A JOURNALIST has had his Twitter account suspended twice in two days after linking to stories about the SNP.

Tom Gordon, Scottish Political Editor of the Sunday Herald, was locked out of his own account after first posting a link to a story about a civil war within the SNP in Lanarkshire.

The story related to Central Scotland list MSP Richard Lyle's decision to back the destruction of greenbelt land in the Labour marginal he hopes to win at Holyrood. The move by Mr Lyle has sparked anger among many SNP members.

Gordon was locked out of Twitter, who told him the move had been made because he had "violated the Twitter rules".

He was told that he could have his account unlocked by deleting a Tweet which violate the rules prohibiting "harassing or threatening other users" or disclosing other users' private information.

Gordon's account was reactivated after he deleted a tweet, dated August 30, which had linked to the story and stated: "@RichardlyleSNP sparks #SNP civil war over greenbelt - this from one of his supporters." The tweet included a quote from one of Mr Lyle's supporters, Rab Harkins, and featured a picture of him with Nicola Sturgeon.

However, Gordon has since had his account suspended again. The last post before the second removal was another link to the same story illustrated by a picture of a public meeting on Tuesday night about the planning row.

He had also linked to stories written about an SNP candidate, Andy Doig, who is facing claims of trying to cheat his way into Holyrood.

Gordon has appealed the latest suspension with Twitter.

The micro-blogging site states that accounts can be temporarily suspended for a variety of reasons - because they have violated rules surrounding abuse, they are feared to have been hacked, or are spam or fake accounts.

Gordon later returned to Twitter.