Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom (CPBF)
for diverse, democratic and accountable media
Orgreave Truth and Justice CampaignSome basic facts bear repeating. The gap between rich and poor in the UK was at its narrowest in the 1970s, a decade when trade unionism was at its strongest. In 2018 there is an obscene gap between those flaunting great wealth and working people battered by austerity and privatisation. We have the prospect of millions of people working in low-wage or zero-hour contract … [Read more...]
The Campaign's AGM on Saturday July 14 could well be its last. The National Council has decided to recommend that the CPBF be dissolved, and its officers have prepared a plan for winding down. The decision was, of course, not taken lightly. Many on the NC have been involved with CPBF since the beginning, fighting for media workers’ rights and campaigning for a better … [Read more...]
The Media Reform Coalition cautiously welcomes the Culture Secretary’s statement agreeing with the main finding of the Fox/Sky merger review: that the deal poses a serious risk to the public interest on plurality grounds. We are disappointed that neither he nor the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have expressed similar concerns in regard to Fox’s commitment to … [Read more...]
As we said to the Morning Star: In the run up to this important vote dozens of remarkably similar editorials in the local and national press made very spurious claims about how Leveson 2 and the implementation of Section 40 would somehow gag and bankrupt them. These accounts all fail to mention one very important fact: both the cross-party Department for Cultue Media and Sport … [Read more...]
Last week Culture Secretary Matt Hancock decided to scrap part 2 of the Leveson Inquiry (whose terms of reference included looking into crime and wrongdoings within the Murdoch empire). This does not bode well for his forthcoming decision about whether or not to give Murdoch even MORE power by allowing his bid for Sky to proceed. And with less than two weeks left of our … [Read more...]
Parliament LiveThe government decisions to ditch the resumption of the Leveson Inquiry, and to repeal the unused law to encourage the media to go to arbitration to settle complaints, are no surprise, but they are based on lies. Culture secretary Matt Hancock said that he took the measures to protect press freedom, on the grounds that both further investigation by Leveson, and the new law … [Read more...]
CNNIn yet another twist in the on-going saga for control of Sky, Comcast have announced a bid for Sky that is higher than that made Murdoch-controlled 21 Century Fox (this after 21CF has itself agreed to sell most of its assets, including its share in Sky to Disney). The Comcast bid raises fewer and different concerns than Fox; CPBF is generally against the ever-greater … [Read more...]
Jon SNo-one would deny that both the local and national press are facing problems. In the past decade more than 300 local newspapers have been closed, and two thirds of local authority areas and more than half of parliamentary constituencies no longer have a local daily newspaper covering their affairs. The number of local journalists has decline dramatically, most of those lucky … [Read more...]
Photo: Crown Copyright Credit: Lee GoddardThe Government has recently announced a review into the sustainability of the press (the Cairncross review). According to its summary of the review’s scope, ‘the UK has always benefited from a strong, well established and diverse press sector’, and the resultant robust high quality journalism is important for public debate, scrutiny, and ultimately for democratic political … [Read more...]
Image (c): TUC Library at London Metropolitan University.A call from members of the National Union of Journalists in Leeds for the union to raise awareness of the benefits for society of independent and ethical journalism as well as highlighting examples of journalists taking an individual or collective stand in its defence is being marked today. The suggestion originally came to mark the anniversary of a national strike on August … [Read more...]