ITC ISSUES DIRECTION TO SCOTTISH TELEVISION

THE ITC have issued a ‘direction’ to Scottish Television, following the broadcast of the ‘Ask the Prime Minister’ programme on ITV.
The direction was issued by the ITC in an effort to ensure impartiality before the impending Scottish by-election in the Falkirk West constituency.
‘Ask the Prime Minister’, a one hour programme in which questions were put to, and answered by, Rt Hon Tony Blair MP, was broadcast on December 12 during the pending period of the by-election, to be held on December 21.
The ITC say that Scottish Television are required to carry out impartial and balanced coverage of the by-election and locally relevant issues but the Prime Minister’s appearance was a high-profile network programme with party-political relevance to such debate in Scotland, as well as the opportunity described by ITV to hold the Prime Minister accountable to viewers on issues of Government Policy.
In view of the ITC, the programme has relevance to a by-election and therefore a direction has been issued to provide to relevant political parties in Scotland an opportunity to comment on current political issues in a manner proportionate to the party political dimension of the opportunity afforded to the Prime Minister and the Labour Party in ‘Ask the Prime Minister’.
Commenting on the direction, Sandy Ross, Managing Director of Scottish Television, said: “We believe we have satisfied all our obligations as impartial and balance broadcasters. However, it is simply not clear what is now being asked of us and until we receive that clarification we can only reserve our position. We have a duty to consider all courses of action to make sense of these rules.”
Clarification of the content and intent of the direction has been requested from the ITC and a further announcement will be made by Scottish Televisions soon as the ITC’s response has been received.
(CD)