The Government, responding to urgent approaches from Media Reform and others, has confirmed that the cost benefits available to those who sign up for regulation will be extended to all those news bloggers who are too small to sign up. This is a major victory for small publishers and for news pluralism which Media Reform welcomes. Moreover, it has announced proposals for a … [Read more...]
DCMS stakeholder meeting report
Last Thursday, April 11th, the Media Reform Coalition were invited to take part in one of three stakeholder discussions at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). All of these meetings concerned the amendments to the Crime and Courts (C&C) Bill which will affect online journalists and small publishers. While they requested that anything said by participants was … [Read more...]
Results of our consultation on the new Crime and Courts Bill, updated
Today Media Reform is releasing the results of our consultation on press regulation for bloggers. [UPDATE: these results now incorporate responses up until April 21st. The survey is now closed.] Over a period of two and a half weeks we asked bloggers and small publishers to comment on various options for amending the Crime and Courts Bill - which will support the Royal … [Read more...]
Blogs & regulation: where we stand, and what must change
Media Reform has been meeting with bloggers and legal advisors to determine where they stand in relation to the new regulatory proposals. One thing is clear: virtually everything written about this so far in the mainstream press has been wrong (more on that later). … [Read more...]
Let’s ensure that cool heads prevail in the debate over blogs
At last the government is taking the flaws in its Royal Charter seriously. If only the press was doing the same. On Monday 25th March, the Justice Minister signaled he would be consulting with publishers on what to do about the now-infamous blogging problem. On Thursday 28th, we'll be meeting to discuss how this problem can be solved. The meeting is timely given events in … [Read more...]
It’s not hard to protect the small press from courts
The New Statesman has just announced it will be boycotting the new press regulator because new provisions for exemplary damages in the Crime and Courts Bill "threatened to drag in personal blogs and social media accounts." … [Read more...]
Leveson vs the bloggers: how to make regulation work for everyone
First, they came for the tabloids; then, they came for Guido Fawkes; will they come for the bloggers next? … [Read more...]