The BBC has produced a promotional video for Huawei, which has angered some BBC journalists. The video, titled “The Real Story of Huawei” features Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei describing how the company grew from a small company into a global smartphone and telecoms giant.
The short film and text depicting Huawei’s 32-year rise to “the behemoth it is today” was created by BBC StoryWorks, which says that the money it makes “is reinvested to help fund the BBC’s international journalism”. BBC StoryWorks is the content-marketing division of BBC Global News Ltd, a commercial company owned by the BBC.’
Huawei and StoryWorks started posting the promotional content on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube this week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGT2CzkUfdM
The description from Huawei reads:
‘BBC StoryWorks brings you the real story of Huawei Founder & CEO RenZhengfei.
‘It’s a 30-year journey marked with many challenges and culminating in the company’s transformation into a global tech leader.’
The message was also shared on Huawei’s YouTube channel, with the company buying advertising on Twitter to broadcast it. Huawei later deleted the tweet and also removed mention of the BBC on videos posted to its other social networks.
A BBC spokesman said:
The BBC maintains clear separation between its commercial and editorial departments, and BBC News continues to report rigorously, impartially and without fear or favour on all issues, with no consideration of wider commercial relationships.
