WINGS Over Scotland’s Stuart Campbell says the BBC still have questions to answer over their attempts to kill off his YouTube channel.
Exactly a week ago, the video sharing site closed down Campbell’s account after the BBC accused the campaigner of breaching their copyright by hosting videos featuring clips taken from the network’s news programming.
READ MORE: BBC Scotland’s problem? It's a branch office of a London company
The blogger insists his videos were covered by fair use exemptions to the law for current affairs programmes.
On Thursday, the corporation backed down in the fight, but then tried to shift the blame for the censorship row on to a Labour councillor.
READ MORE: Eamonn O'Neill: BBC Scotland should now take the lead on copyright issues
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s John Beattie show on Thursday, head of public policy Ian Small insisted the decision was taken entirely on legal and rights grounds and “there was no editorialising at all in any of this”.
Small then explained that the BBC had an obligation to take action when it was notified of a potential copyright breach.
He said the Wings breach followed someone else had complaining about a “Labour councillor who had material on his website”.
He said the BBC issued a notice on that and the councillor “in turn indicated that we had not taken any action relative to the Wings Over Scotland material, and because he alerted us that we necessarily had to take action”.
Asked on air by Beattie if the Labour councillor was Scott Arthur, Small initially did not acknowledge the name, before saying he believed it was but that he “wasn’t party to that so I couldn’t say definitely that was the case".
Arthur, however, took to Twitter to say he was not responsible.
Yesterday afternoon he was invited on to the John Beattie show to discuss the chain of events. He said while he had not directly complained about Campbell’s channel, he had mentioned it in passing while talking to the BBC’s legal team.
Campbell was annoyed that the BBC had complained to YouTube about his channel but had seemingly spoken to Arthur first.
Writing in The National, Campbell said the revelation pro-independence media had been treated differently really "blew the doors off and let the light in".
STUART CAMPBELL: BBC bombshell is final proof we independence supporters are second-class citizens
Arthur said the BBC knew that if they complained about more than three videos on the channel then YouTube would automatically suspend the account.
As an elected representative, the BBC were worried that this would mean taking down videos which could have been for his constituents.
Writing on his blog, Campbell said: “The BBC gave a Scottish Labour politician preferential treatment over copyright, and allowed him – instead of losing his own channel – to have the supposedly impartial state-funded broadcaster target two pro-independence sites instead.”
This, he suggested, was enough for the corporation’s legal team to take action.
A BBC spokesperson said: “For clarity, as Professor Arthur himself said on Twitter, the BBC requested current affairs content to be removed from his YouTube channel. Within the context of a constructive discussion on copyright infringement he referred to other channels, including Wings Over Scotland, as examples he had looked at when establishing his own to gauge what could be considered ‘fair use’.
“Professor Arthur did not make a complaint or suggest particular action should be taken against these channels, but having been alerted to their use of our content we acted as per our policy – which is now
being reviewed.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel