This Byline article is well worth sharing, and its issues highlighting to people who might otherwise not know, for lack of general awareness.
A process called The Cairncross Review is likely being used to justify new state money going towards “high-quality journalism”. Sounds great and timely, given that public confidence in legacy media has collapsed, along with the ability of traditional sources to sufficiently pay for investigative journalism.
The catch is that the review panel is stuffed with establishment news industry representatives. Thus, the exercise is probably not going to improve genuine or fresh independent media. Instead, it risks further empowering the likes of The Sun and The Daily Mail who are a huge part of media problem in the first place.
Byline’s Brian Cathcart speculates that some funding could come from a tax on tech-giants, which would amusingly echo Corbyn’s plans to use the same source for money that would be far less likely to go to the establishment press.
The consultation closes on the 14 September. Please consider submitting your thoughts, and let people know by sharing the original Byline article, which includes some starter idea of what to say.
Stephen Durrant
