FoE seeks status

BSkyB favoured charity status splits environmental group

The campaigning environmental group Friends of the Earth (FoE) are facing up to the possibility of a devastating internal rift after directors approached the Murdoch owned broadcaster BSkyB. Senior campaigners at the group have lodged a petition against an approach by FoE executives to become BSkyB's "favoured charity". The proposed joint campaign on climate change would see FoE receive access to Sky's eight and a half million subscribers and could be worth up to 1.7million pounds to Friends of the Earth.

However, many within Friends of the Earth object to the deal pointing to the independence that Friends of the Earth enjoys from corporate interests. Annual subscriptions from individual members account for 90 percent of the groups funding, and it is felt that a shift towards corporate sponsorship may alienate these core supporters.

The parent organisation of BSkyB is the Murdoch controlled News International which also owns the Fox news and media network in the USA, which is deeply conservative and highly sceptical of climate change.


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