MPs call for investment in public service journalism
MPs have urged the UK government to protect public service journalism and address the distorting effects of social media and artificial intelligence.
On 24 June, MPs from various parties gathered in Westminster Hall to debate the media green paper, which aims to improve public access to trusted news. Lisa Nandy, culture secretary, described the green paper as outlining a “strategic direction for media policy in the UK.”
Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour MP for Salford and NUJ parliamentary group chair, raised the detrimental impact of recent cuts at the BBC and STV.
Long-Bailey said:
“The secretary of state’s dedication to trusted news and promoting public service media is really welcome, but I am sure she shares my concerns that this will be dramatically undermined by the recent announcements of brutal cuts at STV and the BBC, as thousands of jobs and programmes are at risk of being lost. Will she urgently intervene to project jobs and the future of public service media?”
Nandy said that the government has been in discussions with the NUJ over the cuts “to ensure that people are protected when those cuts are made”, though she didn’t specify what these protections would be or whether they would be implemented soon enough to prevent looming job losses.
Ann Davies, Plaid Cymru MP for Caerfyrddin, similarly warned that the planned cuts to BBC Cymru Wales threatened Welsh-language broadcasting and emphasised the importance of maintaining “universal access to good quality trusted television.” Meanwhile John Cooper, Conservative MP for Dumfries and Galloway, expressed his fear as a former journalist that the government’s proposed transition from transition from terrestrial to internet-delivered TV by either 2034 or 2044 “risks leaving a lot of people in remote and rural Scotland behind.”
Mike Martin, Liberal Democrat MP for Tunbridge Wells, highlighted the impact of the BBC cuts on programming, including The World Tonight and Newsnight.
Martin said:
“It seems that the justification for these cuts is that programmes are being reoriented towards young people, which is obviously a good thing in and of itself. However, when I was 18, I did not listen to any of those programmes; now that I am in my 40s, I listen to them all. Do these cuts not undermine the BBC’s mission to educate and inform, and in this age of disinformation, is it not vital that we keep those programmes?”
Nandy responded by saying that the BBC “has not been adequately funded for quite some time”, describing the fact that “fewer and fewer people are paying the licence fee” as a major challenge for the BBC.
Sarah Coombes, Labour MP for West Bromwich, also raised concerns about cuts to the BBC, which she described as the “jewel in our national crown.” Nandy responded by stating that she had raised her own concerns with Matt Brittin, BBC director general.
Nandy said:
“The Charter Review process is obviously ongoing, and I would not want to see the BBC dismantling good structures, dismissing good journalists and closing down good programmes at a time when we are seeking to work together constructively to ensure that it is properly and adequately funded going forwards. There are significant pressures on all our public service broadcasters at the moment, and that is one reason why we have to grip this issue of transition, and work together to ensure nobody is left behind.”
Anna Sabine, Liberal Democrat MP for Frome and East Somerset, called for the BBC World Service to be fully funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The NUJ has long campaigned for the government to reverse the decision, implemented in 2014, to fund the majority of the World Service’s budget from the licence fee. Sabine said that doing so would “protect the BBC’s vital global footprint while freeing up £221 million a year to be reinvested at home.”
Sabine also welcomed the proposal to highlight “trusted news sources” on social media but claimed this would just be “sticking a plaster over the fundamental issue that big social media platforms are already rigged against truth, fairness and impartiality.”
Jeremy Corbyn, Your Party MP for Islington North, echoed this sentiment, adding that young people “rely entirely on social media for their news” whose algorithms serve to inflame and reinforce hate and prejudice.
Corbyn said:
“I absolutely welcome this Green Paper. I think it is a really good step forward that we are having this national debate, but in it, I hope that the Leveson inquiry and its proposals will not be forgotten.
“The Secretary will be aware that younger people - the majority of the population, in fact - do not watch mainstream television, or read newspapers, either in print or online; instead, they rely entirely on social media for their news, information, opinions and so on. Much of that content comes from behind a cloak of anonymity, and often it is dangerous, racist or abusive.
“We have a whole generation growing up whose only source of information is anonymous stuff on social media. I realise that we face a very difficult balancing act, in controlling access to wonderful technology and ensuring some degree of accuracy and accountability.”
Nandy said she shared concerns over the way young people consume news and noted that the government “needs to do more” to protect young people online.
The NUJ has warned of the algorithmic amplification of discrimination and division that is built into the design of certain social media platforms. The spread of harmful content has worsened following the dismissal of fact-checkers at Facebook and the weakening of safeguards on X/Twitter. This has resulted in the incitement of racist violence and the proliferation of pornographic images and videos of women and children using AI tools like Grok. The union has called for social media companies to held liable as publishers of discriminatory content as well as a 6% windfall tax on tech giants to be reinvested in quality news and stronger regulation so that creative workers are fairly remunerated for their work.
Chris Vince, Labour MP for Harlow, highlighted the increasing reliance on AI summaries for news and the financial pressure this places on publishers. The NUJ has received alarming reports from members of AI summaries providing information from behind paywalls. Vince said that news outlets may close if the government and AI companies do not provide support.
Throughout the debate, MPs expressed support for stronger media literacy initiatives. The NUJ has called for a nationwide media literacy initiative led by public service broadcasters but has stressed that any obligation must come with additional, demarcated government funding. The union has said that this must be accompanied by transparent labelling AI-generated news.
Nandy acknowledged that the government has a responsibility to promote media literacy. “There are serious challenges with people from every generation seeing information online that is just simply false,” she said. “Who decides what is trustworthy news and how we decide what is trustworthy is one of the most challenging aspects of the consultation.”
The NUJ reiterates its stance that journalists should adhere to the union’s Code of Conduct, which sets out the key principles of ethical editorial standards.