AN existential crisis in media leads to one in democracy, the TUC heard today as it passed a motion on restoring public trust in the media.

The NUJ motion highlights how the failure of organisations to invest in quality news has been worsened by tech platforms shifting away from news.

This has boosted rampant disinformation, as well as racist and partisan agendas, it says.

With democracies needing trusted news sources to hold power to account, NUJ assistant general secretary Seamus Dooley said: “Public interest journalism is important because the existential crisis in media, leads to an existential crisis in democracy.

“The challenge today for politicians is to deliver a two-word response to the likes of Elon Musk and the second word is ‘off,’ because, quite frankly, that cannot be the future of our society.”

The motion sets out the NUJ’s recovery plan, which calls for a windfall tax of 6 per cent on tech giants, legislation to protect the rights of creators and regulate AI, and reform of media ownership rules with a strengthened public interest test.