Employees from the British Broadcasting Corp. say a plan to include advertising on its international website will hurt the organization's reputation.
A 10-page document from BBC website employees condemns the proposal to allow web advertising, which the BBC hopes to have in place by March 2007.
More than 170 employees signed a petition earlier this year opposing the move, which they say could lead to advertiser interference with journalism.
The plan has many critics in the U.K., including private sector firms that do not want to compete for the same advertisers.
Analysts say the BBC, whose TV affiliates are ad-free, may be standing on the slippery slope that will lead to ads throughout its broadcast network.
The public broadcaster must be extremely careful about how ads are used to be sure it doesn't slide into becoming a commercial broadcaster, said Roy Greenslade, a media critic at the Guardian newspaper.
The BBC is financed mainly from fees paid by British television owners and government grants and does not carry advertising on its public television or radio channels in the U.K. The BBC Worldwide network that is seen around the world does carry ads in some markets.
The addition of ads to the BBC would lead to pressure to drop the TV licence fee, Greenslade said.
The ads proposal, still awaiting approval at the BBC, would apply only to the website seen outside Britain.
BBC journalists say that advertising on the website could force them to chase ratings, rather than serious news.
"There has to be a chance that advertisers wouldn't care for stories on poverty and African politics — they'd want us to do more stories on Madonna and Kylie [Minogue]," one website employee said in an interview with the New York Times.
Jennie Allen, a spokeswoman for BBC Worldwide, said the company was aware that the idea was not popular with some employees.
Advertisers would not have any influence over the content, she said.
The CBC started accepting advertising on its website earlier this year.
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