THE SNP’s depute leader has slated the BBC’s “dismal” election coverage as he demanded the corporation works to make it fairer.
Keith Brown took to social media to criticise how BBC News and BBC Scotland had devoted “a dismal 24 words of election coverage to SNP content” as of the end of Monday.
He added that the BBC network election coverage had just two interviews with SNP figures over the weekend.
Brown added: “We are almost a week into the campaign. Fair coverage must start NOW.”
Just after the last General Election in 2019, SNP MP Ian Blackford called for a “radical shake up” at the BBC as he accused the corporation of “glaringly obvious” disregard for devolution and “systematically” omitting Scotland and the SNP from stories.
He said his party “often had to challenge” the broadcaster during the campaign, though the BBC insisted its coverage had been “fair and proportionate”.
The BBC is also regularly criticised for the way in which SNP panellists are treated on Question Time with The National revealing the party’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn was interrupted almost 40 times on the programme earlier this month, mostly by host Fiona Bruce.
The corporation was challenged in March on data showing panels are “massively unbalanced” in favour of right-wing voices by Westminster’s media committee.
Figures collected by author Steve Paxton for 2022 showed a significant bias towards right-wing panellists from media outlets, as well as for politicians not elected to Westminster, Holyrood, or the Senedd.
Paxton wrote at the time: “Twenty-three appearances for right-wing media, but only two for the left. Fifteen employers but only five representatives of employees. A single Green MP, but two appearances for a politician who was paid £20k a month by a fossil fuel company while he was an MP [Nadhim Zahawi].
“It’s pretty difficult to reconcile these with the idea that the BBC’s flagship political debate programme retains any semblance of balance.”
Brown’s comments come as ITV announced the first TV debate of the election which will only involve Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.
It follows a report in The Guardian last week which said Labour had “demanded” smaller parties be excluded from TV debates.
Back in 2019, the SNP took legal action against ITV over its exclusion from the broadcaster’s General Election debate. Nicola Sturgeon said at the time it was “fundamentally unfair” for ITV not to have included her party.
A BBC spokesperson said: "Over the course of the General Election period, each of the larger parties will receive proportionate coverage across the breadth of BBC output. We are committed to due impartiality, putting audiences first and providing them with comprehensive analysis and reporting of all the latest developments."
