Public Want Billionaire Press Reined In As Hounding Of Jason Arday Sparks Fury, New Poll Shows

Rage and horror at the media hounding of Jason Arday is further evidenced by a new national poll that shows almost three-quarters of the public want an independent watchdog with powers to crack down hard on the out-of-control billionaire–owned UK press.

A new YouGov poll says 72% of Britons are demanding that the worst billionaire newspapers, including The Sun, The Telegraph, and the Daily Mail, should be ordered to join an independent regulator with strong powers to punish them and their journalists, editors and owners for lies, disinformation and harassment. Only 8% oppose the idea.

Even more eye-openingly – and worryingly for Rupert Murdoch, billionaire owner of the Sun, the Times and Sunday Times, and Viscount Rothermere, billionaire owner of the Mail, Mail on Sunday and The Metro – the demand crosses the entire political spectrum of British voters.

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, 82% of Labour voters and 78% of Green voters – whose parties and leaders are subjected to constant lies, disinformation and harassment by the far-right billionaire press – want a new press watchdog with teeth.

But astonishingly, 74% of Conservative voters and 70% of Reform voters would support the introduction of a truly independent regulator to muzzle the horrendous excesses of the newspapers owned by the likes of Murdoch and Rothermere.

The Media Sovereignty Act campaign – set up to demand a new law that would require all national papers to join such a watchdog, while banning billionaires from owning UK media organisations – expects the public demand for a crackdown on the billionaire press to rise rapidly in the wake of the death of Jason Arday.  

Craven politicians – terrified of Murdoch and Rothermere’s media power – allowed a previous attempt to rein in The Sun, Mail, Telegraph and their ilk to be sabotaged by the newspaper billionaires themselves.

The Leveson Inquiry into newspaper phone hacking – that included the hacking of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s phone by journalists – set up Impress, an independent press regulator with wide-ranging powers to sanction and punish newspapers.

But the billionaire press side-stepped and set up their own self-regulator, IPSO, overseen by the very editors it was supposed to be regulating. It has utterly failed to stop their excesses and has been described as ‘toothless and pointless’ by media insiders.

Donnachadh McCarthy, Director of the Media Sovereignty Act Campaign, says:

‘It’s clear that the British public feel that enough is enough for the billionaire press. They are sick of a situation where a fake regulator lets these appalling publications run riot over ordinary people and their lives. 

‘Tragically bereaved families like the Ardays must never again be left helplessly watching one of their loved ones subjected to a horrific campaign of press harassment with nowhere to turn to get it stopped. 

‘The time is long overdue for a real press watchdog with the power to rein in the billionaire media attack dogs. An independent regulator would curb these rabid character assassinations on vulnerable individuals with no means to defend themselves.’

More than 26,000 have already signed a petition calling for Parliament to debate the introduction of a Media Sovereignty Act that would:

1. Introduce a compulsory independent press regulator with real punitive powers.
2. Ban non-dom billionaires such as Murdoch and Rothermere from owning UK media.
3. Limit companies to owning only one media outlet and individuals to own no more than 20% of any national media outlet
4. Force so-called ‘think tanks’ to reveal their sources of funding.
5. Order social media giants to pay a levy to fund independent local newspapers and media.

Campaign co-director Caspar Hughes says that the petition needs 100,000 signatures by September 18 to force MPs and political party leaders to debate the introduction of the Act in the House of Commons.

‘The number of signatures is rising fast as the horrified public learn more and more about the Jason Arday case and realise how easily his media hounding could happen to almost anyone,’ says Hughes.

“The Media Sovereignty Act must be adopted now to protect people from this kind of disgusting press abuse.’

Sign The Petition To Break The Billionaire Grip On Our Democracy

The Media Sovereignty Act Campaign is asking people to sign their petition to trigger Parliament to debate independent press regulation and wrest control back from the billionaire media moguls who have captured our democracy. 

Link: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/760061

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Notes to editors:

1. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc.
   
   The total sample size was 2,097 adults.
   
   The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+). 

2. The Media Sovereignty Act has five measures:
   
   1. Bans foreign ownership of UK media.
      
   2. Bans the concentration of UK media ownership, e.g. by foreign or domestic super-rich and large corporations.
      
   3. Distributes media ownership across all sections of UK society via a social media levy on large social media organisations.
      
   4. Requires national newspapers to join a recognised independent regulator.
      
   5. Requires all think-tanks covered in the media to report their donations in real time.

3. The Labour government issued its response to the parliamentary petition on the Act after it passed 10,000 signatures.
   
   It can be found via this link: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/760061
   
4. Summary of UK results:
   
   The YouGov Opinion poll found: shorturl.at/MiJbL

1. 63% support a ban on national media organisations being owned by foreign-based individuals or foreign-owned companies, 15% oppose, and 22% are unsure.
   
2. 63% support a ban on one company owning more than one national newspaper or broadcast corporation, 14% oppose, and 24% are unsure.
   
3. 62% support a levy on large social media corporations operating in the UK to fund independent and local journalism, 11% oppose it, and 27% are unsure.
   
4. 72% support requiring UK national newspaper corporations to join a recognised press regulator independent of media organisations, 8% oppose, and 20% are unsure.
   
5. 78% think policy think-tanks should publish who their donors are.
   
6. 75% think policy think-tanks should publish how much their donors give.

7. 56% support limiting how much of a national media organisation a single person can own, while 14% oppose and 30% are unsure.

Note: None of our major papers has joined Impress, the post-Leveson independent regulator, including the Sun, Guardian, Times, Express, Mail or Telegraph.