BBC orders rethink over Scottish news

Published on Sunday 18 November 2007 00:52

BBC chiefs have ordered a wide-ranging review of Scottish news coverage, amid growing claims licence fee payers are being short-changed north of the Border.

Scots get just 3% of the corporation's budget despite making up 8.4% of the UK's population, and there is concern that London-based BBC news executives are failing to cover major events in Scotland, particularly since devolution and the election of an SNP Government.

Scotland on Sunday can reveal that BBC bosses have confirmed they will re-examine their news output to make sure it "properly reflects" Scotland's increasing divergence from the rest of the UK.

The BBC's move last night led to renewed calls for a so-called 'Scottish Six' news programme to replace the current London-based bulletin.

In the most recent example of alleged news bias, there was fury earlier this month after the BBC's main UK news placed East Anglia escaping flooding well ahead of Glasgow winning the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

And in 2005, the BBC was heavily criticised after it opted to broadcast hours of "live" scenes of London Olympic bid delegates waiting to hear if they'd won and largely ignored footage of pitched battles between rioters and police at Edinburgh and Auchterarder during the G8 Summit.

Richard Tait, BBC trustee and chair of the trust's editorial standards committee, last night confirmed that a review of network news and factual coverage of the four UK nations had been commissioned.

Tait said: "The BBC is committed to providing impartial news and factual coverage for licence fee payers across the UK. The substantial devolution of powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland over the past decade has led to new challenges for the BBC in providing appropriate and relevant network coverage for each of the four nations. Feedback from audience councils, audience research and public meetings tell us this is an area that interests many licence fee payers.

"This review will consider whether the nations' differing policies - with regard to both devolved policies and other matters - are properly reflected in the BBC's network output, and whether the BBC provides appropriate coverage of the actions and policies of the devolved administrations and reaction to them."

A BBC Scotland source said: "The most probable result of this consultation will be changes to the producer guidelines and consultations with us and with colleagues in the other 'national regions' about the running order of the Six O' Clock News.

"They are not keen down south on the idea of a Scottish Six, although we could do it fine. We actually have the gear at Pacific Quay [the corporation's new Glasgow headquarters] to get a programme like that on the air."

The BBC has appointed respected political expert Anthony King, professor of government at Essex University, as the independent author of the review. Mike Robinson, a former BBC news and current affairs programme editor, has been named as director of the 500,000 project. The findings will appear next summer.