Andrew Morrison
#1. When [Ye]STV said ‘No’ to top journalist and commentator Stephen Daisley
Nobody knows fully what Pete Wishart & John Nicolson said to STV executives (Nicolson was a member of Westminster’s Culture, Media & Sport Committee at the time), but not long after, Stephen Daisley – one of Scotland’s foremost political commentators, a man for whom a pen is not merely mightier than the sword but Excalibur itself – was demoted as editor-at-large of their digital output; told he could only editing the page, or write for it, but not both. He resigned shortly after.
Think on that for a minute. The government of the day influenced a national broadcaster to take an internal decision on one of their rising stars because they didn’t like how he reported news.
Whatever happened to the Freedom of Press in this country? Presumably, the field in Scotland is so small, journalists and execs will do whatever it takes for a quiet life, because there aren’t many other employment prospects in Scottish broadcasting.
Nobody can say it better than the man himself:
[The] SNP tried to silence me. And their freedom to bully, vilify and malign is a chilling glimpse of one-party Scotland.
Sent in by a reader…