I missed the comments yesterday of ,Stewart Kirkpatrick former editor of the scotsman.com website in the Independent.
Wherever you take your starting point, it is impossible to identify a society in which the scrutiny of a free and diverse newspaper press has not been vital to the development and success of representative democracy. They are so inextricably linked it is alarming to contemplate the possibility of one trying to function without the other.
Scotland he claims is unique in the UK having a relatively new devolved administration
Devolved Scotland is a new and fragile polity in which debate takes place within a narrow consensus. Its electoral system privileges party over electorate and the ruling elite is self-selecting and jealous of its privileges. The country's broadcasters are ill equipped to fill the vacuum left by its failing newspapers. Broadcasters can never do the job of a free press. At their best they provide balanced, informative news. It is to newspapers that citizens must turn for investigation, exposure and crusading zeal.
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Sorry, can't take credit for the Independent piece. It quoted me but was written by Tim Luckhurst (who made the above point about democracy).
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