Your Noon Briefing: Peter Ross, Celtic Media Festival, etc

A SCOTS freelance journalist has been nominated for a media award celebrating the best UK political reporting.

Peter Ross’s appearance on the longlist for the Orwell Prize follows a series of articles on the Scottish independence referendum for Scotland on Sunday.

Read more, here – on the website, holdthefrontpage. And here, on the Orwell Prize website.

Ross is author of ‘Daunderlust – Dispatches From Unreported Scotland’, his debut book, published last year.

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BEGINS an announcement from the organisers of the Celtic Media Festival, which is taking place in Inverness next month: “With some of the biggest names from the broadcasting and film industries set to descend on Inverness next month for the 36th Celtic Media Festival, organisers have today revealed a programme of events and screenings which are free and open to members of the public.

“The three-day celebration of film, television, radio and digital media which promotes the unique languages and cultures of the Celtic nations and regions is primarily delegate based, but the Public Event strand announced today will offer film and TV fans the opportunity to enjoy this prestigious festival, which takes place in Inverness over 22nd – 24th April.”

Read more, here.

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THE business magazine, BQ Scotland, is seeking an editor, as advertised here on the allmediascotland.com media jobs board and repeated on the twitter feed, allmediajobs.

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BEGINS Magnus Gardham, in The Herald: “The referendum result was not swayed by the dramatic cross-party ‘vow’ to deliver new powers for Holyrood, according to a major study into why Scots rejected independence.

“Extensive new research, led by academics from Edinburgh University, contradicts former First Minister Alex Salmond’s claim that the pledge of further devolution, made by David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband, had a decisive impact on the outcome.

“A survey of nearly 5,000 people, carried out on behalf of the research team by YouGov, found just 3.4 per cent of No voters said the so-called ‘vow’ was the main factor in their decision.”

The Vow ran on the front page of the Daily Record newspaper, a couple of days ahead of the indyref vote.

Read more, here.

The story is also reported, here, by the BBC.

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WRITES John Bird (here), co-founder of The Big Issue magazine: “One cannot be precious about your product. What is precious is what it does for the vendor who sells it, and for the person who buys it. I suppose the biggest insult you can give me as Big Issue founder is to say to the vendor: ‘Here’s the money but keep the paper.’ Which is a weird case of where we bring someone to the marketplace to work, yet people then turn them into a beggar.”

The comment is tweeted by The Big Issue Scotland, here.

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BEGINS The Scotsman, here: “The winners of the Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2014 have been announced.

“First prize in the Scottish Botanical category went to Karl-Heinz Schleder, of Germany, for his work Back to the Roots – Glen Affric.

“In the Scottish Wildlife Behaviour Category, Andy Howard, from Inverness, won for Let Battle Commence – Roe Bucks.

“The Sea and Coast Category was won by Brian Clark, from Fife, for Storm Light on Harris. Scarista Beach, Harris and the Environmental category was won by Mark Ferguson, from Orkney, for Hammars Hill Wind Farm.

“However, Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year 2014 went to Johan Siggesson for his picture of a puffin entitled I’m Sorry.”

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