Tip of the iceberg

Having lodged a very similar Freedom of Information request at WhatDoTheyKnow about BBC monitoring of third party websites in 2011 (RF20110806) and getting a denial from BBC in response to the request. Recently, fellow blogger, TV Licensing blogspot once again lodged a Freedom of Information request at WhatDoTheyKnow concerning the BBC’s monitoring of third party websites. This time, in response to Freedom of Information request RFI20120880, “BBC Monitoring of Third-Party Websites” the BBC were a little more forthcoming. Only a very little more.

One of the dirtier aspects of the BBC TV Licensing™ contract, and one the BBC are seemingly very keen to keep from public knowledge, is the monitoring of websites and blogs critical of the BBC, the way in which the BBC is funded by tv licence revenue and the way non-payment of the BBC tv licence is automatically branded as “evasion”. BBC monitoring of third party websites is an “activity” that has only recently been taken in-house by the BBC, since April 2012, in fact. Prior to that, BBC monitoring of third party websites was undertaken under the terms and conditions of the BBC TV Licensing™ contract by PR company, Fishburn Hedges, London, who, under the supervision of the BBC undertook these monitoring activities. As revealed in earlier Freedom of information request RFI20120421 "Monitoring of the internet on behalf of the BBC".

We at, TV Licensing Watch, are being monitored by the BBC. So, as well, are all the other websites and blogs critical of the BBC. For a media business that frequently trumpets its liberal social democratic values at every opportunity, we at TV Licensing Watch cannot be alone in wondering how the BBC, a private company operating as a media business became so surveillance obsessed and Orwellian.

The point to note about the BBC, the BBC TV Licensing™ contract and the activities of BBC TV Licensing contractors have all been devised solely by the BBC over the years in pursuit of its own financial interests. Everything to do with the BBC tv licence and its “enforcement” have been an invention of the BBC and no one else. That includes the monitoring of third party websites and blogs and the most startling aspect of all is that it is all seemingly unregulated. Even more startling is that we at TV Licensing Watch suspect that it is only the very topmost tip of the iceberg. What else are the BBC covertly doing in pursuit of their vested interests?

The value of domestic cctv surveillance and handheld video camera can prove invaluable in gathering evidence of the serial abuses and misdemeanours perpetrated by employees of Capita Business Services under cover of the BBC TV Licensing™ contract. TV Licensing Watch advise anybody who has the misfortune to have face to face dealings with Capita Business Services TV Licensing™ to make an audio-visual record of those dealings in their entirety covertly or overtly with cctv and handheld video cameras.

For people who have not exercised their right to remain silent, TV Licensing Watch advise anybody who has had the misfortune to have face to face dealings with Capita Business Services TV Licensing™ and have received a summons as a consequence to contact a licensed law practitioner if: there is the slightest discrepancy between the actual situation regarding viewing habits and/or what actually happened during the interview compared with what has been written on the TVL178 Record of Interview self incrimination form.