Twitter owner Elon Musk has announced that the BBC's Twitter tag will be changed from "government-funded media" to "publicly funded media" after the broadcaster objected to the label. The BBC maintains its impartiality and operates through a Royal Charter agreed with the government, which states it must be independent. The label links to a page on Twitter’s help center that says “state-affiliated media,” where the government “exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.” However, the BBC account mainly tweets about non-news material such as TV programs, radio shows, podcasts.
In related news, National Public Radio (NPR) has announced its decision to suspend all Twitter use following their designation as "U.S. state-affiliated media" by Elon Musk-owned platform. This comes after changing NPR's account label to “Government-funded Media,” similar to what happened with the BBC.
Isabel Lara, NPR’s chief communications officer stated: "The platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent."
NPR CEO John Lansing echoed this sentiment and said he would never use any website or social media platform jeopardizing his outlet’'s credibility. By leaving Twitter behind, Lansing believes it ensures NPR's ability ‘to produce journalism without a shadow of negativity’. It should also be noted that only less than one percent of NPR's $300 million annual budget comes from federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants.
Lansing added: "Any action tarnishing public media institutions' independence by social media platforms like Twitter is extraordinarily harmful and sets a dangerous precedent."
Both NPR and BBC describe themselves as independent organizations; in fact, less than 1% of NPR's budget comes from federal sources including grants from agencies like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. With the change in label for the BBC's account from "government-funded media" to "publicly funded media," it remains to be seen if similar changes will occur on other public broadcasters' Twitter accounts.