GLASGOW, June 30 (RIA Novosti), Mark Hirst – Over 2,000 people gathered outside the BBC’s Scottish headquarters today to protest against bias in the coverage of the Scottish independence referendum by the publicly funded state broadcaster.
Riot police and plain clothes police officers were present, but not deployed, against the peaceful but vocal crowd who chanted “BBC, we won’t pay our licence fee," in a reference to the levy every British citizen is required, by law, to pay to watch television and which also directly funds the BBC.
“The peaceful but noisy crowd of around 2000 with flags, pipers, singers and guest speakers in front of BBC Scotland Headquarters sent the strongest signal of dissatisfaction with BBC Scotland's coverage of the referendum campaign," Professor John Robertson, of the University of the West of Scotland told RIA Novosti, stressing that the day "was one of the most emotional days in the long campaign for Scottish independence."
Robertson earlier this year published a detailed academic paper showing widespread bias in the BBC’s coverage, which the BBC has dismissed.
“The use of dubious evidence and sources, the tough interviewing of Yes supporters and the passive interviewing of No supporters and the demonising of the First Minister, Alex Salmond," Robertson added, having reminded the crowd "of the forms of bias common in BBC reporting such as a tendency to over-report and to repeat bad news stories at the expense of good news stories."
Outraged by the disbalance of media coverage, the organisers of the protest insisted there is “an unhealthy bias” in BBC reporting of the Scottish independence referendum.
A BBC Spokeswoman said, “Our coverage of the referendum story is fair and impartial in line with the editorial guidelines.”
Last month BBC members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) passed a motion warning their impartiality was being undermined by the decision of BBC management to refuse to resign membership of the Confederation of British Industry, (CBI), an organisation which openly campaigns against Scottish independence.
"We do not see how the BBC’s membership of the CBI can be compatible with our duty of journalistic impartiality," a BBC NUJ spokesman told RIA Novosti.
"The BBC, through licence-payers’ money, is helping to fund an organisation which is taking a strong position for the union, and against independence. That makes doing our job very difficult," the BBC NUJ spokesman added.
Scots go to the polls on 18 September and will be asked one question, “Should Scotland become an independent country?”
