A potential deal between Friends of the Earth and broadcaster BSkyB has prompted a rift between hard-line campaigners and those looking to extend the charity’s reach.
The internal row followed news that FoE was considering partnering with the Rupert Murdoch-owned UK satellite television company to push their messaging on global warming.
The joint climate change campaign, worth around £1.7 million, would give FoE direct access to Sky’s 8.6 million subscribers and its considerable number of channels. Sky claims its programmes are watched in a third of all UK homes and its self-titled TV listings publication has the highest magazine circulation in Britain.
But according to a report on the Guardian’s website today, 77 FoE staff – including senior campaigners and the outgoing director of FoE Wales Julian Rosser – have all signed a highly critical petition that was presented to the charity’s board last month calling for the Sky bid to be pulled.
FoE staff claim in the petition that a joint venture with Sky would be both damaging to the group’s reputation for not taking money from corporate interests and for campaigning against multinationals.
Although Sky’s parent company News Corporation is currently making a much-publicised move towards carbon neutrality, those opposed to the deal also fear that the broadcaster’s link to Rupert Murdoch - owner of the US-based climate-sceptical news network Fox News - would risk losing core supporters and subsequent subscription fees. Ninety per cent of FoE’s £10 million annual income is generated from membership subscriptions.
Countering the claims, FoE campaigns co-ordinator Roger Higman said many of the group’s 150 staff supported the approach to Sky. He also noted that Sky’s efforts to cut its own CO2 emissions put it in the “front rank” of British firms attempting to tackle global warming.
“Climate change is an absolutely massive issue and we have got to persuade the British population to back, or at least accept, action to cut emissions by 90% over the next 50 years,” said Higman, before adding that a deal with Sky could be “potentially very influential” and that FoE has a “duty to explore this.”
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