SNP politician James Dornan accuses BBC Scotland’s former editor Sarah Smith of inventing abuse

A BBC editor has spoken of her relief at moving to America after suffering abuse covering Scottish politics – prompting a Scottish politician to call her ordeal ‘imaginary woes’.

Sarah Smith, who was appointed the corporation’s North America editor last year, said she was subjected to hostility ‘most of the time’ when preparing to go live on TV.

But her complaints fell on deaf ears among Scotland’s political elite, with SNP MSP James Dornan calling her abuse made-up and exaggerated.

Speaking to Rhys Evans – the head of corporate affairs at BBC Wales – for a paper for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, Ms Smith said she had attracted ‘criticism, bile and hatred’ from some sections of the Scottish population which she feared would damage the reputation of the BBC.

In one incident, she recounted, someone rolled down their car window and asked her: ‘What f****** lies are you going to be telling on TV tonight, you f****** lying bitch?’. 

In response to Smith’s comments, Mr Dornan said on Twitter: ‘America would be the go to place to escape all her imaginary woes then.’

SNP MSP James Dornan mocked her and said ordeal was ‘imaginary woes’ in Twitter post

The social media post from Sarah Smith as she left for America after abuse in Scotland

He later reviewed his comment, tweeting: ‘Imaginary was the wrong word to use, should have been ‘exaggerated’.

‘Any abuse she suffered is too much but if Sarah Smith is saying that politics over here is more vicious than in the US she hasn’t been paying enough attention to what has been going on over there, nor rest of UK.’

The MSP then apologised, adding on Twitter: ‘Language is important in this so I apologise for my earlier comments that made it seem as though I believed the abuse Sarah Smith has suffered was imaginary.

‘No matter differing opinions, the misogynistic abuse of women in the public eye is never acceptable.

‘If we want to tackle the issue then we all need to recognise the problem is on all sides and all countries.’ 

Smith also said she was the subject of ‘misogynistic’ ideas that she would follow the political ideology of her father – former Labour leader John Smith.

Sarah Smith, ahead of the Leaders Debate, which took place at Hopetoun House, as part of BBC Scotland’s coverage of the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections

She said: ‘He was a very well-known politician, he was a unionist, people like to therefore assume that my politics must be the same as my father’s despite me being, one, a different person, and him having been dead for 27 years.’ 

In her interview, Smith said her move to the US was a cause for ‘relief’, adding: ‘Nobody will have any idea who my father is.

‘The misogynistic idea that I can’t have any of my own thoughts anyway, or rise above my family connections to report impartially, will no longer be part of the discourse.’

The first Scotland editor at the BBC, Smith said she had been ‘demonised quite heavily… amongst certain parts of the population’.

The BBC was the subject of scrutiny in the months before the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, and Smith said she believes another vote – which First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she hopes to hold next year – would see the corporation under ‘enormous scrutiny’.

As a result, the BBC would be ‘actual players’, she said, with news reports being ‘politicised and weaponised by both sides’.

She added that the broadcaster would receive ‘such an enormous amount of incoming criticism that it would be almost a full-time job to manage that, never mind trying to cover events’.