US State Department-Funded BBC World Service “Jammed” in China

West feigns indignation as China allegedly shuts down US State Dept-funded BBC propaganda.

By Tony Cartalucci
Global Research, February 26, 2013
AltThaiNews
Region:
Theme:

Headlines across the Western corporate-media read, “BBC says ‘extensive, coordinated efforts’ to jam world service frequencies in China” (Fox News), “BBC blocked in China just days after reporting on Chinese hackers” (Washington Post), and “BBC “strongly condemns” China’s attempts to jam World Service broadcasts” (Radio Times), before weaving a lofty narrative of a “repressive regime” trying to gag freedom of the press.

In reality, BBC’s World Service is directly funded by the US State Department and is insidious propaganda admittedly designed to politically subvert not only China, but Iran, Russia, and many other nations perceived by Wall Street and London as intolerable competition. In March of 2011, the London Guardian in its report, “BBC World Service to sign funding deal with US state department,” stated explicitly:

The BBC World Service is to receive a “significant” sum of money from the US government to help combat the blocking of TV and internet services in countries including Iran and China.

In what the BBC said is the first deal of its kind, an agreement is expected to be signed later this month that will see US state department money – understood to be a low six-figure sum – given to the World Service to invest in developing anti-jamming technology and software.

The funding is also expected to be used to educate people in countries with state censorship in how to circumnavigate the blocking of internet and TV services.

It is understood the US government has decided the reach of the World Service is such that it makes investment worthwhile.

Of course, “blocked” content translates to US State Department and other Western interests’ propaganda in the form of the openly US State Department-run “Voice of America,” and a myriad of faux-NGO’s funded directly by the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED). In China particularly, NED has been cultivating a troupe of misfit “activists” and faux-fronts with names ranging from the cartoonish – the “Blind Activist” aka the “Barefoot Lawyer,” to the very ironic – “China Labor Watch, Inc,” which we must assume “watches” on, as exploited children and adults labor for WalMart and Apple.

RT would also report in 2011, in their report “BBC World Service and US State Department: new partners, new bias?,” that:

This would not be the first time the BBC has accepted money from organizations with their own agendas. In 2008, the corporation faced accusations of pro-Europe bias after it was revealed it had taken out US $230 million in loans from the EU. The loans were given by the European Investment Bank, which strives to promote EU policies.

Member of European Parliament Gerard Batten has a long-running beef with the BBC.

“It is institutionally politically biased, certainly in favour of things like the European Union, mass immigration, and a whole other host of ‘politically correct’ ideas that I think it peddles to the public,” he told RT.

Batten says taking this money would expose the hypocrisy at the heart of the BBC.

“The EU bans sponsorship of any news and current affairs TV programs across the EU,” Batten said. “Now it would appear then, that if the US State Department is going to fund BBC that would appear to be in breach of the directive.”

Biased, politically motivated enterprises like BBC’s World Service in fact represent a breach of journalistic ethics, and not only was Beijing’s decision to shut down World Services highly appropriate (if they in fact have done so), but so too would an investigation in both the US and the UK seeking to ascertain why in an economic crisis, money is being spent to sow political subversion overseas for the sake of corporate special interests, when people at home direly need assistance.

The BBC is an organization mired in controversy, and repeatedly exposed as exploiting people’s trust in their reputation to push the agenda of well-paying special interests.

The coordinated effort by the Western media to spin the BBC’s latest confrontation from a well equipped nation-state who has decided to pull the plug, is indicative that the rot that has infected BBC, has spread far and wide across the West indeed.
Articles by: Tony Cartalucci

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. The Centre of Research on Globalization grants permission to cross-post Global Research articles on community internet sites as long the source and copyright are acknowledged together with a hyperlink to the original Global Research article. For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: [email protected]

www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner.

For media inquiries: [email protected]