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“STEWART, please remove these words: the minister is just an insidious wee man.”
The above legal note from our lawyers is one I regularly quote to students when chatting to them about defamation law.
For obvious reasons of not wanting to end up in hot water, I can’t give more specifics linking it to the story in question, but let your imagination run wild – that’s probably more fun, anyway.
This line was back on my mind this week as questions around free speech were firmly on the agenda. These never really go away, of course, but the spotlight has been particularly intense amid the Kneecap furore.
We know the value of free speech at The National.
We believe independence supporters, those standing up for Gaza, anti-Trident campaigners and many more whose voices have too often gone unheard must be given platforms.
And we know that sometimes this involves harsh things being said. Our job as a newspaper is to facilitate that as far as we can, to find the line and the balance – so within the confines of defamation law and without breaching our responsibilities with IPSO.
But what we must ensure we never do is moderate language to appease the powerful.
Another version of The National would be quiet on all these big issues to secure the advertising cash that we don’t receive just now as we’re seen as too political.
We don’t do that.
Instead, we count on the support of our subscribers and readers to facilitate what we do.
We don’t try to score brownie points to get ourselves invited to lavish events and political receptions. We represent the voice of our readers.
So, yes, for legal reasons, we can’t print everything that we wish we could. But you can best believe we’ll do our utmost to hold the powerful to account without fear of hurt feelings.
And maybe this was also on my mind because we have a week-long series about Donald Trump coming up next week, eh?
