The BBC wants to squeeze out the competition in the news industry by giving away content for free online, courtesy of the taxpayer, as other providers switch to paid content models, warns James Murdoch of News Corporation.
Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, suggested that the broadcasting behemoth was trying to use its privileged position as a publicly financed service to muscle in on all realms of the media marketplace.
He said that dumping free, state-sponsored news on the market made it incredibly difficult for journalism to flourish on the internet and it was essential for the future of independent journalism that a fair price be charged for news to people who valued it.
He also spoke of the chilling advance of an organisation that posed a serious threat to the plurality and independence of news provision as well as the health of the creative industries, independent production and professional journalism.
But the question many PR professionals are asking is whether anyone else in the media industry actually agrees with him.
Murdoch is set to inherit a broadcasting empire that would stand to make millions if the BBC has its wings clipped. So it's hard to see how anyone would view his assault on his company's greatest adversary as genuine concern for the future of news provision and nothing to do with Murdoch's own self-interest.
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