Select committee: Communications and Digital Committee
Recommendation 25
1st Report - Breaking News? The Future of UK Journalism
Published 27 Nov 2020
Paragraph 195
Communications and Digital Committee The future of journalism All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We welcome the Government’s proposals to strengthen the powers of the Small Business Commissioner and encourage the Government and the Commissioner to work with freelance journalists to ensure that these new powers address the difficulties they face relating to unfair payment practices, including late payment, payment on publication and ‘kill fees’. The Government should consult on whether further legislation is needed to strengthen the rights of freelancers, including whether contract law should be amended to ensure that freelancers are not solely liable for legal costs arising from their work and whether copyright law should be reformed to make freelance–author copyright ownership inalienable.
From: Communications and Digital Committee, 1st Report - Breaking News? The Future of UK Journalism, paragraph 195, 27 November 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 2 March 2021 (deadline 2 March 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the report and agrees on the importance of journalism and the challenges of digital transition, while declining several specific recommendations, such as extending Ofcom's reporting powers and convening a funding forum.
- On media literacy, it accepted the Cairncross recommendation for a strategy, to be "published in spring 2021", but maintains that responsibility "does not lie with Ofsted".
- On court reporting, it says it does "not currently have plans to alter this approach" to recording devices, and will continue to liaise with HMCTS on supporting court reporters.
- On diversity reporting, it "does not propose to amend the statutory framework", citing the need to balance regulatory burden on enterprise.
- On digital markets, it commits to a Digital Markets Unit "from April 2021", will hold a public consultation this year, and will legislate "as soon as parliamentary time allows". On a news bargaining code, "No decisions have yet been taken."