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BBC Glastonbury Team
The BBC is under fire for the scale of its Glastonbury
operation, with some questioning whether it should be devoting so many
publicly funded resources to the four-day music and arts event at a time of
economic turbulance.
The Daily Mail said some staff were "treating the occasion as
a junket" after it was revealed that several BBC executives had been given
free tickets.
A spokesman for the BBC confirmed that 125 staff and 150
freelancers are at Glastonbury, either as presenters, producers, directors
or technical crew in order to broadcast across BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four,
as well as on Radio 1, 6 Music, 5 Live and a dedicated website.
Conservative MP Philip Davies, who sits on the House of
Commons Culture Select Committee, said: "I can’t imagine any other
broadcaster sending this many people to cover one festival. This
demonstrates once again that the BBC is a bloated organisation. It doesn’t
operate according to the rules that other broadcasters have to follow."
The BBC spokesman added: "We’re the official broadcast
partner for Glastonbury and we will produce around 111 hours of television
coverage, more than 60 hours of radio output and a comprehensive website
featuring 600 pages and 57 hours of video, in addition to running the BBC
Introducing stage, which showcases new young artists."
He said that the BBC had no formal corporate hospitality at
the event and added: "We are asking all but a handful of key executives
working at the festival to pay for their tickets."
08:14
June
28 2009 - waveguide.co.uk
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