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,[2] covering Skye, Wester Ross and the Outer Hebrides.
Content and columnists
The paper's priorities are summarised in the Gaelic slogan on its masthead: "An Tir, an Canan 's na Daoine – The Land, the Language, the People".[2] 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.[2]
The land issue is at the heart of the Free Press 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.