SCOTLAND'S Culture Secretary has defended the Edinburgh International Festival's decision not to commission referendum-themed shows next year, telling critics of the event's director to "relax".

Fiona Hyslop said the themes of the Commonwealth Games and the First World War, which director Sir Jonathan Mills will explore in next year's Festival, will contain messages and ideas relevant to the independence referendum.

She said the ­Commonwealth is full of countries that have become independent of British rule.

Ms Hyslop said festivals and art should challenge audiences to look differently at subjects and art "contrived around the subject of independence" had the potential to be "boring and not engaging".

Artists and commentators have expressed anger over the decision to ignore the referendum, but the culture secretary said she was not concerned.

At a day at the festivals with The Herald, she said: "It is most definitely not for government ministers to tell directors what to curate, or artists what to perform.

"Independence is the choice of two futures, and the big concepts in society - such as asking what type of country do we want to be - are represented in all different kinds of art, and certainly if you look at issues around the First World War and the Commonwealth Games.

"If you look at the Commonwealth, it is full of countries that have become independent from the British state, so all these experiences can be interpreted in different ways."

On Sir Jonathan ­describing the Festival as a "politically neutral space", the Culture Secretary said: "Jonathan's expression was unfortunate but equally it was misrepresented.

"People in this debate [on the festival programme] should relax a little bit, and everybody should contribute, rather than denigrate."

"And if everybody ­contributed rather than found reasons to find deficiencies, I think we would be in a much healthier place," she said.

Sir Jonathan said he is not anticipating anything in the EIF's 2014 programme to directly confront the independence referendum, and a week of debate about the decision, which some have referred to as a "ban" or even "censorship", is unlikely to change, festival sources said.

But next year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh International Book Festival are expected to be dominated by artistic discussions of the poll.

Ms Hyslop said: "Art and festivals should challenge us to look differently at things, and what concerns me is what a very narrow look at what independence means.

"If we allow a flourishing debate about big concepts -of what type of country we want to be, what our value systems are, what are challenges are, how do we embrace our values - these are all themes that permeate all societies in all ages and art reflects that.

"And no government minister should tell a director what to do."

Ms Hyslop added: "If we see things with narrow blinkers - and some of the debate about the EIF on all sides has been from a very narrow perspective - if we open up the debate it can be a very stimulating time next year."