THE BBC has rejected criticism by the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, that it has demonstrated "a complete loss of normal news values".
In his address to his party's annual conference on Saturday, Mr Trimble accused BBC Northern Ireland of an anti unionist bias and of playing down the murder of a man by the organisation calling itself Direct Action against Drugs.
A BBC Northern Ireland spokesman dismissed these allegations as absurd, saying: "Our journalists have won a reputation for objectively and impartially reporting events in Northern Ireland..."
"Mr Trimble's claim that we failed to report properly the murder of Sean Devlin is mystifying. BBC Radio Ulster news bulletins on September 16th and 17th carried 21 items on the murder. On 17 occasions it was the lead item.
"On the evening of the killing the story was broken on PM Ulster. It was the lead item on Newsline and the lead story after the 7 and 8 o'clock bulletins on the following day's Good Morning Ulster. The story was rested from the bulletins at 11 a.m. the following day and was back as the lead at 1 p.m. following a new development", the spokesman said.
"It was the lead story on that day's television news bulletins and the lead item on that night's Newsline. A further nine reports were carried on Sean Devlin's funeral on September 19th.
"With reference to Mr Trimble's comments regarding Cecil Walker, it is strange to suggest that the Ulster Unionist MP for North Belfast should announce that he is not going to seek his party nomination just because our reporter asked him what he thought of his party leader."