Recommendation 12

The Committee recognises the changing shape of a news landscape in which people are increasingly accessing news online and yet trust in the Public Service Broadcasters remains higher than for online sources. We heard from witnesses that audiences continue to value high quality news, with the percentage of Scottish adults who follow and are very interested in the news scoring higher in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK. But there is concern that the BBC may not be serving younger and lower-income groups as well as it should and a risk that access to broadcast news could become a two-tier system. We were also told of an erosion of trust in broadcast news and a growing suspicion of the mainstream media, with perceptions of a political agenda and a London or central-belt bias.