Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

In order to try to unite the country, & regain some pride in #Britain 🇬🇧, we urgently need either a Royal Commission - or a Public Inquiry - into news media funding & ownership by overseas-based, foreign, & non dom multi-millionaires & billionaires.

#RoyalCommission

Just a handful of overseas-based, foreign, or non dom multi-millionaires & billionaires own or fund swathes of our "news" media, including, but not limited to: the Sun; the Times; the Mail; the Telegraph; the Independent; the Spectator; Spiked; talkTV/Radio, & GB "News".

They all use harmful & divisive culture war rhetoric daily, demonising minorities, the public sector, migrants, the poor, young people & the Left, & they all use dangerous populist nationalist rhetoric, deliberately designed to divide, provoke, gaslight & outrage their audiences.

All of them have spent several decades - & some have spent over a century - pushing & supporting the catastrophic #neoliberal policies which have reduced Britain & the USA to two of the most polarised & most unequal 'advanced economies' in the world.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1359445197113950208?s=20&t=MdOX90TvuaXxiTeI9njSAA

Imho, their divisiveness & toxicity is a cancer on Britain: their “news” media exists to misinform, manipulate & divide voters; to protect the interests of the grotesquely wealthy; & to support & prop-up an increasingly authoritarian, corrupt & antidemocratic lawbreaking UK Govt.

The #Leveson inquiry was a judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices & ethics of the British press following the grotesque & ongoing News International phone hacking scandal, chaired by Lord Justice Leveson, who was appointed in July 2011.

A series of public hearings were held throughout 2011/12. The Inquiry published the #Leveson Report in November 2012, which reviewed the general culture & ethics of the British media, & made recommendations for a new, independent, body to replace the Press Complaints Commission.

The toothless body that replaced it in 2014, the "Independent" Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) is worse than useless, most recently simply rejecting all 6,000 complaints about the misogynistic article about Angela Rayner. The NUJ called it the "pointless so-called regulator".

Criticisms of #IPSO have been made by organisations such as Hacked Off campaign group @hackinginquiry, which has described IPSO as a "sham" & "the illusion of reform" because it is "owned & controlled by the very newspapers it is supposed to regulate".

hackinginquiry.org/the-men-behind…

IPSO's code says papers must not publish inaccurate material, but it has neither the will nor the power to enforce this, & only very rarely takes action to deal with repeated and systematic breaches of the code, which is invariably inadequate.

hackinginquiry.org/ipso-caught-wi…

Then PM David Cameron, under whose direction the #Leveson inquiry had been established, said that he welcomed many of the findings, but declined to enact the requisite legislation.

The @Conservatives 2017 manifesto quietly stated the #Leveson2 inquiry would be dropped entirely.

There have been no new royal commissions since Tony Blair established the Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords in 1999.

However, the @Conservatives' 2019 manifesto promised to set up a royal commission on the criminal justice system within the first year of Govt.

The Tory's 2019 manifesto also promised to establish a constitution, democracy & rights commission, which it has also failed to do.

In fact, since then, the Govt has announced it is to remove independence from the @ElectoralCommUK, which exists to ensure free & fair elections.

And in another deeply sinister move - worthy of any corrupt totalitarian dictatorship - under plans to reform the Official Secrets Act, journalists could now be sentenced to up to fourteen years in prison for publishing stories which 'embarrass the Government'.

A Royal Commission is a committee appointed for a specific investigatory or advisory purpose.

The Queen appoints its members on the Govt’s advice - which is worrying - to address high-profile social concerns, issues that may be controversial, or matters of national importance.

Royal commissions typically gather evidence & producing a report. It is then up to the Govt of the day to decide how to respond & whether to act on any of the recommendations. We know the current Govt would simply reject any recommendations, but subsequent non-Tory Govts may not.

UK Royal Commissions have fewer powers than public inquiries established under the Inquiries Act 2005, which gave Inquiries powers to compel witnesses to give evidence - so a Public Inquiry into media ownership & influence may be a better policy to adopt for opposition parties.

Royal commissions have a long history, though their frequency has varied over time. Nearly 400 royal commissions were established between 1830 & 1900. This fell to 145 in the twentieth century. None were set up in the 1980s & only three in the 1990s.

theguardian.com/media/2021/dec…

One thing is crystal clear: if concerned citizens & opposition parties do not push for a Royal Commission or Public Inquiry into UK news media ownership, standards & influence, we will all continue to be subject to hateful, toxic, deliberately divisive & provocative #propaganda.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1525386149396635648?t=diT0jgzqsLNhg3XyopGFDw&s=19

Here's an illustrative case study in How Our Toxic News Media Works:

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1522144149843156993?t=diT0jgzqsLNhg3XyopGFDw&s=19