A NEW columnist on the Edinburgh Evening News has pledged to tell his readers that whenever he writes about politics, he’ll declare his political allegiance.
Martin Hannan, who also writes about sport for Scotland on Sunday, has been penning a regular Tuesday column in the paper since earlier this month.
And in a piece yesterday about the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, to Libya, he declares his support for the SNP, adding: “By the way, on the rare occasions I mention party politics, I will identify my leanings. I invite other commentators to do the same.”
He told allmediascotland.com: “I remember the late Brian Meek’s non-sport columns in The Herald carried a footnote that he was a Conservative councillor.
“I believe that, when you’re writing opinion pieces, journalists should make formal affiliations such as party membership clear to readers, as most people will not know whose card you carry unless you tell them.
“We are always on about politicians and business people declaring their interests. It seems only right that columnists should do so too.”
