THE Future of News, a Communications and Digital Committee report, was debated on Friday within the House of Lords, after it was published in December (News 13 December).
Baroness Stowell of Beeston (non-affiliated), who moved the controversy, warned peers that local news was the worst affected. “Local news has been hit hard by the changing promoting market and shift to online, leaving tens of millions of UK residents with no dedicated local news outlet.”
She urged the Government to “champion innovation and investment within the sector”, and advisable measures akin to tax incentives for hiring local journalists, and changes to local-government promoting rules.
The Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, said: “The themes of the report — ethics, truth, access, and trust — are of important importance to the Lords Spiritual.”
He remarked on the importance of instantaneous news, and told the peers: “We are capable of access unfolding events, combined with thoughtful commentary and evaluation . . . Within minutes of the Pope’s death on Monday [News 21 April], we had not only the news that he had, sadly, died, but appreciations of his life, comments from world leaders, evaluation of his many achievements, and a way of 1 single news story internationally.”
Dr Croft emphasised three of the recommendations from the Future of News report.
He said that it was “vital” to nurture and support local news alongside global news, particularly local radio. He highlighted advice 14 of the report: “The suggested development by the BBC of a public-interest generative AI tool, in partnership with others, to access reliable and authoritative information.”
In addition, Dr Croft referred to advice 37(4), and emphasised the necessity to construct media literacy across the UK, not only for kids.
Baroness Stowell said: “Access to skilled news that supports a shared understanding of basic facts and helps us to know one another is critical for a healthy democracy.”
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Baroness Twycross (Labour), said that the Government would implement laws to handle the growing trend for disinformation to be spread.
She said: “It is obvious that developments in AI also heighten concerns concerning the risks of sophisticated disinformation, including from foreign states and hostile actors, polluting public discourse and undermining trust.
“The Government take this seriously. We are acting to make it harder to spread false information online and to scale back its impact. The Online Safety Act is essential to improving user safety across quite a lot of online harms and placing duties on platforms to remove illegal disinformation.”
The Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Revd Nick Baines, who’s a member of the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee that produced the report, was unable to attend the controversy. He had previously said that religious news was not exempt from the challenges of the long run of stories. “The narrowing of focus brought on by the siloed access driven by social media is concerning. So is the wild behaviour of some Christians in social media — individuals who post as in the event that they are talking to a few of individuals, whilst in doing so betraying the religion they claim to own.”
