Select committee: Communications and Digital Committee
Conclusion 34
1st Report - Breaking News? The Future of UK Journalism
Published 27 Nov 2020
Paragraph 308
Communications and Digital Committee The future of journalism All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Charitable status can be beneficial for some news organisations; however, this model is relatively uncommon in the UK. Charitable news organisations must comply with charity law restrictions on campaigning and may not use their resources for non-charitable purposes. This means that while charitable status may not be advantageous for more traditional business models, it could provide a new not-for-profit model for the future. It could be beneficial for some community news outlets, as well as other innovative start-ups and niche publications that provide a valuable civic function but can struggle to achieve commercial success.
From: Communications and Digital Committee, 1st Report - Breaking News? The Future of UK Journalism, paragraph 308, 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."