THE headline on the front page of The Scotsman reads: ‘BBC bosses are urged to probe English “bias”‘.
And begins reporter, Martyn McLaughlin (here): “The BBC has been urged to carry out a review of how it covers ‘controversial political issues’ affecting Scotland and ensure BBC Scotland receives ‘greater authority and resources’ from London in order to create more news and drama.
“In a wide-ranging review of how the BBC is meeting audience demands in Scotland, an advisory board to the BBC Trust warned of concerns among the public over the impartiality and analysis underpinning the corporation’s coverage of Scottish life.”
The latest BBC annual report was published yesterday morning, as reported, here, on allmediascotland.com.
And The Herald’s coverage of the report also makes a page one appearance. Continuing on page ten, Phil Miller writes (here): “The BBC should review its approach to the coverage of ‘controversial political issues’ in Scotland in the wake of last year’s referendum, according to an audience panel.
“In the corporation’s annual review, the Audience Council Scotland said some network programmes had appeared to adopt what was described as an ‘Anglified perspective’ during the independence debate and focused too much on the official campaigns ‘at the expense of the wider civic and community engagement’.”
The Guardian takes a similar line, here.
Meanwhile, The National newspaper begins: “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.”
The National goes on, to report: “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.'”
Read more, here.
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THE Dundee evening paper, the Evening Telegraph, reports: “Dundee’s ‘voice of football’ will be hanging up his BBC headphones at the end of the week.
“Jim Spence, who has reported for BBC Radio Scotland for nearly two decades, has said that he will leave the company.
“Rumours were rife on social media as followers noticed Spence had removed references to the Beeb from his Twitter account name and biography.
“And the sports journalist later confirmed the news, saying that he would be finishing on Friday.
“However, aside from planning to ‘get re-acquainted with running shoes, Guinness, wife’, he has been tight-lipped about his future and any possible new jobs. No reason has been given for his departure, which came as a surprise to many.”
Read more, here.
Spence tweeted, a few hours ago: “My decision to leave BBC at this time. I’ve worked with some great people there over the years, but freelance option is best for me now.”
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REPORTS the website, Daily Business: “Craft brewer, Innis & Gunn, has confirmed its new PR and marketing team to support the business’s growth plans and expansion overseas.
“As previously reported in Daily Business, Steph Middleton has left her consultancy role with the Edinburgh brewer after seven years to focus on her own business.”
Read more, here.
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BEGINS the website, radiotoday.co.uk: “This year’s Community Media Conference is taking place at the University of Bedfordshire, Luton, on Saturday 12th September 2015.
“It’s hosted by Radio LaB and has the theme of Inspiring Through Success, where the CMA will showcase and share examples of best practice from all community media practitioners whether radio, local television, or online.”
Read more, here.
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SCOTT Reid, in The Scotsman, today, writes: “Media group, Johnston Press, has seen encouraging signs from digital revenues with double-digit growth in traffic to its websites.
“In a trading update yesterday, the firm, whose newspaper titles include The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and Yorkshire Post, described the overall trading environment as ‘challenging’ during the first half of the year.”
Read more, here.
Yesterday, allmediascotland.com noted the trading update, here.
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REPORTS the website, publicaffairsnews.com: “Former Labour MP, Tom Harris, and his wife are setting up a lobbying and PR consultancy, called Third Avenue Communications.
“Harris spent 14 years as a Labour MP for Glasgow South before losing his seat to the SNP in the 2015 general election.”
Read more, here.
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THE website, radiotoday.co.uk, reports: “Ed Vaizey MP, Minister of State for Culture and the Digital Economy, is set to announce that 70 per cent of new cars now come with digital radio, as standard.”
Read more, here.
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