Crowdfunder Aim

Please help us fund a YouGov Opinion Poll on the public’s views about the billionaire owners’ dominance of our media.

The Media Sovereignty Act Campaign

We are seeking to fund a professional YouGov opinion poll into the public’s views on the billionaire media owners’ domination of our media.

The Media Sovereignty Act Campaign aims to get legislation passed that ends the capture of our British media by foreign and domestic billionaires.

We do not have a free and fair democracy as long as our media is dominated by a tiny billionaire elite. Click the image to go to the crowfunder website.

Who’s in the Picture

Rupert Murdoch – American national. Billionaire owner of News UK, which includes the Sun, The Times, Talk Radio, Talk Sport and Talk TV.

Paul Marshall – UK national. Billionaire owner of GB News, Spectator Magazine and Unheard.

Friede Springer – German national. Billionaire owner of the Telegraph.

Jonathan Harmsworth (Lord Rothermere) – Non-domiciled resident of Monaco. Billionaire owner of DMGT, which includes the Daily Mail, Metro and the I.

Draft Questions

We are requesting the pollsters ask the following questions:

• Should billionaires be prevented from dominating UK media ownership?
• Should the UK government ban foreign media ownership?
• Should the UK government ban the concentration of UK media ownership by one person or one corporation?
• Should the government apply a “Social Media Levy” to global social media corporations operating in the UK, with the proceeds ring-fenced to fund UK independent and local media?
• Should UK national newspapers be required to join the media regulator Impress, rather than self-regulating as they currently do? [Impress was set up after the Leveson Inquiry and is the only approved press regulator under the UK’s Royal Charter system.
• For transparency, should think tanks covered in the media be required to disclose all donations in real time? [Think-tanks are privately funded policy institutions seeking to influence government policy.
• Would you support a comprehensive Media Sovereignty Act that addresses the concerns above regarding media ownership concentration, foreign influence, funding for independent journalism, statutory regulation of national media, and transparency in think-tank funding?

Petition

The Media Sovereignty Act Campaign has already collected over 17,000 signatures for a Parliamentary Petition, which required the government to state its views on the domination of our democracy by billionaires. Click on the image to go to the petition page. 

We are now collecting signatures to reach the 100,000 signatures, which will trigger a parliamentary debate on the Act.

Conclusion

Funding professional polling of the public’s views on the Act’s proposals will be a powerful tool for the campaign. Any additional money will go towards other administrative campaigning costs, such as website and Mailchimp fees.

As this is a volunteer-led campaign, donations towards the cost of the polling are deeply appreciated.

Many thanks

Donnachadh McCarthy FRSA
Caspar Hughes

Directors: Media Sovereignty Act Campaign