COMMERCIALISATION IN THE BBC

That this House notes with dismay the email sent to all BBC staff working in the Global News department from Peter Horrocks, the Director of BBC Global News, which asks staff to generate money making ideas for the BBC; further notes that the email states that staff will be required to exploit new commercial opportunities as part of their appraisal process; condemns such an idea as threatening the ethos at the heart of the BBC's public service broadcasting; believes that ordering staff to focus on commercial ideas will distort the Corporation's fundamental news-gathering and reporting objectives; further believes that journalists working for the Global News Service, which includes the BBC World Service, work in some of the most challenging terrain in the world and can only carry out their work as impartial reporters rather than money gatherers; and calls on the BBC to abandon this ill conceived initiative.