THE SNP has been criticised after complaining to the BBC that it is being excluded from coverage of Nicola Sturgeon's coronavirus briefings.
The party's deputy leader Keith Brown said inviting opposition politicians to discuss the latest updates was "deeply unfair".
The BBC's coverage cuts away from media questions to allow Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green politicians to have their say.
In a letter to the BBC, Mr Brown said this section "is now overtly political with a stark bias against the largest party".
READ MORE: BBC Scotland director 'regrets' confusion over Nicola Sturgeon's coronavirus briefings
He wrote: "Constituents of mine, who are also your audience, have contacted me and have rightly pointed out that the first minister's only focus is on public health and pandemic-related matters – indeed, the first minister, as any regular viewer will know, goes out of her way to avoid making political points even when invited to by journalists.
"So why is the BBC enabling non-SNP politicians to have a 'free hit'?
"I urge you to reconsider the format of and our exclusion from this programme as a matter of urgency."
The Scottish Conservatives said that in an average week of the BBC briefings, the SNP received approximately 90 to 100 minutes of coverage.
This compares to roughly 10 minutes for the Conservatives, the party said.
Chief whip Miles Briggs MSP said: “Not content with leading a daily televised briefing, the SNP now want the right to reply to themselves.
“It’s madness and it would be laughable if the result of their pressure and lobbying of the BBC wasn’t so serious.
“They are determined to turn Scotland into a one-party state where only SNP voices are heard. On the current evidence, they’re succeeding.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon breaks her silence on BBC daily briefing row
“We are happy to give Keith Brown the facts. The SNP receive about 10 times the coverage of the main opposition party in these briefings each week, just four months before an election.
“Nicola Sturgeon has used the pandemic as a campaign platform and has disrespected and bypassed the Scottish Parliament on a number of occasions.
"It’s clear that the First Minister is happy to turn the briefings political whenever it suits the SNP’s agenda.
“The very act of holding the briefings becomes political when SNP leaders claim on BBC television that independence is an 'essential priority' for Scotland’s recovery from Covid, as the Deputy First Minister has done recently."
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