Donald Trump has claimed the ASA banned one of his anti-windfarm adverts, which drew parallels between wind power and the Lockerbie bombing, in an effort “to protect Alex Salmond”.
The advert, which appeared in The Press, Journal and The Courrier, linked Alex Salmond’s stance on wind turbines to the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. However, it was found to be “misleading” by the ASA and was subsequently banned.
The ad featured a picture of a wind farm in California and stated: “Tourism will suffer and the beauty of your country is in jeopardy!
“This is the same mind that backed the release of terrorist al-Megrahi, “for humane reasons” -- after he ruthlessly killed 270 people on Pan-Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie. Take action. write, demonstrate and protest [against] Alex Salmond.”
Trump said: “The ASA is only trying to protect Alex Salmond for the disgraceful decision to release terrorist, al-Megrahi - the Lockerbie bomber freed for humanitarian reasons.
“He killed 270 people and was supposed to live one week but lived two years. This is the same mind that is destroying Scotland with industrial wind turbines.”
However, an ASA spokeswoman said: “The ASA banned Trump International Golf Club Scotland’s ad because it made misleading claims about the impact of wind farms on Scottish tourism and contained a misleading image of wind turbines that couldn’t be proven to be representative of a proposed wind farm in Scotland.”