A READER of The National has said he will continue to pursue the broadcasting watchdog almost a year after a BBC Radio 4 interview with former Scottish Tory leader Baroness Ruth Davidson that he complained about.
John Parker went to Ofcom after going through the BBC complaints procedures about Davidson’s appearance on the World at One (Wato) last February 24. Ofcom have been telling him – and us – for months that it was still being assessed, despite saying it would be published after last August’s bank holiday weekend.
The programme featured a 12-minute segment of reportage and analysis of the anticipated appearance of former first minister Alex Salmond before the committee investigating the Scottish Government’s handling of harassment allegations against him – of which he was subsequently cleared.
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Salmond’s appearance before the committee was postponed, but the programme segment continued, with contributions from then BBC Scotland editor Sarah Smith and political correspondent Nick Eardley, preceding Davidson’s contribution.
She told Wato there were questions about whether Scotland’s democratic institutions were corrupt.
Parker, who was born in England and is a long-time resident of Wales, said Davidson was given more than five minutes to make allegations of institutional corruption with no serious challenge.
The National has put the following questions to Ofcom - who say the investigation is "ongoing".
- Are you any closer to completing the investigation into John Parker’s complaint about last February's interview?
- How long does it normally take Ofcom to investigate such complaints?
- Are there others which have taken the best part of a year?
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Parker recorded and transcribed the programme segment, describing it as: “A very one-sided and tendentious presentation to be making with Holyrood elections just a few weeks away.”
He initially took his complaint to the BBC, where it was dismissed at every level, before raising the matter with Ofcom.
Ofcom told us yesterday: “Our investigation into this is ongoing, we will let you know once we are able to provide an update.”
A spokesperson said that although the programme aired in February, complaints about BBC content go to the broadcaster before they go to Ofcom, as part of what is called the “BBC First” process.
According to the watchdog’s last annual report, it has seen a rising number of complaints about the BBC and other broadcasters.
It dealt with 1711 complaints about the BBC in 2020/21, compared to 1543 the year before and 560 in 2018/19.
Last year Ofcom investigated 1380 complaints against commercial broadcasters ITV, Sky News, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
In last year’s report, Ofcom said: “We also revised our complaints determinations to encourage the BBC to be more transparent in its decisions on editorial complaints, particularly in relation to the publication of outcomes at stage 2 of the BBC’s Complaints Framework.”
Parker told The National back in October he was not sure how long it would take the watchdog to investigate his complaint, but assumed “it needn't be too long”.
He said yesterday: “I was going to check their site today, but you beat me to it. I'll keep on monitoring … thanks for keeping it alive.”
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