Good quotes from Labour MP Denis MacShane, calling for a more urgent response to the crisis in the newspaper industry in the House of Commons yesterday, when Culture Secretary Andy Burnham was questioned about the high level of newspaper redundancies.
MacShane, a former president of the NUJ, said: "We all have problems with journalists but whereas it is possible to have politicians without democracy, I do not believe that it is possible to have democracy without independent journalism, and print media are essential: digital media could never replace them.
"However, we are seeing a massive erosion of our print media. Journalists are going out of the door regionally, locally and nationally. Lord Carter may be twittering away on the digital problems, but we need more urgent examination now of how we are to keep our print newspapers and trained journalists alive and in business."
Burnham said the Government had no figures for the number of redundancies in the UK newspaper industry but said 57 local newspapers had closed in the past 12 months. He said Lord Carter was considering how to sustain quality news provision across all media at a local level as part of the final “Digital Britain” report.
Conservative MP for Maldon and East Chelmsford John Whittingdale asked Burnham: "Does the Secretary of State accept that in many communities the local newspaper is as important as the local post office, the local shop or the local pub? ... there needs to be urgent action, in particular to relax the competition rules so that markets are judged more broadly in terms of media consumption, and also to encourage local newspapers to take part in consortiums for the provision of regional news, while at the same time perhaps addressing the problem in the broadcast market for news."
A Hansard report of the exchanges can be read here.
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