I didn't spot this in The Times last week, otherwise I would have written about it sooner. Here's an excerpt:

'The BBC is making money by hiring out its studios to RT, the television channel controlled by Moscow. The state-owned network has been described by US intelligence officials as “the Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet”.

'The BBC declined to reveal how many times RT had paid to use its facilities or how much money had changed hands, saying the information was “commercially confidential”.'

So confidential that the BBC never wanted anyone to know about it! Damian Collins, Chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee was not impressed:

Mr Collins said:

“RT is an organisation backed by the Kremlin that has a record of breaching Ofcom’s guidelines. The BBC has a responsibility to the licence-fee payer that includes ensuring that its brand is associated with the high standards and ethics that the British public would expect. The BBC needs to ask itself whether an association with RT is compatible with these standards and ethics. In my opinion, it is clearly not.”

If you have any standards and believe in freedom of speech, you wouldn't hire out studio space to RT. We at The Freedom Association refuse to do interviews for RT because it is a Kremlin mouthpiece. 

As the BBC is not doing anything illegal, we can only hope that those responsible in the BBC for hiring out its studios find their moral compass and end this arrangement. 

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