The Scottish govermment has suffered an embarrassing defeat over its plans to allow councils to stop advertising in newspapers.

Members of the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood yesterday voted 76 to 48 to reverse the decision by the Scotttish Nationalist Party-led administration.

Ministers were warned that their plans to allow councils to advertise only on the internet would damage democracy and kill off local newspapers.

The debate followed a warning earlier this week by The Scotsman group managing director Michael Johnston that the plan may put some individual titles at risk.

During the debate, MSPs raised concerns that many people would not be able to find adverts for council jobs, planning applications and road closures on the web.

Opposition Labour culture spokeswoman Pauline McNeill said: “There is a real danger that putting public notices online would lead to important decisions being taken without proper scrutiny.”

But enterprise minister Jim Mather claimed that no decision had been taken on the proposal and that the consultation on the plan was ongoing.

He also claimed that removing the obligation to advertise in the press was a move that had been requested by councils.

Comments

Observer (29/01/2010 13:17:50)
Let me get this right. Newspapers are kicking off because the authorities want to put notices on websites to save money. Erm, isn’t this what newspapers are trying to do by putting all of their offerings online?
And as for the warning that allowing ‘councils to advertise only on the internet would damage democracy and kill off local newspapers’. I think the bosses of big newspapers groups have done that quite well themselves.
Newspapers claiming the decision is undemocratic – priceless.

Negris (29/01/2010 16:38:06)
If this had gone through the public would have been major losers. The Scottish Government had a cheek trying to propose this. It’s bad enough that groups like Transport Scotland don’t attempt to advertise major roadworks in the relevant newspapers to the area affected – it all smacks of powers at be trying to hide troublesome information from the public.