Danger of free press attacks

Sir, - Alex Salmond has been attacking the media of late.

Take, for example, the interview with Mr Salmond, above, during Sunday Politics Scotland on February 12.

Asked by Gordon Brewer if the SNP – in the event of a second independence referendum – should stick to joining the EU, he replied: “Why shouldn’t we in a week when the mainstream media had made total fools of themselves by seemingly deliberately misinterpreting remarks from Jacqueline Minor, the European Commission’s representative in the UK, who has...said exactly the opposite of what the mainstream media and your copresenter Andrew Neil was claiming.”

On independence support he claimed that there was “this comfortable assumption among the Government…despite the fact that 16 out of 17 opinion polls since Brexit have shown support for independence higher than it was in September 2014” and that this comfort came from “reading perhaps in the mainstream media that independence support was on the decline”.

Donald Trump would have put it more bluntly: “The mainstream media are lying.“

This accusation is a propaganda instrument used by populists across the political spectrum.

It is designed to undermine trust in independent, questioning journalism as one of the pillars of liberal democracy.

If Mr Salmond wants to distance himself from the nationalist populism we presently see on the rise in Europe and America, he should stop attacking the free press.

Regina Erich. 1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.