THE BBC must do its duty as a “public service broadcaster” and continue to screen the First Minister’s daily briefings regularly, a leading charity has said.
Age Scotland released a statement this afternoon calling on the broadcasting corporation and Scottish Government to work together to ensure “timely information is available as comprehensively as possible”.
The charity said: “The regular coronavirus news briefings from the First Minister and Scottish Government have been a hugely valuable source of information and advice for older people in recent months.
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“They have meant that the hundreds of thousands of people without access to the internet are, largely, as informed about the national response and the impact on their lives as everyone else.
“The majority of older people primarily get their news from the TV so it is absolutely vital that they do not miss out and fall foul to a digital-by-default approach to public information and advice, which has become all too common recently.”
In 2019, Ofcom reported that 94% of UK adults over the age of 65 turn to the television for news. Just 40% of them used the internet.
The charity said they received “huge numbers of calls” immediately after major briefings as older people sought clarification and further information, which illustrated this point.
It added: “We are far from clear of this crisis and each and every one of us must be well informed and do our part to keep ourselves and others around us safe.
“This makes absolutely clear how important TV and radio is to older people and demonstrates why removing the free TV licence for all over-75s during the coronavirus pandemic has been an ill-timed folly.
“It is important that the Scottish Government and BBC, as a public service broadcaster, work together to make sure this happens so that timely information is available as comprehensively as possible.
"While it is clear that live coverage is not going to disappear altogether, the BBC must assure older people, and the general public, that that they will be robust in their broadcast reporting and that screenings of briefings will continue regularly."
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The charity echoed Donald Macaskill, the chief executive of Scottish Care, who said: “The BBC has stated that people can still see the briefings broadcast online. That might be very true, but it ignores the reality that over half a million older Scots do not have access to the internet”
Writing for The National Extra today, Macaskill called for the BBC to continue the briefing broadcasts, adding: “It is an offensive response to the desolation that this virus has wreaked, not least amongst our old, that our national broadcaster should seek to limit a source of assurance and comfort, information and guidance which might actually save additional lives.”
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