Salmond To Demand A Fair Share For Scottish Broadcasters

SNP First Minister, Alex Salmond is to meet with both BBC and ITV bosses to demand a fairer share of "Network" resources for Scotland and demands for broadcasting to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament from Westminster.

Concerns at the treatment of Scottish new, culture and heritage by British Broadcasters are not new. A few years ago the campaign for a Scottish Six news slot was scuppered by Scottish based Labour MP's afraid that their role was being downgraded since devolution.

This was confirmed by former BBC Director General Greg Dyke who admitted John Reid lobbied hard for news to be retained in London.

Now the matter is back on the political agenda following the election of an SNP government committed to promoting Scottish interests.

The approach to the BBC and ITV corporations comes as it is revealed the BBC spend only 4% of their UK budget in Scotland while ITV invest only around 2% Scotland's share of UK budgets based on population should be around 9%.

Alex Salmond is due to outline the Scottish Government's views on broadcasting in a speech later this week but it is clear that this will include a demand for more freedom for BBC Scotland and Scottish Television.

The BBC in particular has come under pressure recently having been forced to apologise publicly for biased news reporting. This follows two Newsnight programs where first of all Jeremy Paxman wrongly quoted an opinion poll on independence before personal friend of Jack McConnell, Kirsty Wark, demonstrated political bias in an interview with Alex Salmond