A REPORT by the BBC's former Scotland editor, Sarah Smith, about Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon breached broadcasting rules, Ofcom has said.

The broadcasting regulator stated in a ruling issued on Monday that the BBC had made a “significant mistake” which it failed to acknowledge or correct on air.

The mistake came after Smith reported that Salmond, now the leader of Alba, had said Sturgeon should resign as First Minister.

In fact, he had not done so.

In her report on February 26, 2021, Smith said: “Alex Salmond said he believes Nicola Sturgeon has misled Parliament and broken the Ministerial Code, which he thinks means she should resign [Ofcom’s emphasis]”.

However, while Salmond had told a Holyrood committee looking at the handling of harassment complaints that he thought Sturgeon had broken the ministerial code, he said it was not for him to name what the consequences of that should be.

Ofcom said the BBC had broken rule 5.1 and 5.2 in its report of his comments.

These rules are: 

  • Rule 5.1: “News, in whatever form, must be reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality."
  • Rule 5.2: “Significant mistakes in news should normally be acknowledged and corrected on air quickly. Corrections should be appropriately scheduled."

Ofcom’s report said that the BBC accepted it had breached rule 5.1, but insisted it had not broken 5.2 as “appropriate action to mitigate the error” had been taken.

The BBC further argued that the mistake had not been sufficiently significant to warrant an on-air correction.

The corporation said it had offered corrections on Twitter and on its website, but argued that the inaccuracy did not “rise to the level of significance which would require a broadcast correction”.

Ordinarily, an inaccurate broadcast would require a correction to be sent out at a time when it was likely to reach a similar audience.

In May 2021, the BBC threw out hundreds of complaints which had been made about Smith's inaccurate report.

Ofcom said that the proximity of the inaccurate report to the Scottish Parliament elections affected its significance, but the BBC questioned where in Ofcom’s rules this was written.

A BBC spokesperson ultimately said the corporation accepted the decision.

READ MORE: BBC's Scotland editor apologises after saying Alex Salmond wants FM to resign

"We are absolutely committed to transparency around complaints and we always seek to correct any issues as swiftly as possible," they said.

"We will reflect on the findings and of course if there is more we can do to explain how we make our judgements on complaints then we will look at that."

Smith took up a new post as the BBC's North America editor late last year, heading to the US to begin the job in February.

An independent report compiled by James Hamilton and released the month after Smith's inaccurate report found that Sturgeon had not breached the ministerial code.