Independence and the EU -
How BBC Scotland were caught misleading the public
By a Newsnet reporter (23 Dec 2013)
PART 1
On Thursday 18th December, following a near year-long complaint against BBC Scotland, the BBC Trust finally came to a decision. The ruling, yet to be officially announced but leaked to Newsnet Scotland, was that BBC Scotland had misled viewers over a high profile news item broadcast on the flagship news programme Reporting Scotland.
The landmark decision found that on January 25th 2013, BBC Scotland had broken editorial guidelines on accuracy on an issue key to the independence debate.
The broadcast item centred on an interview given by the then Irish European Affairs Minister Lucinda Creighton. Viewers watching that night's edition of Reporting Scotland would have been left with the impression that Ms Creighton was of the belief that a newly independent Scotland would be forced to leave the European Union.
The broadcast led to complaints being fielded by the BBC. Fully ten months after the initial complaint had been lodged the Trust had made a decision – and one tenacious complainant had been exonerated.
Read entire Part 1 of article HERE
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PART 2
We left part one with the BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit having failed to respond to an attempt to escalate the complaint. After six weeks had passed and no acknowledgement was forthcoming from the ECU, the BBC Trust was approached.
Two days later and the BBC Trust responded:
"Thank you for your email of 19 June. We have spoken with the Editorial Complaints Unit and they have advised that they will send a reply to you by the end of this week. If you are unhappy with their response then it is open to you to write to us again to request an appeal."
It was now June 21st, fully five months after the broadcast that had led to the complaint. During that time an interesting hitherto unreported aspect of the January meeting in Dublin had emerged.
Read entire Part 2 of article HERE
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