SCOTLAND is being sold short by the BBC, according to the Scottish Government.
Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs, made the claim yesterday as the BBC published its annual review.
Figures in the report show that Scotland is the only one of the four nations in the UK where more than half the people do not think the BBC “is good at representing their life in news and current-affairs content”.
The research showed that only 48 per cent of Scottish listeners and viewers trusted the BBC’s news in Scotland, compared to 61 per cent in England.
Audiences also accused the BBC of failing to be impartial and of being “unfavourable” to the Yes side during the referendum campaign.
The report also showed that the amount of money spent on programming in Scotland is down on the previous year, falling from 10.9 per cent to 9.2 per cent of the total outlay of £2.4 billion.
Hyslop said the report showed the need for reform. She said: “The UK Government and BBC are continuing to sell Scotland short on broadcasting. When the BBC has failed to meet the expectations of its audience, the answer is to seek positive reform which protects the corporation’s independence, not seek to slash and diminish it.”
The Scottish Government was also critical of the Departmentfor Culture, Media and Sport for not fully consulting over charter renewal and over plans to shift the burden of paying for free television licences for the over-75s from the Government to the BBC.
Hyslop said: “The Scottish and UK Governments agreed a memorandum of understanding last month, guaranteeing the Scottish Government will be consulted in the whole process of charter renewal. So it is extremely disappointing that the UK Government has failed to seek the Scottish Government’s view on the appointments to the BBC reform panel, and also did not consult the Scottish Government on the licence-fee settlement in the Budget last week.
“As a result, Scotland’s views appear to be, at best, underrepresented on the panel advising on BBC charter renewal and funding. This comes as the BBC’s own annual report shows that not only is Scotland the only part of the UK where more than half of the people do not believe the broadcaster is properly reflecting life in their nation, but that Scotland’s share of network production has also fallen.”
The Scottish Government also criticised the DCMS for not letting it see the content of the green paper on the future of the BBC expected this week.
Audience Council Scotland, the group of viewers and listeners which advises the BBC Trust, commended BBC Scotland for much of the coverage of the referendum, but warned the BBC is seen as not being impartial.
In a report, the council’s Bill Matthews said: “Some licence payers perceived BBC coverage to be unfavourable to the Yes campaign, and saw the BBC as part of a wider media establishment whose perspectives reflected those of the status quo. Others raised issues like choice of interviewees, how headlines are written and interviewing styles which could affect perceptions of impartiality.”
There was also criticism of the BBC for focusing “too much on the official campaigns, at the expense of the wider civic and community engagement”.
The council also suggested UK-wide news teams took too long to realise what was happening in Scotland and then presented an “anglified” perspective of the campaign.
“BBC network programmes, overall, did not engage with the issues until too late a stage, and that some had been less well informed, and that this diluted the value of the coverage at both
Scottish and UK levels.
“There was some audience perception that network correspondents were increasingly used in place of BBC Scotland correspondents in the final weeks of the campaign.”
A spokesman for the BBC denied the claims of impartiality. The spokesman said: “We stand by our coverage of the referendum which was fair and impartial. No complaints about impartiality were upheld by the BBC Trust and there were no complaints of bias from the leaders of the opposing Better Together and Yes campaigns.”
There was some good news for the BBC in the annual report. Both the referendum and the Commonwealth Games saw the corporation have its busiest year in Scotland. Coverage of the games reached an unprecedented 78 per cent of the audience in Scotland – 3.6 million people – with the opening ceremony attracting 1.8 million viewers.
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