Papers welcome Media Commission Report

Local Ireland, the association representing 32 paid-for weekly newspapers around the country – including the Connacht Tribune and Galway City Tribune – has welcomed this week’s publication of the long-awaited Future of Media Commission Report.

Local Ireland President Declan McGuire of the Connacht Tribune pointed to what he called ‘several encouraging aspects’ to the report.

“There’s recognition of local news publishers as public service content providers and the recommendation that a new Media Fund would be open to print and online publishers to support skills-training, digital transformation, coverage of cultural issues and diversity,” he said.

“Quality, professional local journalism is facing serious economic challenges that have been exacerbated by the seismic shift in advertising to the major tech platforms and we need Government support to continue to deliver to our readers,” he added.

While much of the focus centred on the coalition’s decision to reject the Commission’s proposal to replace the RTÉ licence fee with funding “derived from general tax revenue” by 2024, that was only one of 50 areas dealt with in a comprehensive report.

The commission, chaired by Professor Brian MacCraith, saw the other 49 recommendations accepted by the Government, including a new regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, to set industry standards.

Other measures include a “National Counter-Disinformation Strategy” to enhance trust in media; a reduced or zero VAT rate for newspapers and digital publications and a media fund to support local democracy reporting, courts reporting and community media.

Mr McGuire welcomed the recommendation that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment should ensure there is fair dealing between publishers and the tech platforms in light of Article 15 of the EU Copyright Directive, which, he said, recognized the value of newspapeur content.

“We have waited almost year for the report to be published, so there should be minimum delay in implementing the Commission’s recommendations,” he said.

But Executive Director of Local Ireland Bob Hughes warned that implementation of the proposals would now be key.

“The Government has an opportunity to offer immediate support for news and digital publishers by abolishing the current 9% VAT rate and bringing it down to 0% in this September’s budget,” he said.

“The EU Finance Ministers’ agreement to reform the VAT regime came into effect earlier this year and this now allows the Government to cut VAT for publishers to zero per cent to bring Ireland in line with the UK and progressive European countries.

“This would end the tax on knowledge and information for an industry that plays a vital role in our democracy. It would also allow for greater investment in journalism and digital transformation and would help preserve jobs in a sector that has seen its workforce reduced by half over the last 20 years,” he added.