“I JUST WONDER whether the truth is being withheld from us,” said Nigel Farage MP in a video he published on July 30, the day after the tragic stabbings in Southport that shocked the country. Over the next few days, serious rioting took place in cities across Britain. The damage done by those who deliberately undermine hitherto trusted sources of information is hard to ignore.

What Farage, and others do by intent, others merely facilitate. Social media platforms Telegram and Twitter/X both accused of fanning the flames of riot, some of those since jailed for inciting violence did so on Facebook. It is a backdrop that underlines the need for trusted, quality journalism as never before.

But the news business has been in major crisis for many years as it struggles to monetise the move from print to digital, with the tech platforms Meta and Google hoovering up most online advertising, altering the algorithms used to distribute newspapers’ content, and with younger people increasingly consuming their news via social media.

The trade paper, Press Gazette, called 2023 a brutal year for the journalism industry, at least 8,000 jobs were cut in the UK, US and Canada. The trend, it says, is continuing in 2024 with 150 job losses at London’s Evening Standard and cuts across the board from the Mail, GB News, i-D Magazine, Design Week, Vice, Business Insider and Pink News. Our local newspapers have been hollowed out by constant cuts, lack of investment and many newsrooms depending on trainee reporters.

Another concerning area is the fragility of trust in journalism. In Britain it’s actually weakened — the proportion of those who trust most news most of the time is 35 per cent, down from 51 per cent in 2015. 

Hand in hand with this are attacks on the press and media by politicians and public figures. Recently, the BBC Today presenter, Mishal Husein, was called Palestinian Reporter of the Year by Israeli government spokesman, David Mencer, because she questioned why foreign press had been barred from reporting in Gaza. 

Smearing her and other BBC reporters was desperate stuff — abusing and hectoring journalists is always a bad look, particularly when it is an official response from a government that seeks to make much of its democratic credentials.

Demonising the press also has consequences. During the recent riots those reporting the news found themselves targets of the far right. Elsewhere, journalists are routinely attacked and abused online merely for reporting on court cases and just doing their job. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is hoping to capture these incidents in real time on a safety tracker due out in the autumn.

This is why the NUJ, in a motion put to TUC Congress, is calling for a restoration of trust in the media, noting that the erosion of quality news by lack of investment has opened the field for those disseminating disinformation, misinformation, racism and partisan agendas on social media, largely unchecked by the big tech companies.

The motion includes practical measures to reboot investment, based on our revamped News Recovery Plan (NRP). The plan was launched as a response to the effect of the pandemic on the industry and has been updated to include new threats such as artificial intelligence, which has the potential to undermine the integrity of journalism, and the cost-of-living crisis which added significant additional pressures to an already beleaguered sector.

The TUC is being asked to support our plan, which calls for: a windfall tax of 6 per cent on the tech giants to provide sustainable future funding; Jobs for Journalists tax credits, to support journalism jobs, and interest-free loans in a targeted programme to bolster front-line newsgathering roles; reforming media ownership rules with a strengthened public interest test; the establishment of a journalism foundation to champion public-interest news and foster a diverse media; legislation to protect the rights of creators and regulate AI; and safeguarding journalists against surveillance.

One of the NRP’s core principles is protection of public service broadcasting. The BBC, Channel 4 and ITV remain the most trusted news brands. The BBC in particular was constantly battered by previous governments and so starved of cash that its income has been reduced by almost a third within the past decade. 

The NRP says: “The BBC’s funding model must protect and sustain the principle of universality and its funding settlement must be sufficient to guarantee quality journalism and news programming.” But it also needs to be reformed so it is much more accountable to those paying their TV licences.

A journalism foundation would have a role in promoting media literacy to help people navigate the plethora of information, distinguish between trusted news and fake stories and locate credible news sources. It would also investigate funding for news start-ups and alternative models of producing quality news. 

There are successes out there — the local news outlet, Manchester Mill, and its spin-offs in other cities have created a buzz and, crucially, subscribers. But one of last year’s Press Gazette’s Future of Media Awards winners, local publisher Lincolnite, has recently closed with the loss of nine jobs.

Democracy needs diverse, independent, quality media. Our plan is about an ambition to recalibrate the news industry and better root it in the public good. 

Achieving this would be a major step in restoring trust to our news industry so it can provide a bulwark against the craziness of billionaires, tech giants and the gamut of bad actors intent on deliberately supressing the truth.

Michelle Stanistreet is general secretary of the National Union of Journalists.