Open letter from Thomas Clark to the First Minister, drawing attention to the “abundantly belittling and hostile treatment of Alistair Heather”, a prominent Scots language activist who had presented a hugely popular video in 2018. He writes, “I would urge you to listen to the programme, as I sure you will be as appalled by all this as many of its listeners have been, and would agree that the quality of the ‘journalism’ on display was several magnitudes below that which we expect from blogs and independent podcasts, never mind a state broadcaster”.
Clark continues, “…we should be concerned, as a society, when a powerful voice seeks to delegitimize the hard-won rights and protections of a marginalised group of people. We should be concerned when a minority group are required, again and again and again, to prove that they warrant the basic protections and rights which they have struggled to gain over the course of generations. And we should be concerned, most of all, when the platform for such counterfactual ‘views’ is a state broadcaster, funded largely by the contributions of the very people whose voices it seeks to deny”.
Footnote: The episode itself is not now available, though the description poses the loaded question, “ is there still a cringe factor when it comes to the Scots language?“