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Ideas for Scotland
No 4

Reclaiming the BBC

Lorn Macintyre

When I worked for the BBC in the 1990s I did extensive research into the history of Scottish broadcasting, and also compared it with broadcasting in other European countries. I was impressed by the range and intellectual content of our broadcasting system before the advent of television. For example, on the Scottish Home Service on 19 August 1950, there was an outside broadcast from the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, with speeches from a dinner at the opening of the 22nd International Congress of PEN. Eric Linklater, the president of the Scottish centre, was one of the speakers.
     The following day there was an episode of the serialisation of Stevenson's 'Master of Ballantrae'. Five days later, the nation was entertained to an outside broadcast performance from the King's Theatre, Edinburgh, of Richard Strauss's 'Ariadne auf Nox' conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham.
     My purpose here is not to compare the cultural content of the old Scottish Home Service with the present Radio Scotland's output. Since those Home Service days, broadcasting has widened to include many BBC radio stations, including the World Service, and also television channels. I want to examine the case for a separate Scottish broadcasting service, a proposition which came to the fore in the 1990s and with which I had a research association.
     
I recall during my years with the BBC proposing to a prestigious television historical strand an idea for a Scottish-themed programme. I was informed that since the strand was London-based, a Scottish commission would have to have its budget adjusted to take into account the cost of running the London office. It seemed to me a striking illustration of the disparity between the broadcasting resources in London, and those in Scotland.
     How does the system work? London allocates money to Scotland, which is part of the national and local structure, and there are also opportunities for commissions from London, though in this respect the competition is fierce. Those in charge of BBC Scotland have to work with tight budgets which are being shaved annually, out of which they have to provide services in radio, television and the internet which will appeal to the widest spectrum of the Scottish public.
     Powers over broadcasting in Scotland have not been devolved to the Scottish Parliament. There are demands for a six o’ clock news service emanating from Scotland, but our aspirations should go beyond limited concessions to full autonomy. This would give Scotland a sense of self-control instead of being subservient to London. However, its success would depend on the size of the allocation of funds to broadcasting, and the controls that would be put in place. Some argue that autonomy would produce parochialism, though a Scottish broadcasting service could transmit BBC programmes made elsewhere and 'buy in' programmes from other broadcasters far beyond. It would certainly give a platform to the diverse creative voices in Scotland in documentary-making, drama and music.
     But if Scotland achieves autonomy in broadcasting, there must be fundamental changes to the system. The problem is that there is no philosophy of broadcasting – only the glib BBC slogan 'to inform, educate and entertain'. Broadcasting has expanded without consideration of its purpose. Channels have been allowed to proliferate; programmes commissioned, not on merit, but on the audience figures they will attract, with fierce and irrational competition between the BBC and commercial channels.
    
A fundamental philosophical question is: what is news, now such a large part of output? News is almost anything, anywhere, from a domestic to an international incident, but its transmission by the media is a matter of selection, based on criteria which have not yet been analysed and evaluated. As well as transmitting news, broadcasters create it. After a recent interview on Radio 4's PM programme, hosted by Eddie Mair, the contents of that interview were in the news bulletin 10 minutes later.
     In both radio and television, complex subjects are compressed into three-minute slots, and therefore rendered superficial. The service is saturated in seconds-long sound-bites, with later qualifying clauses in the interview discarded, surely an abuse of language. Correspondents without relevant qualifications in these disciplines pronounce on medical and business matters in critical times of potential pandemics and global financial crises where expertise, insight and guidance should be fundamental.
     If Scotland is to have autonomy over broadcasting, it needs to address and correct these issues, to instigate a new type of service where language and knowledge are respected, where complex and vital subjects are not compressed and misrepresented. It also requires to discard the cult of celebrity, and, like the early Scottish Home Service on the wireless, to return to cultural programmes which enhance us as a nation and reveal to us the evolution of Scotland, as well as examining its present and speculating on its future.

Wednesday: Gordon Lawrie

Lorn Macintyre is a novellist, short story writer and poet