Alex Salmond has bowed to pressure by suspending his show on a Kremlin-backed broadcaster following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The former First Minister took the decision after sustained criticism of his decision to front a programme for RT.
Nicola Sturgeon yesterday said she was “appalled” by Salmond’s continued involvement with a station that is backed by the Kremlin.
RT is widely perceived to be a propaganda unit for the Russian Government and Salmond has faced repeated calls to give it up.
Those calls grew louder this week in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s actions and Salmond has agreed to step away.
In a statement he said: “Slàinte Media have decided to suspend the Alex Salmond Show broadcast on RT until further notice.
"We now have the worst of all fears - a hot war in Europe.
“The efforts of every single person should be to re-establish the peace. That certainly is our focus, and therefore Slàinte Media have decided to suspend the Alex Salmond Show until that can be secured. There is no productive point in having the future of a television show dominate Prime Minister’s Questions as it did yesterday, when politicians should be rising to the occasion of the great issues of peace in Europe."
He added: “The Show has broadcast over 200 independently produced episodes by a Scottish company run by Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh and I. Each and every one of the programmes has attempted to give a range of serious people of contrasting opinions a fair chance to state their views. That applied from our first interview with Carles Puigdemont to today’s interview with Sir Vince Cable.
“That will be the last one broadcast until a peace is re-established. As our hundreds of guests can testify, I should make it clear that not once in all of that time, has there been a single piece of editorial interference of any kind from RT. They have kept entirely to their commitments on this in line with the Ofcom code.”
“In contrast, the blatant attacks on freedom of speech from establishment political parties are not just entirely hypocritical, but have whipped up a crescendo of personal abuse and harassment of my co-presenter Ms Ahmed-Sheikh to the extent that she is now quite legitimately concerned about the safety of her family.
“All wars come to an end. Let us pray that this one will not escalate even further. Now every single persons’ efforts should turn to supporting attempts to regain the peace.”
Sturgeon, who has vigorously condemned the actions of Russia, had been asked by STV yesterday whether she agreed with calls for RT to be banned in the UK.
She replied: “Yes, I do."
She said: “I’m appalled at Alex Salmond’s continued involvement with RT.
“I don’t think it’s any secret now that I didn’t think he should ever have had a television show on RT.
“But it is even more unthinkable now that that should continue.”
Sturgeon added: “For a variety of other reasons, I am not answerable for Alex Salmond, but hopefully he will reflect.”
She said: “I don’t think any elected representative right now should be contemplating appearing on RT.
“I will give that message, have given that message, to elected representatives here in the Scottish Parliament. I know Ian Blackford has done so in Westminster.
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