BBC leaves Scots poorly 'informed'

Scottish television audiences are poorly informed and have a skewed perspective on events in their own country because of a failure by the national BBC news programmes to provide coverage of events outside England.

The verdict, a key finding of a major report commissioned by the BBC Trust, is said to have senior BBC figures "quaking in their boots".

The study, entitled "Accuracy and impartiality in coverage of the four nations", was produced by Professor Anthony King from Essex University. King's brief was to find out how well informed viewers are about the operations of the UK's several devolved administrations.

Senior academics found that a lack of Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish stories in the UK network news left audiences with a skewed perspective on events in their own countries.

SNP MP Pete Wishart MP said the report confirms that Scottish people are 'poorly served by BBC news'.

“BBC news and current affairs services are increasingly irrelevant and at times misleading," hew said.

“The BBC have failed to keep pace with Scotland’s evolving political and cultural life and are failing to properly reflect the everyday experience of ordinary Scots. Professor King’s report finds a lack of Scottish stories leaving a “skewed” perspective of events in Scotland and this now has to be addressed.

“We need an urgent review of how the BBC delivers Scottish news and current affairs programming.

“Securing our news through a London metropolitan prism is simply not working for Scotland. We need to look at the whole issue of national, UK and international news being delivered through a Scottish produced 6 o’clock and 10 o’clock news service.

“This is not about being parochial, it’s about having relevant news services, and right now were getting a second class service.”