A SCOTTISH Broadcasting Corporation, devolved from the BBC…?
It was the subject of The National’s top story, on Friday, and was continued yesterday by Sunday Herald columnist, Ian Bell.
Began The National, on Friday (here): “The SNP is mounting a new push for the responsibility for broadcasting to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. The move comes after the BBC’s annual report revealed that 48 per cent of Scots did not believe the Corporation accurately reflects the country.”
And its report was joined by a leader comment (here) which concluded: “The point of devolving broadcasting is not to give the SNP – or any other government – an easier ride.
“It is to free talented journalists from unnecessary shackles and help them to do the job we deserve.”
The front page of Friday’s edition of The National was given over entirely to an image of a broadcasting microphone, labelled ‘Scottish Broadcasting Commission’ – accompanied by the heading, ‘New drive for BBC devolution’.
Meanwhile, Ian Bell (here), wrote: “If the (very) reserved BBC is failing Scotland, according to its Scottish audience, then the case for a different approach becomes unanswerable. A few more doses of [soap opera] River City will not put us all to sleep. Too many viewers and listeners have drawn their conclusions about trust, bias, representation and impartiality.
“Dismissing them all as obsessed nationalists will not do BBC Scotland the slightest bit of good. It must be a terrible annoyance for executives, but broadcasters cannot pick their audiences.”
And cultural commentator, Pat Kane – also writing in The National, here – considered what type of BBC he would ‘go to the wall for’.
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WIDELY reported, including by STV (here): “An inquiry into Scotland’s creative industries is to be held by Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee.
“It will look at the contribution of the industries to employment and the economy, and consider how UK policy in areas such as tax reliefs and intellectual property rights affects them.
“The inquiry will also look at how Scotland’s creative industries compare with the UK as a whole, and how effectively the UK, Scottish and local governments work together to promote them.
“The committee will ask if any changes are needed in terms of tax relief and support to enable the sector to grow.”
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FROM yesterday’s Sunday Herald: two stories – one by Paul Hutcheon, which begins (here): “Police Scotland is refusing to deny that it is one of the forces which has breached a new law designed to clampdown on officers spying on journalists.”
And the other (here), has Tom Gordon reporting that a former aide to ex-Labour Chancellor, Alistair Darling, has media-trained a Tory junior minister.
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BEGINS a recent former director of the Scottish Newspaper Society, Jim Chisholm, in today’s Guardian newspaper (page 32): “Last summer, as the Scots voraciously consumed the twists and turns of the independence debate across, TV, the web, and even some more nationalist newspapers, the once-mighty Scotsman was seeing its paid sales falling below 27,000.
“During the biggest political event in Scotland for decades, it managed to slow its sales decline for one month only from around ten per cent to seven per cent.
“Around this time, The Scotsman, together with its owner Johnston Press’s head office, vacated its Edinburgh premises to the makers of Grand Theft Auto. So when Johnston issued a profit warning last week, knocking 28 per cent off the company’s value, no-one in Edinburgh or the news industry was surprised.”
Read more, here.
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A SCOTLAND-made TV programme providing tips on shopping for bargains is being broadcast this evening on Channel 4.
Glasgow-based Firecrest Films has made SuperShoppers, being presented by Andi Osho and Anna Richardson.
The programme is being screened from 2000.
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IN today’s Herald newspaper sports supplement, Hugh MacDonald considers the BBC and The Open golf championship – which is continuing today, because of the weather over the weekend – and the imminent loss of live coverage of the event from free-to-air TV.
Read him, here.
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INTERESTING letter published in The Herald, on Saturday, sent by a Stuart Cruickshank, who describes himself, ‘BBC Music Radio 1980-2014′.
It follows last week’s Westminster Green Paper on the future of the BBC and among many points Cruickshank makes is this: “[BBC Radio] is still one of the world’s largest brands – and about to expand. It costs relative buttons, but radio always will be the BBC’s greatest international ambassador.”
Read the letter, here.
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