Further to Heat Street’s disclosure that the BBC gave away 421 Wimbledon passes to businessmen, MPs and hundreds of its own staff, an intriguing footnote.
On Men’s Final Day BBC News chief James Harding and BBC strategy chief James Purnell invited the representatives from two hard line political regimes with a mutual dislike of a free press to join them in their Centre Court seats:
Alex Wares was there for Russian state TV channel RT (formerly Russia Today); and Cagri Gunal was there for the Turkish state’s TRT World.
As well as their respective government’s inherent dislike of open journalism, Russia and Turkey both have highly dubious track records when it comes to media matters.
Indeed, Russia Today was involved in a high-profile legal battle with the BBC less than a year ago after the Russians claimed the BBC faked a report on Syria.
It also continues to employ pariah former MP George Galloway, who has made hundreds of thousands of pounds from the Russian state, as a TV host:
As for Turkey, President Erdogan’s authoritarian tendencies recently inspired him to close 45 newspapers, 15 magazines, 16 TV channels, 23 radio stations, three news agencies, and 29 publishers and distributors.
Among them are the daily Taraf and Özgür Düşünce newspapers, the Cihan News Agency, and Can Erzincan TV.
BBC licence fee payers, who effectively bankrolled the Wimbledon jolly, will no doubt be delighted to hear who Harding and Purnell have been mixing with.
Both men aspire to replace Tony Hall as director-general.
Is their judgment up to it?