"To root out corruption, improve services and empower citizens, we need a dogged local media with the time and money to work on stories..." Jeremy Corbyn
Dear Jeremy Corbyn...
Yesterday, you gave the Alternative MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival. And the sentiments were superb...
"At their best, journalists challenge unaccountable power and expose things that the rich and powerful would rather keep hidden" you said "A free press is essential to our democracy, but much of our press isn't very free at all...I want to see journalists and media workers set free to do their best work, not held back by bosses, billionaire owners, or the state..."
Your speech laid out some suggestions "for how we can build a free and democratic media in the digital age", including...
* Strengthening Freedom of Information by ending ministerial vetoes and including private companies delivering public services
* Giving charitable status to some local, investigative and public interest journalism;
* Creating an independent fund for public interest journalism paid for by tech giants;
* Expanding an existing BBC-government scheme to fund and develop local journalism
On the latter point, re the BBC 'democracy reporters', be careful what you wish for as everyone knows that the majority of the BBC 'democracy money' went to the mainstream profit-driven, clickbait-driven media. The independent free press hardly stood a chance (see here)
Apart from this, the Salford Star - in existence for almost 13 years and one of the longest running community-centred publications in the UK - applauds your speech about taking on the press barons, corporations and billionaires who control the media.
Indeed, the Salford Star was founded by mainstream media workers, and residents who desperately wanted a voice, precisely because the mainstream media was not covering community stories. The Star was set up to give local people a voice, backed by hard core investigative journalism unhindered by vested interests.
The Star is fiercely independent, covering things like strikes, protests, meetings and events that other media are just not interested in. If a protest isn't reported, it might as well not have happened. We are very aware that we are capturing and documenting local working class struggles and history in real time, what you called "public interest journalism"...
Yesterday, you rightly paid tribute to "the Manchester Evening News journalists, who have also been trying to find out how many people are dying on Manchester's streets". The Salford Star tried to investigate this months before the MEN ran the story (see here and see here).
The Salford Star was probably the only media publication that reported your election address at Salford Precinct in full, rather than trying to stick yet another knife in your back.
If, as you said, you want "high quality journalistic work that challenges the interests of the powerful and wealthy", then local government has to be part of that process, with Labour Party run councils surely leading the way in transparency.
...But almost every day we are battling against the Labour Party run Salford City Council, which claims to have a 'Corbynista' City Mayor, Paul Dennett, who promised more 'transparency' when he came to office ? and, like his predecessor, has done the complete opposite.
You say you want to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act ? but the Salford Star is sick to death of reporting blocked Freedom of Information requests from Salford Council, secret developer fee and affordable housing avoidance details, and back door cuts to vital local services, while trying to get to the bottom of dodgy multi-million pound regeneration plans.
...God, Salford Council even had a secret deal with towerblock management company, Pendleton Together (and who knows how many others), which stopped it providing safety information to frightened residents, via the Salford Star, in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.
All these media mismanagement examples are highlighted below, and are just a sample of many more.* The Salford Star has 40,000 to 50,000 readers a month, by the way. That hasn't stopped Salford Council and subsequent City Mayors refusing to answer any questions put by the Salford Star.
Indeed, the Council hasn't responded to legitimate press inquiries from this publication for over five years! And we are the only remaining press actually based in Salford...
Even your shadow Business Secretary and Salford and Eccles MP, Rebecca Long-Bailey, didn't respond the last time we asked for an interview, despite her promise the week before she was elected...
"Yeah I think it's sad that people aren't talking to you because, irrespective of the kind of coverage these people are going to get, at the end of the day it's important for local politicians to be held to account whether it's good publicity or bad publicity" she said "If it's off the scale and it's mad then fair enough but I've read what you've got and I don't think it's like that..." (see here for full interview)
You say you want to strengthen the independent media; that "This type of journalism needs support" but your so-called 'Corbynista' Council is doing everything in its power to undermine that.
Let's talk about funding models. In Salford we have a thing called 'devolved community budgets', under which local community committees can decide projects they want to financially support.
When the Salford Star applied for such funding a while ago, the community reps were told by the Council in no uncertain terms they could be jailed if they approved money for this publication! Labour Party politicians at Salford Council subsequently changed the constitution to stop 'publications' getting devolved community money.
This is what we are up against, Mr Corbyn. The Salford Star cannot rely on advertising as, firstly, the big money in Salford is linked to regeneration and property; and developers are not going to feed the hand that's going to bite them. We've also been told on numerous occasions by companies and public organisations that rely on grants or funding from the Council that they cannot be seen to be supporting this publication.
You talked about "granting charitable status for some local, investigative and public interest journalism" and "tax exemptions". How is that going to help small independent publications that don't get any money anyway?
Meanwhile, getting any kind of grant or funding from mainstream bodies, or Google/Facebook crumbs, is impossible for real community media. They tend to hand the money to representative organisations which use it to sustain themselves, rather than filtering it to journalists actually on the ground doing the investigative work.
So, to finish, the Salford Star is doing exactly what you want to see ? 'challenging the interests of the powerful and wealthy' ? and has been battling financial hardship for the whole time of its existence.
Everyone who works on the Star is a volunteer, except the editor who gets paid ?100 a week, as a pro-rata 'living wage', with most of the seven days a week slog being done also on a voluntary basis. Any money the Star has is from sales of t-shirts and hoodies, or via donations from local celebs and residents, some of whom are amongst the poorest people in the country.
...But Salford Council and its Labour Party 'Corbynista' acolytes needn't worry. The Salford Star, 13 years in the making, will be out of money by the end of this year, and, unless a miracle occurs, will be shutting down completely.
Good luck with your policies to change the media and hope this has contributed to 'encouraging a public debate'.
Cheers
Stephen Kingston
Editor and Co-Founder
Salford Star
PS. We don't expect a response.
*See Previous Related Salford Star Articles...
Salford Council Refuses to Name Who Paid For Mayor's South of France Trip - click here
Secrecy Reigns at Salford Council Over Regeneration Schemes ? click here
Salford Council Takes Five Months to Release Freedom of Information Details on Land Sales ? click here
In The Wake of Grenfell Tower Scandal Salford Council Blocked Media Relaying Information to Frightened Residents - click here
Salford Council Wins Uncle Joe Stalin Award for Open and Democratic Government - click here
Salford Council Banner Declares Transparency Despite Everything Being Secret ? click here
Salford Council Redacts Everything in Response to FOI Viability Request ? click here
Information Commissioner Steps In To Monitor Salford Council's Abysmal Freedom of Information Record - click here
Salford Star Goes On Strike Against Salford Council Withholding Information ? click here
For the full text of Jeremy Corbyn's Edinburgh Speech - click here
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