Following a petition of over 120,000 signatures, the BBC has backed down over plans to remove free recipes from their website.
The initial plans were announced as a result of the BB’s plans to make the website more distinctive from its offline content. This meant a separation of online content from magazine-style features such as travel news, recourse and Newsbeat, the news portal for young people.
The recipes were originally going to be archived and removed from search engines, making them accessibly only to people who had saved the recipes URLs. HSPS and PPE applicants should consider this story in light of broader discussions over the Conservative government’s involvement in the BBC, particularly the severe cuts which have been occurring over the past year.
Economics applicants should look into how the BBC currently spends its budgets, and their future-proofing plans for cuts to ensure the longevity of the organisation. For Politics applicants, George Osborne’s words last year on the nature of the BBC should be considered when reading this story: “If you’ve got a website that’s got features and cooking recipes – effectively the BBC website becomes the national newspaper as well as the national broadcaster.” Is it right to say the BBC has “imperial ambitions” as Osborne did in this same speech? Or is the BBC entitled to be the national broadcaster?
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