The Deputy Crown Agent John Dunn has confirmed that the Crown Office will no longer communicate with the Firm or engage with its legitimate media inquiries. The action comes as a direct response to prior concerns expressed by the Firm's editor to Parliamentary Justice Spokespersons over the Crown Office’s consistent failure to address media inquiries put to it.

The Crown Office have classified the Firm’s approach as “unacceptable” and accused the Firm of “persistent rudeness and abusive communication.”

“Accordingly, I write to advise you that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service will not enter into further communication with you as an individual or in your capacity as Editor of the Firm,” Dunn says.

The Firm has regularly challenged the Crown Office over its policy to provide only unattributed statements in response to media inquiries, for failing to address questions put to it, and for its handling of the discredited Lockerbie investigations and prosecution. The UN Special Observer to the trial proceedings said the Firm was "the only publication in Scotland with honest coverage of the Lockerbie affair."

The Firm’s letters to Crown office which led to the Firm‘s blacklisting, which had been copied to MSPs and Justice spokespersons, can be read here.