Editing BBC Monitoring

{{Short description|Division of the British Broadcasting Corporation}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox organization
| image = BBC Monitoring.svg
| alt = <!-- alt text; see [[WP:ALT]] -->
| caption = 
| map = <!-- optional -->
| motto = 
| predecessor = 
| successor = 
| formation = {{start date|df=yes|1939|08|26}}<ref name=start>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/august/bbc-monitoring/|title=BBC Monitoring: 26 August 1939|publisher=BBC}}</ref>
| extinction = <!-- date of extinction, optional -->
| status = <!-- ad hoc, treaty, foundation, etc -->
| purpose = <!-- focus as e.g. humanitarian, peacekeeping, etc -->
| headquarters = London
| coords = <!-- Coordinates of location using a coordinates template -->
| language = <!-- official languages -->
| leader_title = <!-- position title for the leader of the org -->
| leader_name = Liz Howell
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| main_organ = <!-- gral. assembly, board of directors, etc -->
| parent_organization = [[BBC]]
| affiliations = <!-- if any -->
| budget = 
| remarks = 
| name = BBC Monitoring
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| size = 200px<!-- default 200px -->
| msize = <!-- map size, optional, default 250px -->
| malt = <!-- map alt text -->
| mcaption = <!-- optional -->
| map2 = 
| region_served       = Global
| products            = <!-- or |product = -->
| services = [[Open-source intelligence]]
| abbreviation = BBCM
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| membership = 
| general = <!-- Secretary General -->
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| website = {{URL|monitoring.bbc.co.uk}}
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}}
'BBC Monitoring' (BBCM) is a division of the [[British Broadcasting Corporation]] which monitors, and reports on, mass media worldwide using [[open-source intelligence]]. Based at [[Broadcasting House|New Broadcasting House]], the BBC's headquarters in central London, it has overseas bureaux in Cairo, Delhi, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Kyiv, Miami, Nairobi, [[Ramallah]], [[Tashkent]] and [[Tbilisi]].<ref>[https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk BBC Monitoring] at [[BBC Online]]</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/not_in_website/syndication/monitoring/media_reports/default.stm Media Reports] at [[BBC News]]</ref>

A signals-receiving station for BBC Monitoring is at [[Crowsley Park]] in [[South Oxfordshire]], close to BBCM's former (1943&ndash;2018) headquarters at [[Caversham Park]].<ref name=caversham/> The service's first home (1939&ndash;1943) was at [[Wood Norton Hall]] in [[Worcestershire]].<ref name=start/>

BBC Monitoring selects and translates information from radio, television, the [[newspaper|press]], [[News agency|news agencies]] and online outlets from 150 [[Country|countries]] in up to 100 [[language]]s.  Reporting produced by the service is used by the [[government of the United Kingdom]] and commercial customers such as [[Oxford Analytica]], the [[Bureau of Investigative Journalism]] and [[Liverpool John Moores University]].<ref name=about/> The BBC announced in July 2017 that it planned to sell the site at Caversham Park and move employees to London, which took place in May 2018.<ref name=caversham>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-46276138|title=BBC leaves historic site after 75 years|date=2018|publisher=BBC News|access-date=2020-03-11|language=en-GB|author=Anon}}</ref>

==History==
The organisation was formed in 1939 to provide the British Government with access to foreign media and [[propaganda]].<ref name=start/> It provided the government with valuable information during [[World War II]], particularly in places where foreign journalists were banned. The organisation played an important role in helping observers keep track of developments during the [[Cold War]], the disintegration of the [[Iron Curtain]] and collapse of the Soviet Union. Also monitored were the [[Yugoslav Wars]] and the Middle East. They also had 7 decades of collaboration with the [[CIA]] [[Foreign Broadcast Information Service]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=US to close CIA division’s UK intelligence monitoring unit |url=https://www.ft.com/content/99ede9cc-b582-11e7-aa26-bb002965bce8 |access-date=2023-11-27 |website=Financial Times}}</ref>{{better source needed|reason=I couldn't find any other sources to confirm this paywalled article.|date=March 2024}}

==Funding==
Although administratively and editorially part of the BBC, until 2013 BBC Monitoring did not receive any funding from the [[Television licensing in the United Kingdom|licence fee]];<ref name=bbc1>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38372067|title=BBC Monitoring: MPs raise fears over service's future|publisher=BBC |date=2016|author=Anon|access-date=23 December 2016}}</ref> instead it was funded directly by its [[Stakeholder (corporate)|stakeholder]]s as well as by subscriptions from official and commercial bodies throughout the world. The principal stakeholder is the [[Cabinet Office]] and subscriptions were also received from the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office]], the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]] and the [[BBC World Service]].<ref name=bbc1/> Other customers include other government departments, private sector and [[voluntary sector]] organisations.<ref name=about/>

In the 2010 BBC licence fee settlement, the BBC agreed to take on the government's funding of BBC Monitoring from 2013/2014,<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/therealstory/licencefee_settlement.shtml "BBC:The real story:BBC licence fee settlement"] Retrieved 16 January 2011</ref> finding the £25&nbsp;million required from the licence fee.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/oct/19/bbc-licence-fee-frozen |title=BBC licence fee frozen at £145.50 for six years |website=The Guardian |date=19 October 2010 |access-date=16 January 2011}}</ref>

Reported on BBC News (17 January 2011),{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} BBC Monitoring cut 72 posts following a £3&nbsp;million cut in funding over the next two years. Director of BBC Monitoring, Chris Westcott, said: "Regrettably service cuts and post closures are inevitable given the scale of the cut in funding."

The proposal was to cut £3m from the service's costs by closing the 72 posts – about 16% of its staff – but expected to create 18 new posts. The BBC agreed to finance Monitoring from 2013/14 as part of the 2010 licence fee settlement which froze the annual colour licence fee at £145.50 for six years. The agreement also saw the corporation agree to take over the Foreign Office-funded World Service from 2014.

The [[House of Commons]] Foreign Affairs and Defence Committees strongly condemned the gradual scaling down of BBC Monitoring's capabilities in two separate reports published in late 2016.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} The reports claimed that BBC Monitoring's operations have been adversely affected by cuts. Both Committees demanded proper funding to ensure BBC Monitoring's future.<ref name="BBC Monitoring scaling down">{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/@jonathanmarks/open-source-stupidity-the-threat-to-the-bbc-monitoring-service-deaaa9a393b4#.vt3i2b4pg|publisher=medium.com|title=Open Source Stupidity: The Threat to the BBC Monitoring Service|first=Jonathan|last= Marks|year=2016}}</ref>

==Leadership==
BBC Monitoring has been led by the following directors:

* Liz Howell has served as director since March 2019<ref>{{cite web |year=2019|last1=Howell |first1=Liz |title=Liz Howell |url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-howell-5b3b0517/ |via=LinkedIn |access-date=23 November 2021}}</ref><ref name=about>{{cite web|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126180718/https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/about|archivedate=2021-01-26|url=https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/about|website=monitoring.bbc.co.uk|title=About BBC Monitoring|author=Anon|year=2021}}</ref>
* Sara Beck served as the director from February 2016<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/01033590-a956-4841-8eca-7a5d095b99fd|title=BBC Monitoring: spotting fake news since the Second World War|first=Sara|last=Beck|year=2018}}</ref>
* Lucio Mesquita served as director until 2016<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2015/lucio-mesquita|title=Lucio Mesquita appointed as Director of BBC Monitoring|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031063556/https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2015/lucio-mesquita|archivedate=2021-10-31|year=2015|author=Anon}}</ref>
* Chris Westcott served as director from April 2003 to March 2015.<ref name=ws/><ref>{{cite web|publisher=BBC|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/corporate2/insidethebbc/managementstructure/biographies/westcott_chris.html|title= Chris Westcott: Director, BBC Monitoring|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924203138/https://www.bbc.co.uk/corporate2/insidethebbc/managementstructure/biographies/westcott_chris.html|archivedate=2015-09-24}}</ref>
* Andrew Hills served as director from 1996 to 2003<ref name=whoswho>{{Who's Who | author=Anon| title=Hills, Andrew Worth | id = U20210 | year = 2007 | doi =10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U20210 | edition = online [[Oxford University Press]]|location=Oxford}}</ref><ref name=ws>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/us/annual_review/2002/monitoring.shtml|title=Annual Review: A year in review BBC Monitoring|publisher=[[BBC World Service]]|year=2002|author=Anon}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{BBC}}
{{BBC World Service}}
{{Portal|BBC}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc Monitoring}}
[[Category:BBC history|Monitoring]]
[[Category:Media analysis organizations and websites]]
[[Category:Organisations based in Reading, Berkshire]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1939]]
[[Category:1939 establishments in the United Kingdom]]