The BBC is spending the equivalent of 900 license fees a year buying copies of the left-wing Guardian newspaper, new figures reveal.
The corporation spent £127,643 on 80,679 copies of the Guardian last year, making it the most read newspaper at the BBC.
The Daily Mail reports that the figure is nearly 45 per cent higher than its bill for any other title even though the Guardian only accounts for a small percentage of British newspaper sales. Last year, the paper’s circulation fell 9.5 percent to 174, 941.
By comparison, the Sun, Britain’s best-selling daily newspaper, shifted 1.8 million yet the BBC bought just 66,202 copies, 28 per cent fewer than the Guardian.
A spokesman for the Freedom Association said that the amount the corporation spends on the Guardian was “astonishing”, adding: “This is the equivalent of almost 900 licence fees. It is clear that the Corporation is intent on propping up its friends in the left-wing media.”
Despite the BBC claiming impartiality in its coverage, it frequently faces criticism of left-wing bias. Its case is not helped by its purchasing of Sunday papers either, with the Observer – the Guardian‘s sister publication – the second most purchased, ahead of better-selling right wing rivals. The Sunday Times was the corporation’s most popular, however.
The full list a papers is:
Guardian – 80,679 – £128,223
Daily Telegraph – 75,308 – £102,199
Financial Times – 40,253 – £96,754
Times – 77,238 – £89,530
The Independent – 61,399 – £83,187
Daily Mail – 78,463 – £46,886
Daily Mirror – 60,528 – £33,238
Sun – 63,298 – £27,593
Daily Express – 42,263 – £23,144
Sunday Times – 9,035 – £21,296
Observer – 7,620 – £19,831
Independent On Sunday – 6,079 – £12,618
Mail On Sunday – 7,591 – £10,750
Sunday Telegraph – 7,243 – £13,629
Daily Star – 17,988 – £7,261
Sunday Mirror – 5,732 – £6,202
Sun on Sunday – 5,008 – £3,474
Sunday Express – 4,675 – £6,167
The People – 3,112 – £3,363
Daily Star Sunday – 1,554 – £1,462
Sunday Sport – 104 – £97
A BBC spokesman said: “As an impartial international news broadcaster with three rolling TV news channels, 28 foreign language services, daily paper reviews as well as various radio and TV current affairs programmes our viewers rightly expect our presenters, journalists and expert contributors to be across all the day’s stories in all the UK newspapers.”
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