BBC Scotland has thrown its support behind embattled sports pundit Jim Spence, the National Union of Journalists has claimed.
Mr Spence has faced calls to be axed and is thought to have received abuse via social media sites over comments about Rangers.
It follows rumours he had made moves to quit the BBC. Mr Spence, a host of the popular Sportsound show, was said to have applied for voluntary redundancy.
The broadcaster is cutting staff numbers in a process it is billing as 'Delivering Quality First', which will see up to 120 jobs going by 2016/2017.
It is understood Mr Spence met with senior BBC management yesterday and was given support.
In a discussion over the appointment of four additional non-executive directors Mr Spence said on Sportsound: "John McClelland who was the chairman of the old club, some people will tell you the club, well, the club that died, possibly coming back in terms of the new chairman."
BBC Scotland denied Mr Spence had claimed Rangers had 'died' but apologised to "those who were offended by this". A BBC Scotland spokesman said the broadcaster could not comment on individual staff members.
But Paul Holleran, NUJ organiser for Scotland, said: "The BBC has offered its total support to Jim. We don't condone the threats and disgusting emails and texts that he had received and find it totally unacceptable that a journalist has been treated this way."
Mr Spence tweeted: "Thank you for your overwhelming support, a huge thank you to the NUJ and to many in the media and blog and zine movement."
l Rangers could announce an extraordinary general meeting by Friday, with the board yet to reach agreement with a group of shareholders seeking change.
The investors want former Ibrox director Paul Murray, Sandy Easdale - brother of current non-executive director James - and accountancy expert Frank Blin appointed as directors. The group have also proposed the return of ex-chairman John McClelland to the board.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article