From The Telegraph:
The BBC is at the centre of a new row over bias in its coverage of Europe after it emerged that the broadcaster’s charitable arm has received more than £9 million directly from Brussels.
The charity, BBC Media Action, was paid the money to deliver key parts of the EU’s political strategy in countries on the fringes of Europe.
Senior Tories warned that taking so much money from the EU will undermine the BBC’s reputation for independence when the broadcaster will be reporting on the EU referendum campaign.
The BBC claims that the charity is fully independent and that its news and current affairs programmes are entirely separate.
However, the charity receives hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of donations from the licence-fee funded BBC each year, while the broadcaster continues to appoint the majority of the charity’s trustees.