Highlands and Islands MSP Donald Cameron has called on SNP Finance Secretary Kate Forbes to perform a U-turn and reverse her decision to scrap business rates relief for the newspaper industry at the end of next month.
The Scottish Conservative MSP said: “I've been very impressed at how our local journalists have kept going during the pandemic and kept their readership up-to-date with what is going on locally. They are doing a great job and deserve to be supported. Like community radio, they are hugely important as a source of news for locals."
“I find it extraordinary that Kate Forbes can seriously be contemplating a situation which would leave Scotland as the only country in Europe not providing Covid-related support to newspaper publishers."
“We have already lost some well-established newspapers in the region recently, and a wrong-headed decision like this will put more at risk.”
In May last year the Scottish Conservatives secured cross-party support to provide relief support for local newspapers at the height of the pandemic, despite SNP MSPs opposing the move.