Fair dealing is essential for the future of trusted news That tech giants dominate the digital world is hardly hot news, but when the numbers are laid out, the extent…
Scottish Newsbrands signal they mean business When my journalism career started 40 years ago, newspapers had the field to themselves and the biggest threat to continued…
Advocates call for more defamation business Most of us regard the law as the way a civilised society remains just that; laying down standards of conduct, to…
Orkney, the BBC and why local newspapers are vital I wrote this article for The Orcadian after a visit to the Northern Isles last week: Institution is a funny word;…
BBC abuses its position with inaccurate claim about newspaper sales Here is the news from BBC Scotland: “Papers sold below full price are deemed less valuable to the industry, not…
Obscurity no defence for pixilated pictures of sex crime victims The lengths to which The Sun went to obscure a picture of the 15-year-old girl with whom footballer Adam Johnson…
Protection against defamation lawyers: make sure you can prove the allegations you publish As MP Natalie McGarry found out last week, with an unblemished reputation, the best lawyers in the business and the deepest…
Four million Scottish adults can’t be ignored Every month, four million adult Scots turn to a newspaper for information; whether on a mobile phone, a desktop or…
Snooping on journalists’ sources: the hole Police Scotland can’t stop digging For Police Scotland, the issue of spying on journalists and their sources has become a hole in which they…
Commercial impact missing from debate about future of BBC Scotland Thanks to the Edinburgh Television Festival last week and the First Minister’s well-received speech on the future of the BBC…