9 times out of 10 when people in Britain talk about protecting press freedom what they really mean is protecting press power...
There are two great myths that sustain this narrative. First that digital disruption has resulted in platform monopolies (eg Google) and/or new entrants (eg the Canary) are eclipsing the influence of newspaper owners and editors. This couldn't be further from the truth...
Empirical evidence overwhelmingly shows that major algorithms like Google News tend to favour 'legacy' media - including national newspapers - over alternative or partisan online media like the Canary...
Titles like the Daily Mail and the Sun are reaching bigger audiences today than they could have ever dreamed of pre-digital, and several hundred times that of the Canary...
The second giant myth that's been reverberating through the airwaves this weekend is that Britain's mainstream press is a vital pillar of our democracy, covering a diversity of perspectives and upholding professional standards of journalism...
again, the reality is closer to the exact inverse of such claims. More than 10 million people voted for a socialist party at the last election (13 million in 2017) and polls have consistently shown that majority of British public oppose austerity...
The 'diversity' of our national press - much like broadcasters such as LBC - covers the political spectrum from liberal/centre to hard right and has overwhelmingly backed austerity economics for the best part of the last 4 decades...
and as for professional standards of journalism, the UK press enjoys an unrivalled international reputation for producing a diatribe of fake, racist and misogynistic hate speech over anything that can be called journalism...
ironically one of the greatest threats to democracy is a press that continues to weave myths in support of its vested interests, and a BBC that continues to uncritically absorb them.
