BBC Scotland has said that they will continue to broadcast Nicola Sturgeon's Covid briefings next week.
It comes following criticism after they stated that they would reduce live TV broadcasts of the Scottish government's coronavirus briefing.
Last week the BBC said it would continue to stream the briefings online but would only show them live on TV based on their "news value".
In a statement on Thursday they said: "with the pandemic still a major cause for public concern, we will, over the coming weeks and as we have done this week, look to cover the ScotGov health briefings live on TV".
Previously, Covid-briefings from the First Minister had been broadcast on BBC One Scotland and the BBC Scotland channel, as well as being streamed on the BBC News website and played out on BBC Radio Scotland.
Last week Nicola Sturgeon called the briefings vital saying for older people - particularly those who were shielding - and people with hearing difficulties.
NEW: BBC Scotland has said "with the pandemic still a major cause for public concern, we will, over the coming weeks and as we have done this week, look to cover the ScotGov health briefings live on TV".
— Connor Gillies (@ConnorGillies) September 17, 2020
This follows row over the broadcaster 'cutting' the FM's live TV briefings.
She said: "What has struck me over the period that these briefings have been televised is that they have been particularly important to certain sections of the population that maybe don't routinely go onto the internet.
"We are in unique circumstances right now and the ability for me and my colleagues to communicate directly with the public has never been more important.
"So, it's for the BBC (to decide). All I would ask is that they take that into account in the decisions that they make."
The briefings had average viewing figures of 280,000 on BBC One Scotland and 40,000 on BBC Scotland.
A BBC Scotland spokesperson said: “Whilst there continue to be major developments in the pandemic in Scotland, we will, over the coming weeks and as we have done this week, look to cover the Scottish Government health briefings live on TV. There are clearly strong editorial reasons for continuing to do so at the moment.
"The live TV coverage will be in addition to the significant amount of coverage we continue to offer our viewers and listeners in TV news bulletins, on radio, live online and on the BBC News Channel.
"As we said last week, such decisions will always be made on the basis of editorial judgement and listening to our audiences. We will always take full account of how the pandemic continues to evolve to inform that judgement.
"Our coverage of Coronavirus and public health issues in Scotland will continue to incorporate a range of voices and perspectives, and this will be further enhanced as part of our ongoing coverage of the Scottish Government briefings.
"We will incorporate other voices and other perspectives into the briefings, bringing news and views from around Scotland and beyond, involving politicians from across the political spectrum, as well as commentators, analysts and other experts. We remain committed to having this broad coverage of voices and perspectives across all our news outlets on television, radio and online.”
An SNP spokesman said: "We welcome this sensible decision."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel