Government urged to set up £50m a year fund for ‘decimated’ local news

The Demos think tank called for action to tackle a “decimated” local news infrastructure and said a fund could be paid for in part by the TV licence fee.

The cross-party think tank urged the Government to tackle a lack of information security and reinforce public trust in a “new democratic era”.

The report also recommended building stronger protections into the Online Safety Act and urged the Government and MPs’ offices to choose one platform as a first port of call for communication with the public.

News deserts – areas not covered by high-quality local news – across the country should be targeted with funding from central government and other sources, the authors said.

They suggested £50 million a year to start with and said philanthropists and big tech funds could contribute.

The funding should not “create perverse incentives for poor-quality journalism or clickbait” but should be geared towards the needs of local communities and to help news outlets create long-term sustainable business models.

They also recommended that rules for TV in the UK that obligate broadcasters to give due prominence to content with public service value should also apply to online platforms.

A shared definition of “public interest news” is needed for this, they said.

Elizabeth Seger, director of digital policy at Demos, said the Government must intensify efforts to build a “robust and healthy information environment”.

“The UK has some advantages, with high public trust in our electoral processes and constituency level parliamentary elections that facilitate a closer relationship between government and citizens.

“But our resilience to global trends of democratic backslide is not guaranteed with record low levels of trust in politicians and rising threat of foreign influence on our politics.

“If we are to have any hope in preserving and rebuilding trust in our democracy, we must act urgently to build a robust and healthy information environment for UK citizens in which enriching democratic discourse can flourish.

“The Government is not at this time ready for this challenge and needs to double down on its efforts.”