THE BBC has declined to release the details of requests received from politicians pressuring it to end the daily broadcast of the First Minister’s daily Covid briefings, The National can reveal.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request, put in last month asked the BBC to divulge the communications amid concern of “undue pressure being applied by certain elected officials to curtail, or suspend the Scottish the briefings”. Rival parties had previously complained the previous gave the SNP leader a political platform. Their requests to stop showing the briefings was rejected by the BBC.
The FOI request asked for the “details of the various exchanges, and the outcome of the requests made by the political parties/individuals, as well as the decisions made by the BBC”. However, in a response passed to The National, the corporation says it is “not obliged to provide this information and will not be doing so”.
The BBC cited Part VI of Schedule One of the 2000 Act, which states that the “British Broadcasting Corporation, [is only covered by FOI] in respect of information held for purposes other than those of journalism, art or literature”.
READ MORE: Labour demand probe into FM's Covid briefings over lack of 'political impartiality'
The corporation said in its refusal that the correspondence relating to the First Minister’s briefings is being held for one of these purposes.
The refusal also states: “The BBC is not required to supply information held for the purposes of creating the BBC’s output or information that supports and is closely associated with these activities.
“The BBC, as a media organisation, is under a duty to impart information and ideas on all matters of public interest and the importance of this function has been recognised by the European Court of Human Rights. Maintaining our editorial independence is a crucial factor in enabling the media to fulfil this function.”
It is unclear why the BBC considers the requested correspondence to be “closely associated” with its broadcasting of the First Minister’s daily coronavirus briefings. The person who passed on the BBC response told The National the “evasive response” showed they had “clearly missed the point regarding wider public interest”.
READ MORE: When will Nicola Sturgeon's Scottish Government Covid briefings be on TV again?
A BBC spokesperson told The National at the time that they had “had ongoing discussions with Lord Foulkes about our coverage of the briefings” but “pandemic audiences are demonstrating a significant interest in accessing relevant public health information in this way”.
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