THE SCOTTISH media has been accused of ignoring the “poison” of anti-Irish racism by a woman who suffered months of vicious abuse.
Glasgow-based journalist Angela Haggerty said she was appalled by the failure of Scottish media outlets to report that a bigoted podcast host who branded her “Taig of the Day” was convicted last week.
“The media is supposed to expose these problems and I think it could be playing a huge role in tackling anti-Irish racism,” she said. “But that is not happening in Scotland. There is a big problem with the reporting of sectarianism here.”
David Limond (41), of Viewfield Court, Ayr, Ayrshire, was found guilty of sending a threatening communication aggravated by “racial and religious prejudice” on December 6 at Ayr Sheriff Court.
The 41-year-old featured Ms Haggerty in the “Taig of the Day” segment of his unofficial Rangers podcast on September 20, 2012.
He also gave out her Twitter details and encouraged listeners to abuse her online.
But Limond’s conviction was only reported in detail by local newspaper The Ayr Advertiser and as a paragraph at the end of a separate story in The Herald.
Ms Haggerty said she was bemused by the media’s near-blackout on a subject that remains “a poison” in Scottish society.
“With the David Limond case there is clearly a story there,” she explained. “Hate crime on Twitter is a big story at the moment, it involved a female and a male, there are all these human elements to it.
“But still the mainstream media failed to report it.”
Ms Haggerty’s outrage has been backed up by veteran media commentator Roy Greenslade.
In a post on his Guardian blog entitled “Why do the Scottish media avert their gaze from anti-Irish racism?” Mr Greenslade described Limond’s actions as “a hate crime”.
“If it had occurred in England involving a similar broadcast by an anti-Semite it certainly would not have passed under the mainstream media radar,” he added.
“But the Scottish media have averted their gaze. They dare not speak the name of a hate crime called anti-Irish racism.”