The website contains international news coverage, as well as British, entertainment, science, and political news. Many reports are accompanied by audio and video from the BBC's television and radio news services, while the latest TV and radio bulletins are also available to view or listen to on the site together with other current affairs programmes.
BBC News Online is closely linked to its sister department website, that of BBC Sport. Both sites follow similar layout and content options and respective journalists work alongside each other. Location information provided by users is also shared with the website of BBC Weather to provide local content.
From 1998 to 2001 the site was named best news website at the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards when the award category was withdrawn. It has previously won both the Judges' award and the People's Voice award for best news site at the annual Webby Awards.[6]
Features[edit]
UK/International editions[edit]
There are two different editions of the site: a UK edition, which gives prominence to UK stories, and an international edition, which prioritises international news. Internet users with IP addresses originating from the UK are served the UK edition; all others receive the international edition. The international version contains advertising and an "Advertise With Us" link at the bottom.[24] The international version of the website is operated by BBC Global News Ltd., the for-profit BBC subsidiary that operates the BBC World News television channel.[25] All articles are archived indefinitely and can be retrieved via searching or by browsing the extensive Special Reports section, which contains collections of articles relating to major news stories. The previous seven days' top stories were formerly available through the Week at a Glance section of the website. As well as pure news articles, the site also contains material to support BBC news, current affairs and factual programmes.
Criticism[edit]
The site is primarily funded by the television licence, and used to carry no advertising. The World edition has received some subsidy from the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office through its grant-in-aid to the BBC World Service. Proposals to include advertising on the international version of the website were discussed by the BBC Trust in February 2007, but were opposed by BBC journalists, who feared it would weaken public trust in the impartiality of the BBC.[41] In October 2007, it was confirmed that the site would start to carry advertising.[42] The advertising consists of large animated banners, which has led to complaints that these make the site's content harder to read.[43]
The impartiality of the Have Your Say forums has been disputed by organisations such as News Sniffer: moderators are accused of sometimes appearing to promote their own agenda.[44]
Have Your Say received much criticism in 2009 for featuring the question "Should homosexuals face execution?". The BBC later removed it and apologised after the BBC Pride board lobbied against it and Eric Joyce, the Labour MP for Falkirk, called it "more than offensive" and "completely unacceptable".[45]
