[8][9] Former civil rights leader and journalist Eamonn McCann gave the second part of the lecture focused on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

In 2003 Hirst produced and appeared in Histoire d'un naufrage confidentiel (The Story of a Secret Sinking) in association with Atlantic Television and France 3.

[citation needed] [22] In March 2020, Mark Hirst released a YouTube video where he said that the legally-protected anonymity of women who had accused Alex Salmond of sexual assault may not be continued and they were "going to reap the whirlwind.

[27] SNP MP, Kenny MacAskill, the former Scottish Justice Secretary writing in The Scotsman said the action following the Alex Salmond Trial raised serious questions about Scotland's prosecutors, stating, “This isn't just an abuse of process; it's looking like an abuse of power.”[28] Responding to Hirst's acquittal the President of the Chartered Institute of Journalist, Professor Tim Crook, said, "Mark Hirst is a respected professional journalist and a member of our Institute.

Freedom of expression in the UK means that he has the right to exercise his skills with political activism in the media.”[29] Following his acquittal lawyers acting for Hirst confirmed they would sue both the Crown Office and Police Scotland for "malicious prosecution".