Latest news with #XanderElliards
The National
5 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Will the SNP give more than warm words to help Scottish journalism?
This week's Behind the Headlines comes from content editor Xander Elliards. To receive the newsletter direct to your inbox every week for free, click here. IT is easier to learn about Scotland's green hydrogen industry from German television than from UK broadcasters, Culture Secretary Angus Robertson told a room of journalists and editors at Holyrood on Thursday. The remark was a stark reflection on the state of Scotland's media – one that grew sharper as Robertson continued. The SNP minister, himself a former BBC journalist, lamented the near-absence of foreign correspondents with regular slots in Scottish newspapers, saying he could count them 'on one finger' – a reference to The National's David Pratt. He acknowledged the broader crisis: Shrinking resources, job cuts, and a media landscape struggling under commercial pressures. A meeting was held in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday to discuss the fledgling Scottish Public Interest Journalism Institute (Image: Gordon Terris) 'Cuts, shrinkages to the industry – they've all had significant wider impacts on our institutions, culture, and society,' he said. 'Nevertheless, it's heartening to hear about the potential of the new institute and how it could be utilised to help support and preserve our independent publications and local titles and to ensure that we have an industry well into the future.' Robertson's reference was to the fledgling Scottish Public Interest Journalism Institute (SPIJI), which is set to officially launch next month (or thereabouts). SPIJI was recommended by the Scottish Government's own Public Interest Journalism Working Group – formed in 2021 to tackle the pandemic-era and structural threats facing Scottish newsrooms. Chaired by The National's founding editor Richard Walker, the institute aims to follow models such as the Dutch Journalism Fund: An arm's-length, state-backed body that invests in media as a democratic necessity. READ MORE: Seamus Logan: Using an election as plebiscite referendum is just not going to fly But progress has been slow, not least because the SNP have been reticent to give the group anything more than warm words. Back in 2022, when the idea was supported by the Scottish Government, Robertson said: 'We want to do all we can to support the sustainability and diversity of public interest journalism in Scotland and we will be working closely with industry stakeholders to see how an institute could help to ensure the sector remains resilient.' All they can, it seems, except put their money where their mouth is. At the meeting in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday, an array of Scottish writers, from freelancers and researchers to editors and reporters, spoke frankly about the state of the industry. One contributor described a vicious cycle: Falling print sales trigger cost-cutting and staff losses, quality declines, prices rise, readers abandon ship, and the spiral deepens. READ MORE: Assa Samake-Roman: We need to look at where our money vanishes to The cause is no mystery: Shareholders' pockets need to be lined, and public service journalism suffers. SPIJI offers an alternative. Its goal is to support local and independent journalism in ways commercial executives won't, and to defend Scotland's democracy by ensuring its citizens are informed. Because when the media falters, democratic accountability weakens. That's why the SNP's inaction on this matters. It is not enough to simply acknowledge the problem. If the Scottish Government truly believes a strong Scottish media is essential to a strong Scottish democracy, then it must do more than make speeches. It must fund that future. Our media needs more than warm words. It needs investment. Without it, who will tell Scotland's story?
The National
15-06-2025
- Politics
- The National
Comparison of political party membership numbers is cause for optimism
Some interesting facts emerged from the article by Xander Elliards in Saturday's National on the membership numbers of Scottish political parties (Reform UK claim to have 11k Scottish members, Jun 14). On adding together the quoted figures for the independence-supporting parties (SNP, Green and Alba), the total membership equals 74,093, and for the Unionist parties (Labour, Tory, Reform) 34,408. These figures may not be completely up-to-date, but even allowing for generous margins of error, they indicate that those of us who are committed enough to become independence-supporting party members are more than twice as many as those who are against. If these figures were more widely publicised it might generate some much-needed optimism. Graham Park Stirling
