News from Celtic League
A new internet based Scottish television channel campaign has been launched today (10/11/14) that aims to raise enough capital so that it can provide a 30-minute online news bulletin every day.
Called the Scottish Evening News, it argues that in an age of “age of corporate media ownership and shrinking newsrooms,” Scotland should have its own broadcast news channel that tells its own stories from a Scottish perspective. The new website states:
“The power of the internet, social media and video can be harnessed much more effectively than is done by existing broadcasters.”
As viewers who followed the media portrayal of the Scottish referendum campaign throughout 2014 will know, UK corporate media is often biased and politically driven in favour of an English centric perspective. This bias is illustrated time and again with the latest decision by the BBC to exclude one of the biggest political parties in the UK – the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) – from appearing in a live television debate with other political parties in the run up to the general election in 2015. Such actions highlight the necessity for such general media imbalance to be addressed by the Scottish people themselves and indeed for all the peoples of the Celtic nations.
Scottish Evening News has been set up as a Community Interest Company (CIC) and hopes to be funded primarily through public donations and social investment. Financial donations can be made to the campaign on their website (see link below), with other information provided that further outlines the aims of the initiative. The Scottish News Channel aims to launch its programme in the Spring of 2015.
Meanwhile news channel Russia Today, or RT, launched a dedicated UK TV channel in October 2014 to “dissect the implications of major international developments for UK audiences” and offers a further alternative political perspective. Hopefully these developments will spell the end of the political stranglehold of the BBC and other UK English centric media corporations on UK based news reporting.
10/11/14
Links:
Scottish Evening News:
https://scottishnews.scot
RT – UK:
https://rt.com/uk/
News Link:
https://www.celticleague.net/news/scottish-news-channel-campaign-officially-launched/
For comment or clarification on this news item in the first instance contact:
Rhisiart Tal-e-bot
General Secretary,
Celtic League
gensec@celticleague.net
M: 07787318666
The General Secretary will determine the appropriate branch or General Council Officer to respond to your query.
ISSUED BY THE CELTIC LEAGUE INFORMATION SERVICE
The Celtic League has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It works to promote cooperation between these countries and campaigns on a broad range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, monitors all military activity and focuses on socio-economic issues.