THE BBC is under fire over its refusal to respond to complaints from the SNP about its EU election coverage.
The party contacted the BBC with concerns about the coverage on its Weekend News broadcast on May 19.
A news package ahead of the May 23 vote featured the Brexit Party, Change UK, the Tories, Labour and the LibDems.
It included clips of Vince Cable and Chuka Umunna, who had been on the Andrew Marr show – but omitted Nicola Sturgeon, who had also appeared on Marr.
There was no mention of the SNP, despite a focus in the package on the referendum as a proxy vote on Brexit.
It comes as former SNP Westminster leader and journalist Angus Robertson today slams BBC Radio 4’s press review for its failings in including any non-London papers.
READ MORE: Angus Robertson: BBC don't represent the country with paper review
The SNP sent its complaint to the BBC, but senior figures at the broadcaster refused to respond.
SNP depute leader Keith Brown said: “The BBC has adopted a bunker mentality and is in denial on this one. We simply asked why Nicola Sturgeon was the only senior politician to be cut out of a news package the Sunday before polling day. Everyone else who appeared on the Marr show that morning made it into the news package, bar the SNP.
“We’ve frankly had enough of the BBC failing to respond to concerns and complaints about its treatment of the SNP. The BBC is not living up to its stated values of trust, honesty and accountability – the truth is they don’t reply when valid concerns are raised.
“We want to see the BBC publish a complete report of all the coverage that the major parties received on the network news bulletins across the election period.”
Asked by The National for comment, a BBC spokesperson said: “We are already in direct contact with the SNP, and will be responding publicly in due course.”
In his column in today’s National, Robertson contrasts the paper review on BBC Radio 4 with European counterparts.
He writes: “I listened closely throughout this week, and was struck by its total imbalance, so much so that I listened again on the iPlayer to double check and get the statistics right.
“By my reckoning there were just over 60 newspaper or news website mentions in the press review between Monday and Friday. Guess how many were from non-London newspapers?
“There were none. Zero. Zilch. According to BBC Radio there was not a single headline or report worthy of inclusion from Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish, or English regional newspapers. Not one.”
Responding to Robertson, a BBC spokesperson said: “The news reviews focus on the biggest news stories of the day and feature newspapers with UK-wide circulation and increasingly the websites which are most read by people across the UK too.
“When judged on a longer period than a week it’s clear the reviews include different papers and outlets, such as when there are major news stories and events in different parts of the UK, as an example.”
These were not the only EU election controversies to hit the BBC in relation to its coverage of the SNP, which won the vote in 30 of 32 council areas in Scotland.
An infographic posted by the BBC showing each party’s vote share in Scotland sparked a backlash after misrepresenting the distance of the SNP’s lead.
The size of the bar representing its vote share was not in proportion to the other parties, and so made it appear a smaller margin of victory than was, in fact, the case.
At the time, the BBC told The National that the graphic was simply a “rough visual indication” of each party’s vote share – though this was not indicated in the tweet or on the infographic itself.
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