Tv Broadcasting Fairness In The Scottish Independence Referendum

EDM number 1052 in 2013-14, proposed by Angus MacNeil on 05/02/2014.
Categorised under the topics of Broadcasting and Devolution.

That this House encourages the BBC and other television broadcasters named in the interim report by Dr John Robertson of the University of the West of Scotland, titled, Fairness in the First Year?, about political balance in broadcasting to at least cover the report on television so that viewers may be informed about views and concerns on the broadcasting balance and impartiality in the run up to the Scottish Independence referendum on 18 September 2014; notes that Dr Robertson's team at the University of the West of Scotland in the year until September 2013 studied the early evening news programmes of BBC Scotland and STV; further notes that their principal findings were that stories with an anti-independence view outnumbered pro-independence by three to two, that the BBC's Reporting Scotland showed 272 news stories favourable to the No campaign, but just 171 favourable to Yes, that STV's early evening programme had 255 stories boosting the No side and 172 for Yes; further notes that Dr Robertson's academic team also found that 28 BBC news items ended with an unchallenged anti-independence claim, compared to eight for the pro-independence side, figures for STV were less marked but still significant at 34 to 17, both giving the final word more often to the No side of the independence campaign; further notes that the BBC is paid for by viewers and is governed by a Royal Charter that demands the highest standards of impartiality and that commercial STV also has a legal duty to be balanced; and believes that at the very least such findings deserve an airing by UK broadcasting organisations.

This motion has been signed by a total of 4 MPs.