BROADCASTERS at this year's Commonwealth Games say they will not change their approach due to the Scottish independence referendum.
Scots will go to the polls about seven weeks after the closing ceremony of Glasgow 2014, during which the home nations will be competing against one another rather than as part of Team GB.
The BBC unveiled its coverage for the event with a host of high-profile broadcasters including Clare Balding, Gary Lineker, Hazel Irvine and Gabby Logan set to be joined by former sports stars such as Rebecca Adlington, Katherine Grainger and Sir Chris Hoy.
With about 30 hours of live TV coverage every day, some presenters were asked if they were aware of the heightened sensitivities around the referendum and if they would need to take extra care to avoid any potential controversy.
Balding said: "I've watched a lot of sports coverage in other countries and in America I think they are incredibly jingoistic. They will basically not cover a medal ceremony if an American is only winning a bronze.
"The BBC has never been like that. The Usain Bolt story, for example, has been followed from way back and now he's one of the biggest stars in the world.
"We cover political issues, as we did in Russia (Sochi), but sport has its own identity and we will always tell the story. I think it's more cheering sport and performances rather than nations."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article