West Highland Free Press

The West Highland Free Press was founded in the Scottish Highlands in 1972 as a left-wing weekly newspaper, but with the principal objective of providing its immediate circulation area with the service which a local paper is expected to provide. It is based at Broadford on the Isle of Skye, covering the Isle of Skye, Wester Ross and the Outer Hebrides.

The paper’s priorities are summarised in the Gaelic slogan on its masthead: "An Tir, an Canan 'sna Daoine - The Land, the Language, the People". It is a slogan borrowed from the Highland Land League which, in the late 19th century, fought crucial battles to win security of tenure for crofters.

The land issue is at the heart of the Free Press’s politics. The paper perceives a fundamental conflict of interest in private landlordism (which persists to the present), and this is reflected in many of the most celebrated stories which it has reported. It has championed the cause of community land ownership with considerable impact upon public policy including the establishment of a Scottish Land Fund and a Community Land Unit at Highland Enterprise in the late 1990s. The paper has also advocated community co-operatives and other locally based forms of economic development.

The Free Press has consistently championed the cause of the Gaelic language, both by giving it political support and by publishing written Gaelic material. The Press has also reported and campaigned on environmental-impact stories such as the construction of a private-enterprise tollbridge to Skye. It has also supported renewable energy though this has recently proved to be a controversial stance, particularly on the Isle of Lewis. Though generally supportive of the Labour Party, it has also criticised Labour governments on issues such as crofting reform and has played a major part in shaping political debate in the West Highlands and Islands.

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