A shift has taken place. First, people who applauded railway privatisation realised it just meant you paid more for a confusing range of tickets, all propped up by continued taxpayer subsidy. Then City boys – born bankers and the ultimate free-marketeers – suddenly begged the public to bail them out. Now media owners, from those who denounce the nanny state to those who would never previously countenance any public subsidy lest it undermine their independence, are out with the begging bowls.
The shift was seen, too, at our union conference last month – where people had been cowed by the attack on the state, now they talked of public ownership of media; where they had run scared of the free market, now they talked about new models of public service journalism.
Amid all the gloom there is about in the media – and, given the scale of job losses and closures, people have the right to feel gloomy – there are also some beacons of hope.
The National Union of Journalists has launched an economic stimulus package for journalism. It calls for public subsidy for public service journalism.
It takes on those who argue any public subsidy for journalism would undermine media freedom. Such arguments hold no weight. Our founders never thought that freedom of the press would only belong to those who could afford a press. They would have been horrified at the idea that, if rich people determine there is not sufficient commercial value in news, communities should then be deprived of quality information and first-class journalism.
It calls for action to save, build and sustain local journalism. Any action should encourage a variety of voices, a greater plurality, maximised through a combination of different models – commercial ownership, public ownership, mutual ownership, staff ownership, co-operative ownership, for-profit and not-for-profit.
The West Highland Free Press has already been bought out by its staff, the Camden New Journal, started with public subsidy from the then GLC, is to be taken over by a community trust. A new public service reporting project, providing coverage of public authorities, is likely to open up opportunities for local
co-operatives.
But each of these is small – and there is a bigger opportunity that must be seized.
ITV claims that, by 2012, it will no longer be able to afford to meet its public service broadcasting commitments, particularly to supply local and regional news. Whether or not its figures add up, the Government has accepted this argument and a little noticed part of the Queen’s Speech was the announcement that three pilot projects will be established with public funding to provide regional news for ITV in Scotland, Wales and the north-east of England. Tenders to run these independently financed news consortia (IFNCs) are due to be submitted in February. Already, many of the very media groups which have slashed and burned in their own sectors – Trinity Mirror, Newsquest – are lining up bids.
And if the documents coming out of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are anything to go by, we’re in danger of missing a real opportunity. The criteria for judging bids put price before quality, there’s no requirements to reinvest money made into public service journalism, there’s no requirement to take on the experienced staff working on the current ITV franchises, there’s nothing to say what happens if the pilots fail and there’s no requirement to increase the level of public service programming.
To ensure any public money used for the public good, for the benefit of our communities – not private businesses and shareholders – clear and enforceable conditions need to be applied – reinvestment quotas, caps on directors’ pay, guaranteed levels of originally-produced content and so on.
This could be an exciting opportunity to embed a public service ethos in local media across new platforms, but it looks like little has been learned.
While there may have been a shift in public thinking, we now need similar clear shift in Government policy in favour of public service.
Jeremy Dear is general secretary of the National Union of Journalists
