Media Sovereignty Act Campaign

The Media Sovereignty Act Full Draft

The following is the current drafting of the Act. The details are subject to re-drafting as the campaign progresses towards final adoption by the UK Parliament. 

Introduction

A sovereign media[1] is essential for a free people and a fair, thriving democracy in the United Kingdom. True sovereignty includes media freedom from subjugation by foreign interests and excessive concentration of ownership by any class or group of individuals. And genuine sovereignty of the people requires a genuine stake for all sections of society in the ownership of the UK’s media.

This Media Sovereignty Act establishes the regulations and systems by which the United Kingdom reclaims, protects and enhances its media sovereignty for its nations and its peoples.

Section 1 – Sovereignty

To ensure that the UK reclaims and retains sovereignty for its people over the UK’s media (press and news media) by ensuring freedom from foreign media ownership:

1.1  Only UK-domiciled individuals or entities owned only by UK-domiciled persons or shareholders shall be allowed to directly or indirectly own or hold any shares in any UK national media organisations or large regional media groups.

Note:
It is crucial if the UK is to regain political sovereignty that it regains ownership over the most important source of political power in the nation – the corporate media. 

Section 2 – Monopoly

To ensure that the UK public regains sovereignty of the UK’s  media, it must be free from the undemocratic concentration of media ownership:

2.1 No single organisation shall be allowed to own more than one national newspaper.

2.2 No single organisation shall be allowed to own more than one national commercial broadcasting corporation[2].

2.3 No single individual or family can own more than 20% of any major UK national newspaper or media organisation.

2.4 Ofcom shall be charged with and given the necessary enforcement powers to protect the nation from the over-concentration of market share by any single commercial broadcasting corporation that provides coverage of news and current affairs.  

Note:
In a sovereign nation, it is essential for a thriving, healthy democracy that no one individual, family or organisation gain disproportionate political power through an excessive concentration of ownership of the UK’s corporate media.

Section 3 – Domination

To ensure true democratic sovereignty, the UK’s media must enable all sections of society to be heard and sovereignty reclaimed from the domination of the international tech corporations:

3.1 A levy shall be applied to the UK turnover of the large international social media corporations operating in the UK.

3.2 The levy shall be called the Media Sovereignty Levy.

3.3 The proceeds of the levy shall be invested in supporting:

3.3.1 The diversification of ownership of the UK’s independent media

3.3.2 The provision of local news.

3.4 The proceeds of this tax shall be disbursed proportionately to the population, on a per capita basis, by a trust in each of the UK nations, with a remit to ensure that all sections of society have a voice in our media, with particular emphasis on ensuring lower-income and minority groups have a fair proportionate share.

3.5 The remit of the trusts shall include the encouragement of co-operative and employee media ownership models in its grant allocations.

3.6 Political trustees shall be appointed by consensus by the relevant parliamentary committee, with due regard to the proportionate vote of major parties in the previous general or national elections.

3.7 The civil society trustees shall be appointed through consensus by the political trustees following consultation with the independent and commercial media sectors and representatives of civil society.  

Note:
For the people to be sovereign in a liberal democracy, it is essential that voices from across all income sectors are heard in our corporate media.

Section 4 – Abuse

To protect the sovereignty of the UK’s media, it must be regulated fairly and independently from state interference, and victims of any press abuse must have recourse to fair arbitration:

4.1  All UK media organisations are required by law to be statutorily under the jurisdiction of the media regulators, the Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press, approved regulators and the broadcast regulator Ofcom.

Notes:
For people to have sovereignty over their media, a trustworthy regulator that can protect them from abuse by the media is required.

At the same time, this statutory regulator must be protected by law from interference or misuse by the state, as set out in the Royal Charter.

Section 5 – Think-Tanks

To ensure sovereignty of the UK’s media, it must be kept free from corruption by non-transparently funded think-tanks[3]:

5.1 An official public register of public policy organisations
(think-tanks) shall be established.

5.2 To qualify for registration, such organisations shall maintain a live publicly accessible record of their donors.

5.3 Failure to maintain this donor record shall result in immediate suspension from the register.

5.4 National media organisations, whether commercial or publicly owned, including the BBC, shall not platform[4] or cover any spokesperson, policy report or any other output of a public policy organisation (think-tank), whether based in the UK or abroad, that does not declare its donors.

5.5 The oversight of provisions 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 shall be provided by a Royal Charter-recognised media regulator and Ofcom, as relevant. 

Notes:
The UK’s sovereignty has been seriously undermined in recent decades by the rise of non-transparently funded “think-tanks”.

Appendix – Definitions

  1. “The media” in this Act includes newspapers, broadcasters and social media.
    ↩︎
  2. National Commercial Broadcasting Corporation: A broadcasting company whose audience reach is more than one region of England or the entire area of the UK’s nation states, and whose turnover breaches a threshold for national status set by Ofcom. ↩︎
  3. Think-tank: A think tank, or public policy institute, is an organisation that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. ↩︎
  4. Platform: To provide coverage in any media format, whether print, audio, visual or online. ↩︎