Thank you.
Our parliamentary petition calling for a Media Sovereignty Act closed at midnight on Friday with 32,234 signatures.
Stage one of this campaign is over. Stage two starts today.
When we launched the petition six months ago, the aim was simple: to put media freedom from billionaire capture on the political table. We were two ordinary citizens with no funding and no organisation, taking on the one subject the billionaire-owned press had every reason to ignore. A parliamentary petition was the one route that could force the question into the open.
With your help, it has.
What we achieved together in six months
- 32,234 signatures from every one of the UK’s 650 constituencies, in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, plus British citizens in 47 other countries.
- A formal government response. Only about one in forty petitions this Parliament has forced the government to answer. Ours did it in under eight weeks, and the government had to put its position on all five measures in writing.
- Proof that this crosses party lines. Constituents of Conservative MPs signed at the same rate as constituents of Labour MPs.
- A national YouGov poll of 2,097 adults, paid for by £3,500 of your donations. It found that support outweighs opposition for every one of the Act’s five measures among supporters of every political party.
- Our first party leader. Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, has backed the campaign, as has Clive Lewis MP.
- Real movement on policy. The Green Party’s new culture and media policy paper goes before its conference in October. It includes a levy on the social media giants to fund local journalism, a 20% cap on press ownership and a requirement for think-tanks to be transparent about their funding. It also cites our draft Act.
- Supporters from across the press and public life, including Peter Oborne, formerly of the Telegraph; George Monbiot of the Guardian; former government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir David King; Professor Richard Betts; Professor Bill McGuire; Sir Jonathon Porritt; and Sir Mark Rylance.
- Our first trades union council. Dorset Trades Union Council has formally backed the Act.
- A growing movement. More than 500 people have joined our Supporters page. Our Facebook posts have been viewed nearly two million times, and our TikTok and Instagram videos more than 90,000 times.
Stage two: every organisation in the country
The next stage is to get the Act backed by every political party, trade union, students’ union and civil society organisation we can reach, and submitted to their national conferences for adoption. Stage three is getting Parliament to pass it.
Here’s how you can help:
- Join our mailing list at mediasovereignty.org/subscribe. It’s how we reach you when the billionaire press won’t.
- Join our Facebook Supporters group at facebook.com/groups/1072509248669449.
- Take the Act to your union branch, local party, students’ union or community group and ask them to back it formally. We have a model motion, and we’ll help you write the speech.
Help fund the next stage
Every donation, large or small, helps cover the costs of the campaign to pass the Act. If you know anyone who might want to support a campaign to free Britain’s media from billionaire control, please put us in touch.
Moving media ownership from a handful of billionaires to the people would be the greatest transfer of political power in this country since universal suffrage.
A free press for a free people. Let’s take back control.
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Join our mailing list to stay part of the campaign: https://mediasovereignty.org/subscribe/
Join our Facebook Supporters group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1072509248669449
And help cover campaign costs by donating to our Crowdfunder: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/crowdfunder-for-polling-the-publics-view-on-billi