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A meeting today of the BBC Trust is expected to discuss, and may take a final decision on, proposals to carry adverts on BBC.com.

Eleventh hour calls from staff; unions and MPs for the plans to be abandoned have been widespread.

Forty-five MPs signed an early day motion tabled by the National Union of Journalist's parliamentary group, urging the BBC to abandon the plans. Some also signed an open letter to the national press this week.

This follows campaigns and a petition signed by more than 200 editorial staff and calls from areas of the commercial British media for the BBC to forget the plan.

The NUJ claimed that those opposed to the BBC.com scheme believe it would permanently damage the corporation's distinctive reputation abroad, and in the UK, as an independent public service broadcaster.

The union also claimed that, given the current climate, the BBC would be ill advised to 'again shoot itself in the foot' by damaging future arguments for the licence fee.

The Guardian reported that a BBC commissioned report, from Accenture, stated potential revenues from turning the site into a commercial enterprise five years after launch could be as much as £105 million per year.

The union also drew attention to a speech made by the director general at the BBC World Service Awards on 12 February 2007, where it claims Mr Thompson said: "What the World Service stands for is growing in importance.

"It's growing because the need for utterly dependable, reliable, disinterested, fundamentally non-commercial, news and information, and comment, around the world is growing."

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Written by
Oliver Luft

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