{"id":2311,"date":"2008-01-27T21:01:40","date_gmt":"2008-01-27T21:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/business-news\/fears-of-bias-as-bbc-gets-141m-in-eu-loans\/2311\/"},"modified":"2008-01-27T21:01:40","modified_gmt":"2008-01-27T21:01:40","slug":"fears-of-bias-as-bbc-gets-141m-in-eu-loans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/business-news\/fears-of-bias-as-bbc-gets-141m-in-eu-loans\/","title":{"rendered":"Fears of bias as BBC gets \u00a3141m in EU loans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Oliver<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>THE BBC last night faced accusations of pro-Brussels bias as it was revealed that the corporation had taken out \u00a3141m in \u201csoft\u201d loans from the European Union.<\/p>\n

The broadcaster has taken out three separate low interest loans from the EU-backed European Investment Bank (EIB) to fund the expansion of its growing commercial empire.<\/p>\n

It also emerged that the BBC has received grants from the EU worth \u00a31.4m over the past five years.<\/p>\n

The Brussels deals raise awkward questions for the corporation about its coverage of European affairs and its burgeoning profit-making arm whose interests extend to property, publishing and the internet.<\/p>\n

The details of the loans and grants stretching back six years emerged in a letter written by Zarin Patel, the BBC\u2019s finance director, to Bob Spink, a Conservative MP.<\/p>\n

The first \u00a366m loan in 2003 was used to fund \u201cthe fit-out\u201d of a new building in the BBC\u2019s Media Village development in west London, which was later sold for a profit. The second loan for \u00a325m and the third for \u00a350m were made to BBC Worldwide, the corporation\u2019s profit-making arm, to pay for the acquisition of overseas rights to programmes made by the BBC in the UK.<\/p>\n

The EIB has described itself as \u201can autonomous body set up to finance capital investment furthering European integration by promoting EU policies\u201d.<\/p>\n

It specialises in providing low interest loans below the normal commercial rates. However, the BBC refused to disclose exactly what rates the EIB was charging.<\/p>\n

The BBC letter, written in response to a parliamentary question, also discloses a series of grants to help to fund online educational programmes and preserve the BBC archive.<\/p>\n

Spink said yesterday that he would be putting down a Commons motion condemning the BBC for accepting the cash: \u201cI am concerned that the independence and objectivity of the BBC may have been improperly influenced by funding from the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n

A BBC spokesman denied any pro-Brussels bias: \u201cThere were no editorial obligations whatsoever attached to the three EIB loans. The BBC\u2019s commercial businesses go to the European Investment Bank as opposed to any other commercial bank for purely commercial reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe BBC occasionally receives some EU funding in relation to specific educational or research and development projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the size of the EU loans highlights the rapid growth in the BBC\u2019s commercial activities, which are kept separate from the core programme-making funded by the \u00a33.5 billion a year licence fee.<\/p>\n

Critics question how commercial contracts fit into the BBC\u2019s \u201cpublic services\u201d remit.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Oliver THE BBC last night faced accusations of pro-Brussels bias as it was revealed that the corporation had taken out \u00a3141m in \u201csoft\u201d loans from the European Union. The broadcaster has taken out three separate low interest loans from the EU-backed European Investment Bank (EIB) to fund the expansion of its growing commercial empire. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[48],"class_list":{"0":"post-2311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business-news","7":"category-media-news","8":"tag-bbc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}