Caledonian MacBrayne rejects claims made in today’s Scotsman (Monday 8 November) that the Company reproduced excerpts and images from the book, ‘A Sense of Belonging to Scotland: the Favourite Places of Scottish Personalities’, without obtaining prior permission.

In April 2003, CalMac was approached by Mercat Press regarding the possibility of including a feature on ‘A Sense of Belonging’ in the Company’s “Explore” Magazine in order to help promote the book. As ‘A Sense of Belonging’ contained stunning images of Scotland with eloquently written contributions by prominent Scottish personalities, the Company felt the feature’s inclusion would be a good fit with Explore magazine and would hopefully inspire readers to visit the islands. CalMac wholeheartedly rejects claims that it ‘appears keen to exploit its new-found celebrity friends’ and believes that the use of the material from the book was entirely legitimate.

The inclusion of the feature was a mutually beneficial arrangement between Mercat Press and CalMac. No money was exchanged in the process. Mercat Press supplied quotes and images from the book for use free of copyright and CalMac reproduced the feature in good faith. The issue of using the contributions as part of the promotion of the book is a matter between Mercat Press and the book’s contributors.

A spokesperson for Mercat Press said: "We approached Explore magazine

about running a feature on “A Sense of Belonging to Scotland” solely on

the basis that it would provide excellent publicity for the book.

Nothing in the article implies that the participants are endorsing

Calmac's services, and neither the author nor the publisher received any

payment for the use of the material."

Both CalMac and Mercat Press strongly refute claims that CalMac has acted improperly in running this feature and regret that the editors of the Scotsman

neglected to check the facts behind the story before publication and declined to accept the Company’s explanation given on Sunday 7th November. The Company will be seeking a full retraction.

Ends

Issued Monday 8 November 2004

For further details on the content of this news release, contact Debs Brown, Marketing Officer, Caledonian MacBrayne on 01475 650273, or at deborah.brown@calmac.co.uk