the current owner of Express Newspapers and founder of Northern and Shell plc, which also publishes OK! Magazine, new! Magazine and Star Magazine. Express Newspapers publishes the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star Sunday and Daily Star. Northern and Shell is also the owner of some of the most popular adult television channels in the UK, the Fantasy Channel, Red Hot TV and TelevisionX