Advice PaperFebruary 2014

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BBC Trust Consultation on draft guidelines for the coverageof the referendum on independence for Scotland

Submission from the Royal Society of Edinburgh

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Introduction1 TheRoyal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) welcomesthe opportunity to comment upon the BBC TrustService Review on the BBCDraft ReferendumGuidelines.We recognise the central importanceof the BBC in the fabric of news coverage in theUK, especially in view of its duty to deliver itsoutput in a balanced and informativemanner.The RSEwould be prepared to elaborate on anyof the points raised in this submission, and tomeetwith representatives of the Trust, if theTrust sowishes.

Due impartiality2 The draft guidelines for the BBC’s coverageof the Referendumacknowledge the importanceof providing broad and impartial coverage of thereferendumdebate. This includes ensuring that abalance of views fromeach of the two campaigns,Yes Scotland andBetter Together, is presented.Delivering balanced coverage is likely to bechallenging given the diverse range of politicalviews incorporatedwithin theBetter Togethercampaign. The guidelines set out for achievingthis balancewill therefore be extremely important,aswill strong oversight of BBC output.While theYes campaign is a relatively coordinated campaign,based largely on one political party,BetterTogether is constituted from several politicallydiverse partieswithin the UK. This exacerbatesthe challenge of providing balanced coverage.

3 In the run up to the Referendum, theBetterTogether campaign is likely towant to giveinformation and to stimulate discussion aroundwhat devolutionwill look like after 2014, ifScotland remainswithin the UK. This will beimportant tomany voters but is an area inwhichparties associatedwith theBetter Togethercampaign are likely to present diverse views andopinions. The BBCwill need to ensure that this

range of views is covered, without being seen togive unduly higher coverage of theBetter Togethercampaign. Differentiating Better Together fromthe parties that have come together to form it willbe important and, in terms of themaintenance ofbalance, challenging. This will require very strongoversight from theBBC Trust. Aswe observed inour earlier submission onNews and CurrentAffairs, the BBC also needs to be prepared forthere to be intense pressure on balanced coveragefromboth sides of the debate. This is likely to beat least as intense as in a General Election, andperhaps evenmore so.

4 TheBBC should also consider its relationshipwithand treatment of the Scottish Government in thelead up to the Referendum, as during this periodthe Scottish Governmentwill be a campaigner inthe Referendumdebate.

Leadership and Journalism5 Ensuring informed and impartial coverage of theReferendumdebatewill require very strong andverywell-informed leadershipwithin the BBC.Without such strong leadership by BBCScotlandthere is a risk that this responsibility will pass bydefault to London. That would not be the correctapproach for the Referendumcoverage; andwouldbe seen in Scotland aswholly inappropriate. Thereneeds to be an approach to coverage of theReferendumwhich fully understands, from variousdifferent angles, the Scottish perspective. There isneed for input from the Trust, probably via theScottish representative on the Trust backed up byrobust andwell-informed advice, to ensure thatcoverage of the Referendumdebate is deliveredwith sufficient understanding of the environmentin Scotland. The Audience Council for Scotlandshould also be active in helping to ensure balancedand appropriate coverage.

Advice Paper (Royal Society of Edinburgh) ISSN2040-2694

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Advice Paper 1– 14

6 Achieving balanced, well-informed and relevantcoverage of the Referendumand related issueswill be extremely important, both in Scotland andin the rest of the UK. It will call for excellent,insightful and analytic journalismwith access to awide variety of expertise. This requires there to bea strong infrastructure of journalists, backed up bya robust systemof oversight. For example, theRSE is concerned that the detailed analysis by theBBC of the Scottish referendumdebate – on bothsides – has not yet been as analytical and criticalas it needs to be. As indicated in our earliersubmission, for at least the period of thereferendumdebate the RSEwould suggest thatthe Trust examines the journalistic capacityavailable to BBCScotland and the BBC generally,to cover this pivotal constitutional issue.

7 On the issue of governance, wewould reiterate thesuggestionmade in our earlier submission, thatthe Trust considers establishing an editorialguidance and review panel for Scotland, to overseethe output on the referendumand to ensurecritical analysis of themain options. Such a panelwould also function as the arbiter of complaintsabout lack of balance in the Corporation’scoverage of the referendumcampaign.

Relevant coverage in theNationsandRegions8 The debate on and outcome of the referendum inScotlandwill have implications for all of the UK, sothere is a need for that to be reflected in UK-widecontributions to the BBC’s output. Voices fromallparts of the UK need to be heard as part of theconstitutional debate. This requires there to be astrong infrastructure of journalists from theNations andRegions to provide voices fromEngland, Northern Ireland andWales, aswell asScotland, on the possible break-up of the UK.

9 Aswe observed in our earlier submission, therehas been a decline in the number of specialistcorrespondents in the devolved nations andregions of the UK, and it is the opinion of the RSEthat specialist correspondentswill representa priority resource in deliveringwell-informed andrelevant coverage of the range of views onScotland’s constitutional future. The Referendum

on Scotland’s future is amatter of the highestsignificance for thewhole of the UK, and the BBCTrust has a responsibility to ensure that theresources and funds are available to provide highquality coverage across the UK. The numberof highly expert journalists and regionalcorrespondentswill need to be increased inorder to deliver this.

Audience10 TheReferendumelectoratewill include thoseaged 16 and 17, whomay not engagewith newsandmedia in the traditional ways. One of themainissues that the Trustmaywish to consider,therefore, is how effective the BBC is in buildingandmaintaining a young audience, given thatmany young people access their informationonline or through socialmedia. Coverage ofreferendum issuesmust cater adequately forthis younger demographic.

Conclusion11 Informed and analytic coverage of theforthcoming referendumon Scotland’sconstitutional future is crucial, and providinginformed and impartial output represents a largechallenge for the BBC. In light of this, and otherdevelopmentsmentionedwithin this paper, theRSE views this consultation as extremely timelyand important. Should the BBC Trust wish tospeakwith anyone at the RSE about thissubmission, please contact BristowMuldoonbmuldoon@royalsoced.org.uk, 01312402787.

Additional InformationTheRoyal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland’sNational Academy. It is an independent bodywith amultidisciplinary fellowship ofmen andwomenof international standingwhichmakes it uniquelyplaced to offer informed, independent comment onmatters of national interest.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s NationalAcademy, is Scottish Charity No. SC000470