Ember Regis

The reported government ‘crackdown’ on council-funded newspapers and magazines is aiming to protect media groups and hopes to encourage the success of independent local papers. Free newspapers are produced by councils using taxpayer money, so far from getting anything for ‘free’, local residents are actually paying for their council to promote and advertise itself.

The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/sep/29/council-run-newspapers-trinity-mirror) highlights the issues raised. Council-run free papers that have been pushing independent editions out of business may now have to commericalise themselves. The question is whether such “commercial” newspapers will be able to criticise the council that is behind it.

With news usually available on a global scale, local newspapers need to be protected in order for each community to have a separate voice that is concerned with their own particular issues. In their community, people deserve independent news that does not delve into propaganda, and could investigate or criticise their council if it were necessary. The problem is that the decline of local newspapers means that without the council-funded editions, there might not be any local voice at all, and also that this crackdown may well sabotage council-funded papers that nonetheless strive to bring fair and balanced community-based news.