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Scotland to tackle the tech giants?


T


he Scotish government could persuade tech giants to fund a significant public- benefit news fund,


Dame Frances Cairncross told a Zoom meeting of the NUJ’s two Edinburgh branches. Te former journalist, who chaired the UK government’s 2019 inquiry into the future of journalism, said Scotland might be an exemplar for the rest of the world. “Local papers need to build new relationships with their readers and find new ways to make money,” she said at last month’s meeting. However, she was sceptical that compelling the tech giants to surrender funds would work. “If a government tried to extract money from them forcibly, they could simply withdraw their services from the UK, leading to uproar,” she said. She believed the Scotish government should negotiate with Google and Facebook to provide funds toward a government-funded institute for public-interest news. Te NUJ’s News Recovery Plan has called for a journalism foundation which would invest in local journalism, innovative media projects and public- interest journalism.


increased media literacy and a voucher scheme for young people so they can buy subscriptions to newspapers/websites. Sixteen-year-olds have the vote in Scotland, so it would be a way of introducing young


Youth news pilot T


Dame Frances, who worked for Te Times, Te Guardian and Te Economist, said: “Projections suggest that news providers will lose £1 billion in revenue as a result of this crisis, and it will hit local papers harder than nationals. Te complication, however, is that so many papers are owned by international corporations, such as Gannet, or individuals like Murdoch and Lebedev. A support plan that simply hands them money is clearly unacceptable.” But a tax on the tech giants found support from Alyn Smith SNP, MP for Stirling, who agreed to draſt a motion on the subject for his party’s national conference. He was keen


he News Recovery Plan calls for


people with a stake in the democratic process – who largely rely on Facebook and other social platforms for news and information – to more trusted news sources. It would also make news organisations think more carefully about making their offering


on the idea of a Scotish Journalism Foundation, possibly joint financed initially by Google/Facebook and the government. Te Edinburgh Freelance Branch had spoken to him while promoting the NUJ’s News Recovery Plan as part of a series of meetings also with Labour MSP Claire Baker, Conservative MSP Maurice Golden, and Green MSP Patrick Harvie. Te union has provided a briefing for Scotish MPs and MSPs on the impact of Covid-19 on the media: htps://www.nuj. org.uk/documents/nuj-briefing- on-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-the- scotish-media/


youth-friendly. Joyce McMillan, Edinburgh Freelance Branch chair, said: “Fiona Hyslop, chair of the culture and economy commitee, has already shown interest in such a voucher scheme. Scotland would be the obvious place to try it out.”


RECOVERY PLAN


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