Current Petitions

The next petition is PE1521, by George Eckton and Jane O’Donnell, on no more page 3 in The Scottish Sun and the Scottish Parliament. Members have a note by the clerk and the submission. Jackie Baillie has an interest in the petition. I invite committee members to raise any specific points.

There are a couple of options. We could write to the EHRC for its views on the sale and availability in the workplace of The Scottish Sun while it carries the page 3 feature. Are members happy with that course of action?

Members indicated agreement.

I am pleased that the committee agreed to write to the EHRC. I encourage the committee to write to Rupert Murdoch, on the back of the letter from Gordon Smart, the editor of The Scottish Sun. In his letter, he suggests that Rupert Murdoch is considering the future of page 3, so that might be a timely intervention by the committee.

Unless I have read the note wrong, there does not seem to have been a response from the SNP group. I do not know whether that is an oversight but, as the SNP group is the largest group in the Parliament, I hoped to see a response from it. The committee has the opportunity to chase that down.

Since the committee previously discussed the petition, a complaint against The Sun has been lodged with the Advertising Standards Authority about the offer of a date with a page 3 model as the prize in a contest organised by the paper. I am pleased to say that the authority upheld the complaint on the basis that the offer objectified women.

For all those reasons, I hope that the committee will continue the petition.

Jackie Baillie has recommended that we write to Rupert Murdoch.

I am not going to get involved in the debate, but we can deal only with the petitions that are in front of us. The petition in front of us specifically mentions The Scottish Sun, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. That is why Jackie Baillie made her suggestion. I ask for the committee’s view on whether we should write to him.

I totally agree that we should write to Rupert Murdoch. I am absolutely disgusted that we have such newspapers in the Parliament. I have read the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body’s letter and I am not sure why we are still deliberating the issue. The Sun is distributed without page 3 in other areas, so why not here? I am absolutely appalled that this is on-going.

If the committee agrees, we can write to the EHRC on that very point.

You are obviously ahead of the pack.

Do members agree to write to the EHRC in the terms that I described and to Rupert Murdoch for his views on the petition?

Members indicated agreement.

You have made your point clearly, but I re-emphasise that we are dealing with a specific petition that mentions a specific paper. If we receive other petitions that deal with other papers, we will deal with them.

I am conscious of the time. Do members agree to defer to a future meeting the other petitions on the agenda?

Members indicated agreement.

I apologise to the petitioners for having to do that.

12:29 Meeting continued in private until 12:30.