West Highland Free Press

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The West Highland Free Press is a local newspaper in the highlands of Scotland, founded in 1972 by Brian Wilson. It is published in Broadford on Skye, and appears every Thursday.

In Scottish Gaelic it is called Am Paipear Beag (The Wee Paper), a reference to its tabloid format, while its slogan, which appears on its masthead is An Tir, an Canan, 'sna Daoine. This translates as "The Land, the Language and the People", which fairly accurately sums up the paper's priorities, including development of the Gaelic language and land reform. The paper is supportive of wind farms in the Highlands and campaigned against the Skye Bridge tolls. Perhaps not surprisingly, given that it was founded by a Labour politician, it almost exclusively supports Labour, and which has earned it a disparaging nickname: West Highland Free Pravda.

Occasionally, the paper breaks stories that later get taken up the Scottish national press, such as the paper reporting on the fact that Austin Boyle could not register his daughter's surname in Scottish Gaelic - despite the fact that in Wales, one is legally entitled to register names in Welsh.

The Paper also reports in depth on shinty.