Scotland Office minister David Cairns has given his backing to the creation of a new £24.7m Gaelic TV channel.
Writing in Scotland on Sunday, he said that the channel was necessary to boost the language, which is being learnt by increasing numbers of children outside its traditional heartlands.
In his piece for this newspaper's Gaelic column, Cairns said that the channel would benefit learners of the language as well as native Gaelic speakers.
He wrote: "I support the channel because I believe we should recognise its place and importance in this [Gaelic-language] market which reaches all over the world.
"Our language is a precious part of our heritage and it is one of our most important duties to protect Gaelic and advance it."
Our language too is a precious part of our heritage.