Ian Blackford and Keith Brown have sent a letter to the BBC accusing them of deliberately demoting the status of the SNP at Westminster.
It comes after the BBC cut away from the SNP's Ian Blackford twice as he was speaking after statements from Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn on the main BBC channels.
READ MORE: Top SNP figures launch formal complaint against BBC
BBC One, which showed both Theresa May’s statements and Jeremy Corbyn’s responses, would likely have had an average audience share of around 22.25%. Ian Blackford’s speech was broadcast on the BBC Parliament channel, which has an audience share of just 0.06%.
Other news channels, such as CNN, showed the entirety of Mr Blackford's speech.
Here is the letter submitted by the SNP in full:
Dear Ms Unsworth,
We wish to raise two formal complaints under the system adopted by the BBC following the new Royal Charter and Agreement with the Secretary of State in 2016.
First that BBC news and current affairs programming falls below the standards expressed in the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines.
Second that the BBC is in breach of its mission and responsibility to serve the interests of licence fee payers in all parts of the UK in equal measure.
So far this week we have seen three consistent and deliberate editorial decisions taken to cut off parliamentary coverage on News Specials from the moment Ian Blackford spoke in the House of Commons.
The consequence of these editorial decisions is to relegate the third party at Westminster - which within the UK constitution brings specific roles, responsibilities and obligations - from BBC programming likely to reach an audience share of 22.25 per cent on BBC One (plus a further 1.05 per cent on the BBC News channel) to an audience share of 0.06 per cent on BBC Parliament.
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This pattern of behaviour follows recent research and media reports which revealed that Newsnight did not feature a single SNP politician in the entirety of February.
And in January, the revelation that Politics Live had just two SNP guest slots out of a total of 79 guest slots.
Scottish National Party Gordon Lamb House 3 Jackson’s Entry EdinburghEH8 8PJ Keith Brown MSP Depute Leader and Campaign Director We would like to understand how the BBC believe they are serving the audience in Scotland in each of these examples.
Therefore, regarding our first complaint, it is our contention that BBC coverage of Westminster parliamentary business is suggestive of a deliberate policy of BBC editors and managers to demote the status of the third party at Westminster because that party represents only Scotland.
Regarding our second complaint, we contend that the under-representation of the SNP from flagship programmes such as Politics Live and Newsnight provide evidence of a continuing failure by the BBC - set out over a decade ago in the highly critical King Report - to serve all audiences in the UK in equal measures.
We look forward to receiving your response to both complaints.
Keith Brown MSP, Depute Leader
Rt Hon Ian Blackford, Westminster Leader
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