Why has the BBC been receiving money from CIA-front USAID? One journalist wants answers.

Award–winning former Declassified UK journalist Matt Kennard has called for a public inquiry into the US government’s funding of the ‘BBC Media Action’ charity. This comes as Donald Trump’s second administration has taken aim at the controversial USAID (which Kennard says is often just “a CIA front”). BBC Media Action says the cut to USAID has “affected” its operations, as the organisation’s support “amounts to about 8% of our income in 2023-24”.

It's not just USAID. The BBC is actually funded by two branches of the US government.

Last year, the US State Department gave BBC Media Action £280,000.

The group says it used the $$$ to reach 100 million people in 24 countries with its programmes.

We need a public inquiry.

— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) February 5, 2025

The friendly face of imperialism (and BBC Media Action)

BBC Media Action emphasises that it is “completely separate from BBC News, and wholly reliant on our donors and supporters”.

The other key donor to the charity is the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office. And it has also received support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

BBC Media Action explains how it “grew out of earlier BBC initiatives, including a charity called “Marshall Plan of the Mind”” which aimed to “encourage high standards of journalism in the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the 1990s”.

It also stresses that it works “to provide impartial, impactful, trustworthy media to people in need so that they can make informed choices to transform their lives”, saying its priority is “those most at risk from disinformation, division and distrust, who are underserved by public interest media and at the frontline of global challenges, risks and crises”.

That sounds nice, of course. But when you’re aware of the role USAID has played as the ‘friendly face’ of US imperialism, more scrutiny of BBC Media Action is essential.

BBC values… like covering for war criminals?

BBC Media Action says it “builds on the fundamental values and editorial standards of the BBC to guide its work”. But that doesn’t look like such a good thing when you understand what the values and standards of the BBC actually are. Because the BBC is a shameful propagandist for settler-colonialism, having a longstanding pro-Israel bias, specifically during the ongoing genocide in Gaza. And online Middle East editor Raffi Berg is just one example of this.

Berg’s job has essentially been to “water down” criticism of Israel’s war crimes and frame the news about the apartheid state in the nicest light possible. And that’s hardly surprising, considering his connections to the CIA, Mossad, and war criminal Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The BBC in general, however, has been awful on the crimes of Israel’s colonialism. Because throughout the genocide, the BBC has consistently failed to supply the British public (and global public) with the information they need to truly understand what’s going on in occupied Palestine.

This isn’t saying Trump’s dealing with USAID for good reasons, of course. In fact, it seems more likely that he’s just annoyed that USAID was apparently trying to undermine his own movement.

But either way, we absolutely should be demanding explanations as to why BBC Media Action has received any money at all from agents of subversion, and what the latter have been getting in return for their money.

Featured image via the Canary