Scottish publishers have welcomed a decision not to introduce legal restrictions on identifying murder victims under 18 years old.

The Scottish government recently held a consultation on whether to bring forward new laws on the issue but decided not to do so.

After the consultation closed last month, Cabinet secretary Angela Constance confirmed there were no plans to bring forward any legislation in this area.

The decision was welcomed by Newsbrands Scotland director John McLellan, pictured, who contributed to the consultation.

He said: “We have every sympathy for families in such tragic, but thankfully rare, circumstances, but restricting the identification of child murder victims would be impossible without significant restrictions on freedom of expression.

“It would have potentially criminalised the right of communities to know what had happened in their midst, and even the right of relatives to speak out.

“There would also have been considerable difficulties with different laws applying north and south of the border, with digital publishers and broadcasters operating in England and Wales able to identify victims in Scottish crimes, but not news organisations based in Scotland.

“We are grateful to Ms Constance for reaching a sensible conclusion, and recognising the anguish grieving families face we will now help draw up guidelines for journalists to ensure such tragedies are handled as sensitively as possible.”

The Scottish government said: “The consultation has made clear that there would be serious complexities with developing legislation that avoided unintended consequences; that struck a robust balance between privacy rights and freedom of expression; and that could be enforced in practice.

“However, many of the experiences highlighted in consultation responses vividly illustrate the need for more sensitive reporting on these cases.”

It then set out a series of non-legislative measures including the development of dedicated guidance for the media on sensitive reporting on child homicide cases.