BBC boss denies referendum coverage was biased

Mr MacQuarrie defended the BBC’s coverage of the referendum after it came under attack at last week’s SNP conference in Aberdeen, where it was claimed by a nationalist that the broadcaster tells more “half truths and lies” than the Nazis.

The director of BBC Scotland was quizzed about claims the broadcaster had been more hostile to the Yes side than the No campaign by SNP MP Chris Law at a meeting of Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee in Dundee today.

Mr MacQuarrie accepted the broadcaster may have made some mistakes with the output, but denied suggestions it was biased.

He said: “We were not biased in terms of the referendum, which is not to say we didn’t make mistakes and get some of the output wrong.”

SNP Glasgow councillor Phil Green, speaking at a fringe meeting at the party conference last week, said: “Max Hastings, who is a fairly eminent historian, in his reflections on the Second World War with regards to propaganda said that Goebbels ... fighting against the BBC was boxed out of the park because the BBC had a far greater mixture of half truths and lies than the Germans.”