why we are calling for an immediate new investment in the Future News Fund operated via NESTA, with a similar scheme introduced in Ireland, to support innovative, public interest journalism through this crisis and beyond.


An ambitious investment in advertising across central and local government would help shore up the dramatic drop-offs in advertising revenue that both mainstream publishers and hyperlocals are experiencing. Investment must come in exchange for guarantees on securing jobs, protecting the terms and conditions of staff and freelances and producing quality public interest news.


Te blocking of advertising by soſtware companies and tech giants around Coronavirus-related content is a nonsense that needs urgent resolution. Publishers cannot be penalised for rightly weighting their editorial content to the impact of an unprecedented global pandemic that is affecting all of our lives.


Central to funding such a News Recovery Plan is an urgent windfall tax on the tech giants whose platforms suck up editorial content, without making any contribution to its production. According to analysis by Techwatch earlier this year, the top five tech companies generated over £8.1billion from UK customers in 2018, but collectively only paid around £237million in taxes – an effective tax rate of just 2.9 per cent,


meaning around £1.3billion in tax was avoided.


Achieving this would be straightforward – the UK has commited to introduce a 2 per cent Digital Services Tax from April 2020 on the revenues of large businesses providing internet search engines, social media platforms and online marketplaces to UK users. Given the current crisis, that tax should be tripled to 6 per cent and the proceeds used to fund a News Recovery Plan and ensure the tech giants play a significant role in the preservation of a sector that is vital to our democracy.


With a public desperate for accurate, trustworthy content, this is the time to make it more accessible than ever, at the same time as batling the scourge of disinformation. Tat’s why the NUJ is calling for free vouchers for online or print subscriptions for all 18 and 19 year olds and tax credits to all households with subscriptions to news outlets.


Tis is not and cannot be about the preservation of the status quo. Te emergency intervention needed now can only be the first steps towards a news reimagined.


In supporting existing parts of the press, we also need to create greater diversity, including meaningful investment to help new media models get off the ground, and measures to boost quality editorial


content and resources. We need to boost trust in journalism, and create the environment in which quality ethical reporting is strongly rooted in line with the NUJ’s Code of Conduct.


We need to address some of the wrongs – including short-sighted cutbacks to specialist reporting that has blighted local and national titles at a time when many niche news publications in the magazine sector have come under inordinate strain. Tat’s why we want governmental commitments to a range of actions – some immediate and some when the worst of this crisis is over – that will create a news industry firmly rooted in the public good.


We can see around the world that the reaction in some countries is to clamp down on information, on access and on the public’s right to know – we cannot allow that to happen. Te things that we value, we cannot take for granted. Once this lockdown is liſted, we need to ensure that quality journalism is something that is supported, properly resourced and helped to thrive.


Global response to protect press freedom Te International Federation of Journalists is coordinating a global response to the challenges to press freedom and journalists thrown up by the pandemic. Its work includes ensuring the safety of journalists working hard to report on the crisis.


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