Monbiot: 'These local papers are worth saving'

George Monbiot on Comment is Free has listed the local newspapers that readers and, in some cases journalists, have contacted him to say do hold big business, councils and the powerful to account.

They have responded to Monbiot's scathing piece in the Guardian which claimed: "For many years the local press has been one of Britain's most potent threats to democracy, championing the overdog, misrepresenting democratic choices, defending business, the police and local elites from those who seek to challenge them."

Now on CiF Monbiot says there have been dozens of positive responses sticking up for local papers , both in the comment threads and by email.
"In choosing the strongest cases, I have concentrated on the papers which, according to their readers, have held powerful institutions to account: big business, local government, the police and professions," he says.
The paper that has received the most commendations is the independently own free weekly Camden New Journal. The Doncaster Free Press also does well.

Also recommend the Stoke Sentinel; the Surrey Comet; the Huddersfield Daily Examiner; the Yorkshire Post; the Nottingham Evening Post; Waltham Forest Guardian, Lymington Times ;the Lancaster Guardian, News Shopper; Beds on Sunday:Ham & High; Andover Advertiser; Lincolnshire Free Press ;Northern Echo ; the Comet, Hertfordshire; and the John O Groat Journal .

Monbiot adds: "Please keep the commendations coming, and if your local paper deserves to survive, fight for it."