The comment is based on the very particularly aggressive attitude of the IoM press towards any form of dissent – more aggressive by far than that in Jersey, for example.

I have yet to be interviewed in the IoM without the journalist siding absolutely with the government. Now, I don’t expect journalists to agree with me. But I do expect them to be open minded and to be willing to consider alternative opinion.

My concern is simple. I have not found evidence of that in the IoM. And I am really not sure that it is appropriate for an IoM journalist to question my credibility in the way it was done in the manner referred to in the email exchange I have published. Disagreement is one thing. For the journalist to question credibility because of disagreement alone is something entirely different.

Richard Murphy