BBC Scotland staff spoke of their scepticism yesterday over plans for a radical overhaul of its news and current affairs coverage.
Workers told The National that the “proof of the pudding” will be whether Gary Smith, head of news and current affairs, can “raise the trust” in the BBC in the eyes of the Scottish public.
The corporation’s flagship current affairs show Scotland 2016 is being scrapped after less than three years on air, along with Radio Scotland’s The Big Debate with Gordon Brewer and Douglas Fraser’s Business Scotland weekend slots.
BBC executives told staff in Glasgow that tough decisions had to be made to divert Scotland’s limited resources to focus on core news programmes, such as Reporting Scotland, and more in-depth political analysis, investigations and documentaries.
Smith, brought in just six month ago after a newsroom revolt against his predecessor, said he had put together a “coherent strategy” for BBC Scotland and that staff had “broadly” accepted it as “a sensible and quite ambitious way forward”.
Union chiefs welcomed the plans as there are no job losses and hailed the move as the first step to a Scottish Six news programme.
However, some staff still have doubts about whether his ambitious plans to beef up the news output will come to fruition.
One worker said: “This is yet another reorganisation. It is yet another ‘bear with us we are sorting it out, we are making our coverage more relevant to Scotland’. We have heard it all before. Maybe this time it will be true and maybe it won’t.
“Gary Smith spent his entire career working for network newsgathering in London. He is London’s man here. The proof of the pudding will be does this raise trust in the BBC in the eyes of the Scottish public who are paying the same amount of money as people in Surrey for it? If so then great, but many of us are sceptical and so are a lot of the viewing public.”
Another worker said that if Smith fails to bring a Scottish Six to Scotland he will be judged to have failed. He said: “His plans are positive if they actually happen. I would have thought the Scottish Government would be closely monitoring it.
“The key thing in all of this is not what happens in Scotland, it is the attitude of people in London and Gary Smith doesn’t get to decide whether there is a Scottish Six or not. They have made the pilots but it will be the bosses in London that will decide.
“If a Scottish Six does not come along and if these changes don’t beef up the new and current affairs coverage in Scotland, then Smith will be judged to have failed in Scotland.
“You can’t just move some deckchairs around, shut some programmes down and save a bit of money. At the end of the day people in Scotland pay exactly the same licence fee as people in London.”
Staff said The Big Debate with up to 80,000 listeners was set up in reaction to outcry over the Question Time bias and it was the only audience participation Scottish programme where Scots could put questions to politicians.
One said: “It is very popular and that is going now, so effectively there will be no question and answer programme anywhere in the country now for the public.
“The Big Debate was set up in answer to cries because of Question Time bias. Radio Scotland set that up to counter that point and after two or three years it’s gone.
“We will have to rely on Question Time with David Dimbleby coming up here three times a year.”
The Scottish Government welcomed the move but said that “editorial independence for BBC Scotland is vital”.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The BBC’s own research has shown that the majority of people in Scotland do not believe the broadcaster is adequately reflecting Scotland. It’s clearly well past time that the BBC’s investment and operations catches up with devolution and empowers their staff in Scotland to meet the needs of their audience.
“Editorial independence for BBC Scotland is vital and we will continue to push for this protection and necessary investment through the Charter Review process and beyond.”
MORE: A letter outlining changes to the BBC has been published
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