THE BBC has said it will continue to host Nicola Sturgeon's daily televised update on the coronavirus crisis, despite calls for it to be axed as hundreds of complaints were about an 11-minute discussion about the Alex Salmond affair during one briefing.
Some 244 complaints were lodged about Nicola Sturgeon urging Alex Salmond to get before the Holyrood inquiry and produce evidence to back up allegations made after being questioned by journalists during her February 24 pandemic update.
The First Minister concluded the 68 minute briefing with an apology to those who were expecting the live conference to be solely about the Covid-19 crisis.
Ms Sturgeon was faced with a series of questions after Alex Salmond initally refused to appear before the inquiry after a submission about "malicious" attempts to smear him was edited following legal warnings from the Crown Office.
And during the live discussion with journalists, Ms Sturgeon repeatedly urged Mr Salmond to substantiate allegations by giving evidence to the parliamentary committee.
The BBC has confirmed that it was examining 244 complaints from viewers complaining that it was "inappropriate" to discuss the Alex Salmond inquiry.
The complaints come after the Scottish Secretary urged BBC Scotland to review the First Minister’s daily appearances in the run up to the Scottish parliamentary poll on May 6, describing them as the “Nicola Sturgeon Show”, and claimed it gave her an unfair advantage.
And the broadcast regulator Ofcom dismissed concerns that the Scottish Government's regular televised updates on coronavirus on the BBC were a platform for SNP views.
It has reminded all broadcaster to "take care" about bias as we approach the Scottish Parliament elections.
The BBC in response to the complaints about the February 24 broadcast said:"We received complaints from people who were unhappy Nicola Sturgeon used the briefing to respond to journalists' questions about the Alex Salmond inquiry.
"The Scottish government present a regular session on matters they consider relevant to the pandemic. We continue to take the view that these matters are in the public interest and as such afford it coverage commensurate with what is widely accepted to be an ongoing public health emergency. We do of course keep these matters under constant review.
"The content of the briefing itself and the response to the Q&A session that follows it is determined by the Scottish government.
"On this specific occasion the First Minister responded to questions by journalists on a matter unrelated to the pandemic."
The BBC did not clarify whether it was making any further examination of the complaints.
Ofcom revealed it had assessed 16 hours of Covid update content looking into complaints that broadcast coverage between September and December, last year was not duly impartial.
But it said it found no issues that warranted an official investigation under the Broadcasting Code.
READ MORE: BBC cut Sturgeon Covid briefings to ensure 'consistent approach' across whole UK
The concerns over various broadcasts on BBC 1 Scotland and the BBC Scotland channel were that content breached the due impartiality requirements in Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code because it was giving the SNP and its leader, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, "a platform to promote their views on ongoing policy matters in Scotland without any opportunity being given to other Scottish political parties to express theirs".
In December, Labour peer George Foulkes, asked Ofcom to investigate saying Ms Sturgeon uses the briefings to her political advantage and regularly criticises UK government policy.
He said the briefings should not continue in their present form as the election campaign builds in the new year with no opportunity for other parties to respond.
Ms Sturgeon's comments on the Salmond case came as she was poised to give evidence to MSPs about an alleged conspiracy by his former colleagues, but pulled out after a document was heavily redacted at the Crown Office’s request.
It was suggested that Mr Salmond could appear later to give him time to consider how that affects his testimony. He began his testimony to the inquiry on February 26 - two days after Mrs Sturgeon's Covid briefing commentary.
The government admitted it had acted unlawfully during its investigation into the initial complaints from two female civil servants after Mr Salmond launched a judicial review case, and had to pay his legal fees of more than £500,000.
Mr Salmond was arrested two weeks after the government admitted defeat in the civil case, and was later cleared of 13 charges of sexual assault against a total of nine women after a trial at the High Court last year.
During a Q and A with journalist in the complained-about February 24 broadcast, Ms Sturgeon went on to say that the women's voices have been "silenced" and that their motives had been "maligned" and that they had been "wrongly" accused of being liars and conspiracists.
"They came forward with complaints. The behaviour they complained of was found by a jury not to constitute criminal conduct and Alex Salmond is innocent of criminality, but that doesn't mean the behaviour they claimed didn't happen and I think it is important that we don't lose sight of that," she said.
"When I have said that before, people have said you are hiding behind the women. I am not hiding behind anybody, if anything I am standing up for the right of women to come forward and for claims to be taken seriously."
As she concluded the 68 minute briefing she gave an apology, saying: "As you know, I like to keep these briefings on Covid so apologies to those of you who tuned in to hear updates on Covid and have had to listen to my answers on another topic. I prefer to keep these issues on Covid but I hope you understand that when I'm asked questions about issues of the day, that are fundamentally about me and my actions, it's also important that I try to answer those questions as fully as I can but I apologise to anybody who's frustrated at the fact that not all of today's briefing was entirely about Covid."
In September, last year, it emerged the BBC decided to stop televising Nicola Sturgeon’s daily briefings on coronavirus to ensure a “consistent approach to coverage... across the UK nations”, despite public health messages varying around the country.
The BBC’s decision to end TV its regular broadcasts of the Scottish Government’s Covid briefings prompted thousands to sign a petition for them to continue.
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