BBC defends decision to keep airing Scotland's daily Covid-19 briefings

BBC Scotland has defended its decision to continue broadcasting the Scottish government’s daily corona virus briefing.

The defence of the decision to broadcast the briefing from St Andrew’s House comes following fierce criticism by former UK government minister and former Labour MP Brian Wilson, who accused the state of broadcaster of being “taken for a ride”.

Mr Wilson, writing in The Scotsman, labelled the briefing san“exercise in po li tical spin and news manage - ment” and questioned why the issues around inaccurate Test and Protect data had not been brought up by the First Minister at the briefings.

His comments come two months after the broadcaster had decided to reduce its live coverage of the briefing, fronted daily by the First Minister, before U-turning on that decision following criticism it would dilute the public health messages being delivered by the Scottish government.

On September 17, Donald a Mac Kin non claimed there had never been any intention to stop coverage and said other political figures such as opposition leaders would be broadcast after the initial briefing from Nicola Sturgeon.

A spokesman for the BBC said the decision to continue airing the briefings was made on the basis of “edito - rial judgement and listening to our audiences” while adding it remained committed to having a “broad coverage” of voices and perspectives.

He said :“Coverage of the briefings are made on the basis of editorial judgment and listening to our audiences. Over the past weeks, for example, we have continued to broadcast the briefings live while the number of new cases is high; there are significant restrictions on business, hospitality and travel across much of the country; and our audiences are looking for public health information.

"We will also take full account of how the pandemic continues to evolve to inform that judgment.”

The BBC added coverage of the Scottish Government briefings was in line with how similar briefings were shown.

The BBC declined to comment on whether the briefings would be broadcast ahead of Scottish Parliament elections in May next year.