James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch and CEO of News Corporation censured the news channel BBC during the Edinburgh International Television Festival for offering free content in the internet, accusing it of threatening the independent journalism in United Kingdom.

BBC is a public channel of news and, according to Murdoch, it would be hindering the situation for the private channels like News Corporation, owner of Wall Street Journal newspaper, among others, when allowing its content to be accessed for free while those companies try to charge for the same service.

Greg Dyke, director of BBC, defended the channel saying that the argument of Murdoch is fundamentally wrong and what is really happening is related to the world situation (as the economic crisis) and not to BBC.
In the beginning of the month News Corporation announced, under Rupert Murdoch’s voice that will start charging for the content after the damages that his organization is facing.

In 2007 he had said exactly the opposite, announcing that a free model and financed by announcements would be beneficial to the market.

20 years ago, in the same event, Rupert Murdoch also made a speech criticizing the public journalism of United Kingdom, in the same inflamed tone now used by the son, way before the rise of digital journalism.

Via: The Independent.