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Comment by csomar | Hacker News Reader

I am assuming because the BBC is a government organization? I am not sure about the UK but where I come from the government is legally required to answer your request. They have to. Doesn't mean they'll answer your question but they'll answer something. (plus they have to confirm reception/delivery and stuff like that)

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The BBC is independent, and funded by the TV licence.

The TV licence scheme is _administered_ by Capita on behalf of the BBC. Those responses are coming from Capita.

Except its complicated. The licence fee is effectively a tax, with criminal consequences for non-payment.

The website has a page where it disagrees with that belief, and argues that TVL and the BBC are in fact the same organization:

http://www.bbctvlicence.com/TVL-BBC%20hiding%20of%20identiti...

Where I said that the BBC were independent, I was responding to the parent thread which said the BBC are a Government organisation. The BBC are independent of the UK government.

The BBC are responsible for TV licencing, and they delegate (outsource) that activity to Capita. The day-to-day interactions, such as the emails from the website, are with Capita's support service, acting on instructions from the BBC.

The BBC aren't really independent of the government. They like to claim this and mostly get away with it, because British governments tend to be lenient with them and don't interfere. But they depend on taxes for the bulk of their income, their existence is defined by law and the government appoints the person who runs it. A change of government could completely change the BBC tomorrow and there'd be nothing anyone working there could do about it.

The existence of any media organisation (or any corporation) is defined by law; a change of government could in theory completely change any organisation in the UK.

But yes, "the Chairman and the non-executive members for the nations are appointed by HM The King on the recommendation of Ministers."

In reality, I suspect the ownership structure of a media organisation matters less than the ideologies of its directors.

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