THE Future of News, a Communications and Digital Committee report, was debated on Friday in the House of Lords, after it was published in December (News 13 December).
Baroness Stowell of Beeston (non-affiliated), who moved the debate, warned peers that local news was the worst affected. “Local news has been hit hard by the changing advertising market and shift to online, leaving millions of UK citizens with no dedicated local news outlet.”
She urged the Government to “champion innovation and investment in the sector”, and recommended measures such as tax incentives for hiring local journalists, and changes to local-government advertising rules.
The Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, said: “The themes of the report — ethics, truth, access, and trust — are of vital importance to the Lords Spiritual.”
He remarked on the significance of instantaneous news, and told the peers: “We are able to access unfolding events, combined with thoughtful commentary and analysis . . . Within minutes of the Pope’s death on Monday [News 21 April], we had not only the news that he had, sadly, died, but appreciations of his life, comments from world leaders, analysis of his many achievements, and a sense of one single news story across the world.”
Dr Croft emphasised three of the recommendations from the Future of News report.
He said that it was “vital” to nurture and support local news alongside global news, particularly local radio. He highlighted recommendation 14 of the report: “The suggested development by the BBC of a public-interest generative AI tool, in partnership with others, to access reliable and authoritative information.”
In addition, Dr Croft referred to recommendation 37(4), and emphasised the need to build media literacy across the UK, not just for children.
Baroness Stowell said: “Access to professional news that supports a shared understanding of basic facts and helps us to understand each other is critical for a healthy democracy.”
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Baroness Twycross (Labour), said that the Government would implement legislation to address the growing trend for disinformation to be spread.
She said: “It is clear that developments in AI also heighten concerns about the risks of sophisticated disinformation, including from foreign states and hostile actors, polluting public discourse and undermining trust.
“The Government take this seriously. We are acting to make it more difficult to spread false information online and to reduce its impact. The Online Safety Act is key to improving user safety across a variety of online harms and placing duties on platforms to remove illegal disinformation.”
The Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Revd Nick Baines, who is a member of the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee that produced the report, was unable to attend the debate. He had previously said that religious news was not exempt from the challenges of the future of news. “The narrowing of focus caused by the siloed access driven by social media is concerning. So is the wild behaviour of some Christians in social media — people who post as if they are talking to a couple of people, whilst in doing so betraying the faith they claim to own.”
Read more on the story in this week’s leader comment