Blair Jenkins, former head of news and current affairs for BBC Scotland and STV has said that the publishing of the picture of Ryan Giggs over the weekend on the front page of the Sunday Herald, despite his identity being protected by a super injunction, was a ‘win win’ situation for the newspaper.

Speaking after his inaugural speech as visiting professor in journalism at Strathclyde University, when asked for his thoughts on the decision to publish the front page, which created headlines around the world for the newspaper, Jenkins sidestepped the question slightly, but did say when asked whether the decision was a commercial one taken by editor Richard Walker, “I think it’s what you could call a win-win situation for the Sunday Herald.”

He continued, “I’m sure he [Walker] would feel right to do what he did. Equally, there is no doubt that the publicity it garnered will have done it no harm whatsoever. They are a newspaper that has been struggling, which is well known in recent months, and anything that gets more people buying that newspaper, that is something they have to try their hardest to achieve, and personally I hope they succeed because the Sunday Herald over the past ten or fifteen years has been one of the great additions to Scottish journalism and I would be extremely sad and disappointed if it were to be a title which disappeared because it has added great value to Scottish journalism.”

Having previously referred to a story which was run on the front page of a Scottish tabloid newspaper about one of the Old Firm football clubs in Glasgow, which he and the newspaper knew not to be true, but was run as a competitor had the same story on its front page, Jenkins continued to say: “Doing things which are designed to attract attention and publicity and bring readers to your newspaper is absolutely legitimate. What I am more concerned about is where the level of competition sees people have to do anything to run a story which moves papers and gives you a front page that sells papers...It is a pretty unrelenting business and it does lead to odd things happening.”

During his inaugural speech, Jenkins also highlighted his thoughts on the role that Scottish journalism would have to play during the inevitable devolution debates that will be had during the second term of the Scottish National Party, which he described as “a test for the media in Scotland”.

He continued: “. To some extent, the eyes of the world will be on us and while the result is obviously important and interesting, we should also work hard to demonstrate that we have gone through a very good and fair process in arriving at our decision.

“That means lively discussion, but also tolerance and respect for the views of those who hold a different opinion. All of us in Scotland will be in the same boat to this extent - whatever your own personal view, you will almost certainly have family members, friends, people you work with, people you like and respect, who take a different view. That is why the manner in which we conduct the debate is just about as important as what we actually decide to do. And that will be a real test, not just for the political parties, but for the news media too.

“This is one event that will not need to be hyped. We need to see not just advocacy from our newspapers, but also fairness. In any genuine news service, there should not be a single dominant perspective. We should see a range of perspectives and more than one point of view. We need to see the best qualities of our journalism brought into the independence debate from the start. Then at the end of the campaign, whatever the result, people can feel they took part in a decision-making process that was fair and considered and well-conducted.

“The job of the media is to inform rather than inflame, to reflect the complexities of the debate rather than to hurl insults at one side or the other. In the end, in this debate as in any other, what unites us as a society should be more important than what divides us. I should say that I think the early signs are encouraging that we can have such a debate. There’s that optimism again.”