BEGINS STV: “An online register of lobbying should be set up for the Scottish Parliament, a Holyrood committee has recommended.
“The proposed register would make information about lobbying activity around decisions made by Parliament and the Scottish Government more transparent and accessible to the public, the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee said.”
Read more, here. And here, in The Scotsman, whose reporter, Andrew Whitaker, writes: “Political lobbyists could be effectively expelled from the Scottish Parliament if they breach a strict code of conduct designed to monitor their activities, under a new law MSPs have urged ministers to introduce.”
The recommendations have been welcomed, by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, which has issued a statement that can be found here.
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ENTRIES are being invited for a competition celebrating the best of the regional press.
Say the organisers, the Society of Editors, of the Regional Press Awards: “Regional newspapers and their journalists can register and enter the Regional Press Awards for 2014 from midday today.
“The awards will celebrate the best of British regional and local newspaper journalism in 2014.”
The deadline for entries is the sixth of next month.
Read more, here.
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SOME of Scotland’s rising stars in television were honoured last night at a ceremony hosted in Glasgow by the Royal Television Society.
Say the organisers: “The RTS Scotland Student Television Awards celebrate the best undergraduate television students across Scotland with awards in four categories: animation, drama, comedy and entertainment and factual. This year, the judges also recognised excellence in craft with three new awards in camera, sound and editing.”
Read more, here.
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BEGINS an announcement from Westminster’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport: “Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy, today announced the single biggest expansion of local digital radio coverage, which means that nearly eight million more people will receive their favourite local radio stations on DAB loud and clear.”
The announcement includes the statistic that more than six out of ten new cars are now equipped with digital radio.
Read more, here.
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THE funeral of a retired police superintendent widely considered to have pioneered modern media relations by the police in Scotland is taking place tomorrow.
Says the website of the Retired Police Officers’ Association Scotland (here): “Glasgow Branch regret to inform you of the death of retired superintendent Angus Kennedy QPM (71) – latterly of Media Services – passed away at the weekend of 1st/2nd Feb at his home on the Island of Coll after a putting up a good fight against stomach cancer. He served in City of Glasgow and Strathclyde from 1965 to 1995.
“Funeral is at the Arinagour Church, Isle of Coll, on Saturday 7th February at 10.15hrs.”
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BEGINS Brian Ferguson, in The Scotsman, and who has been assiduously following the story for a long while: “A former factory is believed to be the front-runner in the race to become Scotland’s national film studio.
“The former OKI printer plant in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, is understood to be in the frame for the flagship project, after a host of other sites around Scotland were ruled out.
“The 200,000 square feet building, which has been unoccupied for almost a year, sits just a few hundreds metres from the temporary studio where the US television show Outlander is being made.”
Read more, here.
And here, from the MP and MSP representing possible alternative location, Dumbarton, which at least by their reckoning – appears to have already lost out to Cumbernauld.
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BEGINS The Guardian’s John Plunkett: “The chief executive of Johnston Press [publisher of The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, the Edinburgh Evening News and several Scots local newspaper] has criticised BBC news chief, James Harding, for ‘peddling inaccurate information’ and accused the Corporation of trying to park a tank on the lawn of every local newspaper.
“Ashley Highfield, a former BBC executive, called on the Corporation to help the local press by making the entirety of its regional content available to its commercial rivals.”
Read more, here.
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BEGINS Martyn Landi, also in The Scotsman: “Twitter ‘sucks’ at dealing with trolls who abuse people online, the social media website’s chief executive has admitted.
“Dick Costolo assumed personal responsibility for site problems in dealing with complaints in an internal memo.
“And he said Twitter should be embarrassed at how it handles abuse and must take stronger action in the future.”
Read more, here.
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KEEP with who’s winning what at tonight’s Highlands and Islands Media Awards, in Inverness, by following the twitter feed: HIPBMA.
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BEGINS a media release posted by Perthshire-based PR agency, Volpa, on allmediascotland.com: “Human Race, the mass participation events organiser, has appointed Volpa to head up the marketing and public relations brief that will drive the expansion of their Macmillan Cycletta Series of women-only cycling events that are expected to welcome over 5,000 female participants across the country in 2015.”
Read more, here.
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OUT this very moment: the latest sales-in-Scotland figures re national newspapers.
Visit allmediascotland on Monday, for more details.
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SEEN anything you think readers of www.allmediascotland.com should be made aware of? Then just send the weblink to here and we’ll do the rest. All suggestions gratefully received. We’re back at noon on Monday.
