Ofcom dismisses complaints of bias in Nicola Sturgeon's coronavirus updates on the BBC - but issues a warning

And it issued a note to broadcasters in advance of the election, warning that it will consider any impartiality breach arising from election-related programming to be "potentially serious and will consider taking appropriate regulatory action, which could include the imposition of a statutory sanction".

The regulator revealed it had assessed 16 hours of Covid update content looking into complaints that broadcast coverage between September and December, last year was not duly impartial.

But it said it found no issues that warranted an official investigation under the Broadcasting Code.

The concerns over various broadcasts on BBC 1 Scotland and the BBC Scotland channel were that content breached the due impartiality requirements in Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code because it was giving the SNP and its leader, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, "a platform to promote their views on ongoing policy matters in Scotland without any opportunity being given to other Scottish political parties to express theirs".

It comes as the BBC is looking into hundreds of complaints about an 11-minute discussion about the Alex Salmond affair during Nicola Sturgeon's daily televised update on the coronavirus crisis.

READ MORE: BBC examines 244 complaints over Sturgeon's 'inappropriate' 11 minute commentary of Salmond affair in Covid briefing

Some 244 complaints have been lodged about Nicola Sturgeon urging Alex Salmond to get before the Holyrood inquiry and produce evidence to back up allegations made after being questioned by journalists during her February 24 pandemic update.

In December, Labour peer George Foulkes, asked Ofcom  to investigate saying Ms Sturgeon uses the briefings to her political advantage and regularly criticises UK government policy.

He said the briefings should not continue in their present form as the election campaign builds in the new year with no opportunity for other parties to respond.

Ofcom intervened in earlier concerns over impartiality after complainers were dissatisfied with the final response they received from the BBC and subsequently submitted their concerns to the regulator.

According to a final response provided by the BBC Executive Complaints Unit in all the cases, the BBC considered there was editorial merit in continuing to broadcast the Scottish Government’s Coronavirus update in light of the prevalence of coronavirus cases in Scotland.

The ECU said that they had ensured that the format and structure of the coverage of the updates on both BBC 1 Scotland and the BBC Scotland channel evolved to reflect the range of political opinions on the management of the pandemic in the updates themselves, but also in the context of the news coverage.

While one of the complaints was about aspecific broadcast of the update on BBC1 Scotland on October 23, 2020, the other three complaints did not specify any particular broadcast and complained generally.

Ofcom then decided to make its own assessment of programmes broadcast on BBC 1 Scotland and the BBC Scotland channel between September 11 and 18 and December 5 to 11 as well as the October 23 broadcast.

Ofcom said: "Having taken into account the broadcaster’s and audience’s rights to freedom of expression, and all relevant contextual factors and editorial techniques, Ofcom considered that, in the programmes that we assessed, where statements were made by the First Minister or other Scottish ministers in the updates which could have been construed as critical of the UK Government’s policies and actions or as promoting the SNP policies in relation to the handling of the crisis, these were appropriately contextualised, and alternative viewpoints on the issues relating to the policies and actions of the Scottish Government, and to the extent they were discussed, the UK Government’s policies and actions, were sufficiently represented, to ensure that due impartiality was preserved.

"Ofcom therefore did not consider that the programmes raised any issues warranting investigation under the Code. Consequently, Ofcom has decided to not pursue these complaints further."

Ofcom did acknowledge that during the initial part of her update in the programme broadcast on October 23, lasst year, during the question and answer sessions certain aspects of the First Minister’s and other Scottish Government ministers’ statements touched on matters of major political controversy and major matters relating to current public policy.

In the first part of the update broadcast on September 16, the First Minister, discussing the Furlough Scheme, said that the “Scottish Government’s very firm belief is that it should be extended in some form or another well into next year” as “ending it at the end of October would lead to a very sharp increase in unemployment and could also harm our longer-term prospects”.

Fiona Hyslop, the economy secretary, who was accompanying her that day, reiterated the Scottish Government’s position saying that “the ending of the scheme will lead to a sharp rise in unemployment”.

She said that she would “be writing once again to the Chancellor asking him to urgently reconsider the premature ending of this support, and to implement an extension to continue to support the sectors that are most heavily affected”.

And during the question and answer session with the journalists that followed, ajournalist asked the First Minister if she thought there was a “realistic prospect of the scheme being extended by the UK Government?” and if the UK Government decided to end it, “what kind of action would you [First Minister] look to take when it does come to an end, what’s available to you?” to protect the thousands of jobs at risk in Scotland.

The First Minister clarified that the Scottish Government had a “finite access to resources” and “did not have the borrowing powers to extend the scheme for Scotland”. She stated: “if the UK Government decide that extending the scheme… is not something they want to do, then we’ve also said ‘extend the borrowing powers of the Scottish Government so that is an option for us’”.

On her initial comments in the update broadcast on October 23, while describing the packages of financial support available to businesses in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon said that the Chancellor was able to support English businesses for as long as necessary because “he can borrow the money to pay for it” whereas “the Scottish Government can’t do that, so we have to rely on the Chancellor to provide the same funding guarantees to Scottish businesses”.

In supporting Scottish businesses, she said “the money the Scottish Government has to pay for these grants will eventually run out … it is not possible to fund indefinitely, demand led commitments, out of a finite budget with no powers to borrow. That is why we need a resolution”.

Ofcom said: "Some of these statements were the expression of the First Minister’s and her party’s position on controversial policy matters or had the potential to be understood as criticisms of the UK Government’s policies and actions in relation to the handling of the pandemic crisis and Brexit.

"In this case, however, we took into account that the First Minister’s statements were relatively brief and, apart from the October 23, 2020 programme, were given in response to questions from journalists, which were themselves challenging her and the Scottish Government’s policies on the handling of the crisis.

"In our view, given the brevity of the statements in the updates by the First Minister and other Scottish ministers which touched on matters of major political controversy and major matters relating to current public policy, the journalists’ questions throughout the question and answer sessions provided sufficient challenge and contextualisation to the First Minister’s statements ensuring that due impartiality was preserved, taking into account the subject matter and nature of the programme overall.

"We also took into account that, in the programmes which Ofcom assessed, the First Minister regularly acknowledged the collaborative working relationship and constructive discussions between the Scottish Government, the UK Government and the administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland, and reflected that all four administrations were trying to achieve the same objective of stopping the virus from spreading further and trying to save lives and support the economy.

"We considered that this tended to reinforce the unique background against which the updates were provided, namely, that the pandemic has required the administrations of the four nations of the UK, although drawn from a range of political parties, to work closely together to tackle the pandemic.

"In our view therefore, these statements added further context to comments made by the First Minister on the matters of major political controversy and major matters relating to current public policy which were being discussed."

The regulator said that in all of the Coronavirus Update programmes on BBC 1 Scotland that we assessed, when the live coverage cut back to the studio, BBC reporters and correspondents provided further analysis of the content of what had been discussed in the First Minister’s update briefing that day, "providing further contextualisation".

The regulator considered that the first segment of the First Minister’s update briefings primarily focused on factual and statistical information on public health, including information about the handling of the Coronavirus crisis in Scotland and the legal restrictions and measures that were being put in place to tackle it.

"We considered that in these circumstances, broadcasters were likely to want to broadcast content about the pandemic and there was a clear public interest in the communication of accurate and up-todate information to audiences about the coronavirus, including official public health advice and governmental policy and legal measures being taken to try to stop the virus from spreading," said Ofcom. "It was clearly signalled to the audience by the way that the programmes introduced the updates given by the First Minister that these would include discussion of pandemic-related issues.

"In light of this signalling and the general context in which the briefings took place, it was our view that the audience of the programmes assessed would have expected the programmes to include discussion of pandemic-related issues, including the measures adopted by the Scottish Government to protect others and stop transmission of the virus.

"In these particular circumstances, given the initial part of the First Minister’s updates focused on providing factual and statistical information and public health advice and statements about the measures the Scottish Government had taken in response to the pandemic, we did not consider that alternative viewpoints to the one presented by the First Minister, or other Scottish Minister or officials (where relevant), were required to be included for due impartiality to be preserved in relation to these matters, which were appropriately contextualised."

It said that during the broadcasts, Ms Sturgeon, gave a "primarily factual account" of the latest Coronavirus daily statistics for Scotland, including for example: the total number of positive cases on that day; the breakdown of positive cases by region; the number of people with coronavirus being treated in Scottish hospitals and the number of coronavirus-related deaths in Scotland.