NMA Responds to Government’s Response to Lords Communications and Digital Committee’s Future of News Report

Responding to the government’s response to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee’s Future of News report, News Media Association chief executive, Owen Meredith, said:

“We welcome the government’s commitment to supporting a sustainable local news media sector through the Local Media Strategy, and its recognition of the Public Notice Portal as a valuable innovation for ensuring public access to vital local information. We also appreciate the government’s willingness to explore a further extension of business rates relief for local journalism, a crucial step in sustaining independent, local news. 

“We note and welcome the government’s response on digital competition, acknowledging the Competition and Markets Authority’s independence and mission to ‘promote competition for the benefit of consumers’. Hand in hand with this principle is the need to rebalance our digital markets to ensure a fair relationship between news publishers and big tech.

“It is however disappointing that the government still does not plan to legislate in this parliamentary session to rid us of SLAPPs – a dangerous threat to press freedom. We will continue to work with government and parliament to find non-legislative solutions and push for a new law. 

“On generative AI and copyright, we strongly urge the government to strengthen and enforce existing copyright protections rather than weaken them. To do so would effectively sacrifice our creative industries – and the well-over £100 billion it generates annually to the UK economy – to the benefit of Silicon Valley.”