Global Task Force for Public Media Condemns Twitter Labeling

The Global Task Force for Public Media is calling on Twitter to correct the designation of four of its members—the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), CBC/Radio-Canada, Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) and Radio New Zealand (RNZ)—which have been labeled as “government-funded media.”

The Global Task Force says this “misleading label” was applied without warning or consultation to the accounts.

“Twitter’s own policy defines government-funded media as cases where the government ‘may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content,’ which is clearly not the case with ABC, CBC/Radio-Canada, KBS or RNZ,” the group said. “The editorial independence of all four national public broadcasters is protected in law and enshrined in their editorial policies.”

Earlier this month, Twitter applied the “government-funded media” label to several BBC accounts before changing it to “publicly-funded media” after objections from the public broadcaster. The BBC is also a member of the Global Task Force.