Scottish Broadcasting Commission discloses support for Scottish BBC Six O'Clock News

chris

That old hoary old chestnut of the broadcasting world has raised its head again. However, in mentioning the so-called Scottish Six it has to be said that for many people in Scotland it's not so much a chestnut, it's almost the Holy Grail.

n an interim report published yesterday, the Scottish Broadcasting Commission reported that support for the replacement of the existing BBC Six O'Clock News, broadcast from London, with a Scottish-produced version of UK, international and local news had grown considerably over the past five years.

The SBC was at pains yesterday to stress that its report was not endorsing the findings of its survey into the Scottish Six, merely reporting them. However, there are many cynics around who think that one of the prime reasons for the establishment of the commission was precisely so that it would recommend such a move.

This is not to say that I suspect the motives of the many eminent men and women members; merely that I suspect the motives of the man who set it up in the first place, a certain Alex Salmond.

That said, it is difficult to imagine that the results of this survey, once they are generally known, will not re-energise the efforts of those who have always supported a Scottish-centric bulletin as our main television news programme of the day.

And interestingly there are probably as many politicians as broadcasters involved in advocating the change. Needless to say the former are almost exclusively of the nationalist tendency and they recall, at the drop of a hat, the fact that Greg Dyke, the former BBC director general, has disclosed that it was Unionist political pressure from London that had led him to reject moves for a Scottish Six a decade ago.

That, as they say, was then. With an SNP administration - albeit a minority one - now in charge and the demand for more powers to be transferred from Westminster to Holyrood growing more shrill by the day, there is no doubt that the ultimate overview of broadcasting and the media by Holyrood is regarded by First Minister Salmond as a major prize. At present such matters are under Westminster's control.

Broadcasters of my acquaintance have mixed views about the Scottish Six. Many would welcome the increased resources that producing the main news bulletin of the day, instead of just the Scottish add-on, would inevitably bring. Who wouldn't? But others are justifiably nervous of switching the emphasis and perspectives of their programming from "British" to "Scottish". Others still think that there are more important issues to argue about, such as getting the network broadcasters to break out of the their M25 laager and better reflect what's going on in all parts of the United Kingdom.

It is nationalist politicians and their supporters who are the most gung-ho for the change to a Scottish Six. In spite of all of their soothing words about maintaining the 'social union' with the rest of the UK, most of them want desperately to break the link with Britain and what better way to do that than to cock a snook at the "British" Broadcasting Corporation.

Although it is the BBC news that they most wish to change, they'd be quite happy if the opposition also opted for a Scottish-based news service. At a recent public seminar, the head of ITN news said that he was all in favour of such a change but didn't know from where the money to fund such a service would come. All of which meant that he had no intention of doing any such thing.

The best formula, surely, in this digital age would be to adopt the plan advocated by Ted Brocklebank, the Scottish Tory spokesman on the media and himself a former broadcaster. A dedicated Scottish channel, part funded by private capital and partly from the licence fee, could be set up as an alternative, not a replacement, to the main network output.

If there's as much demand for such a Scottish Six, as the Nats make out, surely some of their rich friends will stump up the money.

By way of a footnote, the commission said they'd received wide praise in their evidence sessions for the content of the Gaelic language 2Eorpa" programmes. "Ambitious, explanatory journalism," the commission described it.

All I can say is that if I had the resources enjoyed by Eorpa, I could make brilliant television too. And I don't know my analogue from my digital. Charlotte Newell, a student at Gallashiels textile college, models organic gardening clothes during the Gardening Scotland show at the Royal Highland Centre in Edinburgh yesterday. Four hundred exhibitors are taking part in the biggest plant and gardening sale in Scotland as 30,000 visitors are expected to attend the three-day show



Source: telegraph