Ban foreign media ownership, enact a social media levy & new regulatory reform

Pass law to ban foreign & offshore ownership of UK media, enact a social-media levy to distribute media ownership across society & fund independent, local & cooperative-owned media. We believe democracy is failing as the media & political power are owned by a tiny rich elite.

We also call the Government to introduce new regulatory reforms, including requiring all media in the UK to be members of a statutory regulator and requiring media-covered think-tanks to report donations in real time. We believe we need to take back control of media ownership for the British people and that media should be free from offshore ownership and think tanks who accept dark money. Media ownership should reflect ALL of society not just the rich.

The Foreign State Influence (FSI) media merger regime prevents foreign powers controlling, influencing or owning UK newspapers. It includes a mechanism for the DCMS Secretary of State to block or unwind transactions which would enable a foreign power to influence or control a UK newspaper.

The regime is not intended to prevent any and all inward investment in the sector from overseas, which would be disproportionate. However, it is proportionate to have specific protections for newspapers, due to the unique role they play in our democracy and society. The accurate provision of news is essential to inform debate and opinion and support social cohesion.

The Government recognises challenges to the sustainability of the local news sector, including smaller independent publishers, and is taking steps to support it through the Local Media Action Plan. A key pillar of the Plan is a Local News Fund, worth up to £12million in the next 2 years, which will help local media outlets digitally innovate and revive a local news presence in local news deserts.

A social media levy is not currently under consideration as a mechanism for funding distribution of media ownership. The existing Digital Services Tax (DST) is a 2 percent tax to ensure that providers of search engines, social media platforms, and online marketplaces pay UK tax on digital services that reflects the value they derive from UK user-related activities. DST was introduced as an interim solution to the challenges posed by the digitalisation of the economy to the international corporate tax framework.