A row has broken out over claims a broadcaster bowed to SNP pressure and gagged one of its journalists.
Outspoken STV columnist Stephen Daisley has not written an opinion piece for the channel’s website since mid-July, according to the Herald.
That shift followed a meeting of SNP MPs Pete Wishart, who represents Perth and Perthshire North, and John Nicholson, the party’s culture spokesman, with STV executives.
The broadcaster has said Mr Daisley, who has faced long-running criticism over alleged anti-SNP bias, remains an important part of their team, but its output has “evolved”.
Nationalist MPs rubbished reports they had anything to do with the new arrangement.
Mr Wishart, who is chairman of the Scottish Affairs Committee, countered claims there was a campaign to limit press freedom.
He tweeted: “Is there ‘maybe’ just a possibility that STV have concluded their digital output needs improving? I know it might be a mad question….?”
Adam Tomkins, the Scottish Conservative MSP, said the SNP “seek to hobble Scottish political journalism by putting pressure on media executives to have inconvenient voices moved or silenced”.
The SNP said the meeting to “discuss STV’s importance as a leading broadcaster and commercial production company”.
An SNP spokeswoman added: “At no point have the SNP or any of its parliamentarians asked for Mr Daisley to stop writing, and any suggestion otherwise is completely untrue. Any editorial decisions are entirely – and rightly – a matter for STV.”
