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Green leader Zack Polanski has backed a campaign for a fundamental overhaul of Britain’s media ownership, in order to prevent billionaires buying newspapers in order to “literally buy democracy”.
Polanski threw his weight behind the ‘Media Sovereignty Act’ campaign in a speech at Green Gathering festival in Chepstow (Wales) earlier this month.
The petition promoted by the Green Party of England & Wales leader calls on the Government to “pass [a] law to ban foreign and offshore ownership of UK media” and enact a social-media levy to “distribute media ownership across society & fund independent, local and cooperative-owned media”.
It also backs new reforms to ensure “all media” in the UK are members of a statutory regulator, a call vociferously resisted by many publishers.
And it would require think tanks to report who their funders are in real time. The campaign was founded by activist and former Independent columnist Donnachadh McCarthy.
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Such an act would mark the biggest shake-up of media law in generations – and would conceivably force sell-offs of most national newspapers.
That includes the (now German-owned) Telegraph, the Mail group (owned by non-dom Lord Rothermere and structured through offshore trusts), as well as the Independent which is part-owned by Saudis, local news giant Newsquest (owned by the US holding company USA Today Co) and the Financial Times (owned by Japan’s Nikkei).
It is not clear if it would apply to listed firms which have some foreign shareholders such as Mirror and Express publisher Reach PLC, part-owned by Swiss firm Lombard Odier Asset Management and Boston-based Fidelity.
Polanski told a panel at the festival: “Billionaires should not be able to have a monopoly on our free press.”
He criticised the “billionaire media” repeatedly, adding that Britain needed “a free press for a free country”.
Polanski told festival-goers: “Donnachadh [McCarthy] is pushing something called the Media Sovereignty Act as a petition…It’s basically saying billionaires should not be able to have a monopoly on our free press.”
He added: “We need to push independent media like Byline Times, Novara Media, [and] Turn Left.”
10,000 People Sign Official Petition Demanding Government End ‘Capture of UK Democracy by Media Billionaires’
Ministers will be forced to respond to the proposals for a new ‘Media Sovereignty Act’ after campaigners passed a key threshold
Billionaires and the Press
Commenting on a surge in billionaires in Britain, he said: “This isn’t about the human being that has one billion pounds. This is about a toxic system that has allowed them to accrue that wealth, that once they’ve hoarded all of those assets, they then buy newspapers…and then they literally buy democracy.”
He noted approvingly that the parliamentary petition “calls for an end to foreign and domestic billionaire ownership of our media, independent regulation of the press, an end to dark money-funded think-tanks and a social media levy to fund independent, co-operative and local British news outlets”.
Polanski’s call echoes the petition itself which states: “We believe we need to take back control of media ownership for the British people and that media should be free from offshore ownership and think tanks who accept dark money. Media ownership should reflect ALL of society not just the rich.”
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Donnachadh McCarthy told this outlet afterwards: “Combined with his other criticisms of the billionaire media in his main speech, this was the most radical position of any political leader in my lifetime on media ownership.”
The petition currently has more than 23,000 signatures but needs 100,000 to guarantee a debate in Parliament. Polanski is the most high profile politician to throw his weight behind it so far.
McCarthy, director of the Media Sovereignty Act Campaign, said: “When passed, the Act would be the biggest transfer of political power from the billionaire elite to the people, since women’s suffrage over a century ago.”
Caspar Hughes, a fellow director of the Media Sovereignty Act, added: “In view of the billionaire media’s power to destroy people and politicians, this is a deeply brave act by Polanski. Let’s make sure his bravery is rewarded by getting the petition over the 100,000 signature target, which triggers this historic debate in parliament.”
Public Opinion on Ownership
It comes after a recent YouGov survey for the Media Sovereignty Act Campaign showed that more than six in ten (63%) of the British public would support an outright ban on foreign ownership of UK media, with a similar number (63%) showing support for a ban on one company or individual owning more than one national newspaper or broadcast corporation.
The figures are high across parties, with six in ten voters for each of the main political parties, including Reform (67%), as well as both Remain (69%) and Leave (68%) voters, backing an end to foreign ownership, and as many as seven in ten (72%) of the British public backing the establishment of an independent media regulator.
Commenting on the findings, Sir Jonathon Porritt, a prominent sustainability campaigner and author, said: “A free people depends on a free press – which we do not have in the UK.
“Today’s billionaire elite has seized control of much of the media that people rely on, protecting their own, undermining democracy, corrupting the truth and defending the fossil fuel incumbency even as the world burns.
“Progress in addressing these crises depends absolutely on restoring media sovereignty.”
Polanski also told Green Gathering attendees that X-owner Elon Musk “and other social media platforms” were “actually engaging with the algorithm[s] to push hate and division.”
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