PEOPLE on both sides of the referendum debate have been urged to "rein in the abuse" being directed at reporters covering the campaign amid claims of intimidation.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) issued the warning yesterday following a demonstration outside BBC Scotland's headquarters on Sunday.
A large crowd with flags and placards protested outside the Glasgow offices against the BBC's reporting of the campaign, with many calling for UK political editor Nick Robinson to be sacked.
The NUJ said that "for the duration of the referendum there has been hostility to journalists doing their jobs", with social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook allowing "contributors anonymity to make personal attacks on individuals."
The union said it had already advised a number of journalists to report attacks to the police and it will "name and shame individuals and organisations that continue to threaten or bully our members."
It said it was particularly concerned about "threats about future employment at the country's main broadcaster as well as public labelling of journalists and programmes as being biased".
In a leaked email Chris Diamond, senior broadcast journalist for BBC Scotland, said there had been "reports of staff elsewhere being subject to harassment while out and about on stories."
Incidents of intimidation and abuse have also been noted by reporters from other national broadcasters.
In the statement the union added: "The NUJ asks the leadership on both sides to consider carefully the implications of their attacks on journalists for asking challenging questions.
"If that is to be interpreted as bias, and therefore the journalist is deemed to be open to personal criticism and abuse, then the nature of public debate will be debased, and we will all suffer."
The Better Together campaign declined to comment. A spokesman for Yes Scotland said: "There is no place for attacks - be they abuse, vandalism or physical assault - in this campaign. We have been at pains to impress on everyone, on both sides of the debate, to treat others with respect at all times."
LibDem Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael said there had been "a mob outside Pacific Quay, the BBC headquarters in Glasgow, trying to influence their reporting of this referendum."
Paul Holleran, the NUJ's Scottish organiser, said: "People have the right to protest if they believe strongly about an issue. However, protesters outside the BBC offices in Glasgow this weekend have demanded that journalists be sacked, for allegedly being biased in favour of the union.
"Journalists in Edinburgh and Aberdeen were abused over the weekend when simply turning up to report on events organised by both sides. Others were on the receiving end of a range of abuse and intolerance on social media, some of which has been logged and maybe reported to the police.
"We have also experienced a number of Labour MPs accusing the corporation's most experienced and talented journalists of political bias against the Better Together campaign. This highlights the fact that people on both sides are accusing the BBC of bias."
Mr Holleran said robust debate, and pointing out when journalists make errors is "expected and welcomed" but journalists should be allowed to do their jobs free of intimidation. He added: "What is totally unacceptable is the use of threats of violence."
A BBC spokeswoman said: "We believe our coverage of the referendum has been rigorously impartial and in line with our guidelines on fairness and impartiality."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article