SELKIRK TV viewers fear they will seldom hear the Royal Burgh's name mentioned again in local ITV news bulletins after this weeks' decision by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom.
Yesterday the television regulator announced that it has accepted the merger between Border and Tyne Tees news services.
It means goodbye to Border TV's Lookaround local news programme, with the entire south of Scotland region only getting six min
utes of local news a day.
And that, says local MSP Christine Grahame, is "patronising and tokenistic".
"These latest proposals from Ofcom are a complete disgrace, made worse by their patronising suggestion that six minutes of news, covering the whole of the south of Scotland, is an improvement on what was first suggested through discussions with ITV," Ms Grahame told The Wee Paper.
"Increasingly Ofcom and the other official regulators, like PostComm, the Post Office watchdog, appear to simply hold the jackets of large corporate public service entities as they progress with a wholesale reduction in the quality and quantity of public service provision.
"Given the geographical spread across the south of Scotland, Borderers will be lucky if they get two minutes per day in local television news.
"In reality these proposals from Ofcom effectively spell the end of local television news covering issues in the Scottish Borders."
Ms Grahame is now renewing her call to allow STV to cover the Borders.
And Borders MP Michael Moore is also furious: "This decision could only have been made by people stuck in London offices who fail to understand the importance of regional news and diversity.
"I would like to know what the Scottish Ofcom advisory committee recommended to Ofcom because this indicates a complete failure by this centralised – and centralising – regulator."
Ofcom says ITV should be allowed to drop some regional news bulletins, reduce regional programming by 50 per cent and cut back on some current affairs programmes.
It has forecast that up to £235million per year will be needed by 2012 to maintain public service content on commercial TV.
Ofcom's second review of public service broadcasting should make ITV happy. The broadcaster wants to save £40million a year in regional broadcasting.
Ofcom's consultation closes on December 4, with a final statement early next year.
Ofcom said yesterday that there is a "pressing need for action with a clear direction" from government by 2010.
The full article contains 393 words and appears in Selkirk Weekend Advertiser newspaper.
