THE non-appearance of the BBC at a Scottish Parliament committee meeting last month – to discuss budget and job cuts affecting BBC Scotland – has reportedly provoked outrage.
Splashes The Scotsman today, the head of Holyrood’s education and culture committee, Stewart Maxwell, is said to have been thwarted in an attempt to force BBC representatives to give evidence in person. The BBC sent a document instead.
Following a decision struck between the BBC and the Westminster government two years ago, the TV licence fee was frozen for six years. It means, for BBC Scotland, a budget cut of 16 per cent per year and the latest manifestation of what will be between 100-120 job losses over five years was an announcement in August that 35 posts had been earmarked for redundancy.
At the committee meeting last month, the NUJ called on BBC Scotland to up its coverage of the forthcoming referendum on Scottish independence by calling for a moratorium on job cuts.
