Former First Minister Alex Salmond has said BBC presenter Nick Robinson should be “embarrassed and ashamed” about his referendum coverage.
Mr Salmond, who led Scotland through the controversial independence vote, says in his exclusive column for the Press and Journal today that he kept quiet about the issue while the broadcaster underwent treatment for lung cancer.
But now that Robinson “is back”, he said it was now his turn to have his say.
Mr Salmond brands the BBC’s coverage “a disgrace” – as was Robinson’s reporting.
“For some months I have said nothing at all about auld Nick because it is unfair to criticise someone who is not able to answer back. Now he is back,” he said.
“The BBC’s coverage of the Scottish referendum was a disgrace. It can be shown to be so as was Nick’s own reporting of which he should be both embarrassed and ashamed.”
He added that it was “insulting” the BBC veteran compared protests against his coverage of the Scottish independence referendum to scenes witnessed in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
“Insulting because it is patently not true and ludicrous because the BBC as a public service broadcaster is currently being gutted by the Tory Government,” he said.
“It is also heavily ironic given that the most commonly used comparison with the BBC London treatment of the Scottish referendum story was with Pravda, the propaganda news agency in the old Soviet Union.”
A spokeswoman for the BBC said it has always insisted its coverage was fair.
“‘As we said at the time, we believe our coverage of the referendum was rigorously impartial and in line with our guidelines on fairness and impartiality,” she said.