The Future of News (Communications and Digital Committee Report)

Baroness Twycross Excerpts

Friday 25th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Twycross) (Lab)]

My Lords, I am honoured to respond to this debate, initiated by the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell of Beeston, on the report from the Communications and Digital Committee into the future of news, which I enjoyed reading. I thank the committee for its work on this important matter and add my tributes to the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, for her leadership of the committee. I look forward to the debate on the subsequent report in due course.

I am grateful to all noble Lords for their contributions today. It is clear that we have a wealth of experience and expertise, as well as a range of views, across your Lordships’ House. I add my congratulations to the noble Lord, Lord Pack, on his excellent maiden speech. It is clear that the noble Lord has already made a considerable contribution to UK politics, which will continue in your Lordships’ House, as well as a significant contribution to online political media. As the noble Lord, Lord McNally, said, the noble Lord, Lord Pack, is a communicator. Journalism and communication are clearly the lifeblood of our democracy. The Government unequivocally support a free, thriving and plural media underpinned by high-quality journalism and a sustainable press sector that helps democracy and communities to thrive.

The noble Lord, Lord Birt, reminded us of the importance of investigative journalism—intense resource as it is—in the media landscape. As the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, stressed, news matters. This is something all noble Lords can surely agree on, as is the need for the media to be strong enough to hold politicians to account. I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, for his television recommendation.

Rapidly changing media consumption habits continue to transform our media landscape. These trends are well documented in the committee’s report. It paints a challenging picture of news avoidance, declining trust, falling revenues and increased competition for attention from alternative and less reliable sources. The industry is responding to these existential challenges. Acknowledging principles of media freedom and independence, the Government are working to enable the framework in which the industry can thrive.

We are implementing vital legislation, and I acknowledge the work of the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, and others in putting it on the statute book under the previous Government. The Media Act will future-proof our public service broadcasting system and encourage innovation, ensuring that the UK public continues to reap the benefits provided by broadcasters. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act will help rebalance the relationship between news publishers and dominant online platforms, which has been at the root of many challenges the industry has faced in recent years.

In response to the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, on digital markets and independence, the Competition and Markets Authority is independent of government and will prioritise who it investigates through the new digital markets regime, in line with its principles and statutory duty.

The final thing to say on legislation brought in in recent years is that the Online Safety Act has safeguards to protect the press against takedown and other editorialising by platforms that host their content.

We are now focused on what more needs to be done. The noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, highlighted the importance of local media. My noble friend Lord Knight referenced concern over news deserts. I am fortunate that where I live there are both online and physical newspapers covering the local area. I am also the proud aunt of a trainee journalist on another local newspaper, so I agree and understand how vital a vibrant local media is.

The Culture Secretary’s commitment to a local media strategy reflects the particular challenges facing local journalism. The closure and merging of newspaper titles, redundancies among local journalists and falls in print circulation risk leaving a democratic deficit in local communities. We saw what is at stake during the August riots. Recent DCMS-commissioned research, for publication in due course, explores the role that local journalism played in informing the public of events as they unfolded, helping to de-escalate tensions. Our strategy is intended to strengthen our local media in this vital role.

The noble Lord, Lord Pack, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Wheatcroft and Lady Stowell, asked specific questions around the local media strategy. The noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, asked for more detail. We are engaging with industry and recognise the urgent challenge faced by the sector. Although we have not ruled out options for financial support, noble Lords will understand the challenging fiscal context. In response to the points raised by the noble Lord, Lord Pack, we are also considering the role of public notices and the important role of the local press in holding local public services to account.

Numerous noble Lords, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Stowell, Lady Wheatcroft and Lady Cash, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Oxford, my noble friend Lord Knight, and the noble Lords, Lord Gilbert of Panteg and Lord Ranger, spoke about AI, tech platforms and the way in which the whole media landscape is evolving. Clearly, a significant challenge for local and national press is the evolution of technology and news consumption habits, including the relationship between news publishers and the online platforms through which citizens, including noble Lords, increasingly find their news.

Developments in generative AI bring opportunities but, clearly, also risk amplifying the challenges that this industry continues to face. Central to this is the interaction between the training of AI models and our copyright laws. The potential of AI to support human-centred creativity will open up new frontiers across a range of sectors, including the news media, which is central to our mission to drive economic growth and a key aspect of our plan for change. We also, however, recognise the key basic principle that rightsholders should have control over and be able to seek and receive payment for their work.

The Government, as a number of noble Lords noted, recently consulted on updating the AI copyright regime. We are engaging closely with stakeholders, and both the Minister for Media and the Technology Secretary have met recently with key press sector representatives to discuss the consultation. We want to ensure that actions taken forward provide certainty and strike a balanced approach to this issue. We recognise the urgency here, but it is important that we get it right. We will continue to engage extensively as we consider next steps.

My noble friend Lady Healy of Primrose Hill raised misinformation and disinformation, and I look forward to the committee’s forthcoming report on media literacy that my noble friend referenced. It is clear that developments in AI also heighten concerns about the risks of sophisticated disinformation, including from foreign states and hostile actors, polluting public discourse and undermining trust. That point was made by many noble Lords, including the noble Lords, Lord Parkinson and Lord Faulks, my noble friend Lord Knight and the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone. The Government take this seriously. We are acting to make it more difficult to spread false information online and to reduce its impact. The Online Safety Act is key to improving user safety across a variety of online harms and placing duties on platforms to remove illegal disinformation.

In relation to points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, there is a difference of view between where disinformation starts and ends and dissent begins. We may need to disagree on where the line falls, but to me, this disagreement itself represents a strength of our democracy.

In relation to the need for media literacy, which was raised by a number of noble Lords, including my noble friends Lady Healy and Lady Keeley, the right reverend Prelate, and the noble Lord, Lord Gilbert, we agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, that media literacy is not a luxury. As noble Lords will be aware, the Government have established an independent school curriculum and assessment review. The interim report of the review, published in March 2025, highlights the need for renewed focus on media literacy in response to evolving technological challenges.

We know that this is not just an issue among children. The Government are conducting research to help us target the next phase of DSIT’s media literacy work and ensure it complements Ofcom’s work under its Online Safety Act duties. But perhaps, if we are looking at a plural media landscape of the future, the best protection against the spread of misinformation and disinformation remains our news publishers and broadcasters. An independent and trustworthy press contributes to our national discourse and democracy, ensuring that the public can access fact-checked, accurate journalism. Therefore, we are also working to make sure that our media ownership rules are future-proofed. This means ensuring the media mergers regime reflects the changing ways in which people can access news and that foreign states should not own, control or influence the policy or operation of UK newspapers and news magazines.

I know members of your Lordships’ House were hoping for an update by today on two areas: first, on what level of exceptions to the new foreign state intervention powers in the Enterprise Act are required to permit sovereign wealth funds, sector pension funds or similar to invest up to strict limits; and, secondly, as referenced by the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, on our plans to expand the legislation to allow the Culture Secretary to intervene in media mergers involving a wider range of print news publications, online new publications and news programmes.

The noble Lord, Lord Lansley, spoke in particular about online news and bringing this into the regime. It is right that the media mergers regime is updated to reflect the way in which the public are increasingly accessing news, which is online. We plan to publish a response soon and will lay the necessary SIs shortly thereafter. At present, the Government are focusing on the reforms to the media ownership rules suggested in Ofcom’s 2021 review. The review did not recommend that online intermediaries, including social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, should fall within the scope of this regime.

The noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, as I fully anticipated she would, raised foreign state influence. I had hoped that it would have been possible for an announcement to be made by now. I appreciate how frustrating it is for noble Lords to have me give essentially the same response as during previous debates on this matter. However, we must ensure that we consider this topic carefully before proceeding. This matter remains a priority for the Government, and I will update the House very soon.

The noble Baronesses, Lady Stowell and Lady Wheatcroft, the noble Lord, Lord Young, and others referenced the Telegraph sale. The noble Lord, Lord Young, referenced his correspondence with the Secretary of State in his professional capacity. I want to reassure your Lordships’ House that the Secretary of State is committed to seeing the Telegraph thrive and wants a sale that aligns with relevant public interest considerations, including free expression of opinion, accuracy of reporting and a range of views in newspapers. As noble Lords are well aware, the Secretary of State’s powers and duties in relation to media mergers must, however, be exercised in a quasi-judicial way after she alone has considered all relevant factors that have a bearing on the statutory tests and in order to confirm whether or not the necessary thresholds have been met. We cannot provide a running commentary on the sale and these discussions, due to the commercial sensitivities surrounding any transaction and the quasi-judicial nature of Secretary of State’s role.

I want to be very clear to the noble Lord, Lord Young, and your Lordships’ House that the Secretary of State’s letter in response to the noble Lord’s correspondence made it clear that it was an initial response ahead of today’s debate, out of courtesy. A letter of the length and nature sent to her by the noble Lord, Lord Young, would usually, as it definitely does in this case, require a substantially longer period to respond.

The noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, and others raised the BBC and charter review. As the media landscape undergoes the next generational shift, the BBC must also adapt and be supported to do so. I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, about the importance of the BBC producing quality news, a point echoed by the noble Lords, Lord Ranger and Lord Parkinson. The forthcoming charter review is an opportunity to set the BBC up for success into the future. As a priority, this Government will start a conversation to ensure that the BBC represents and delivers for every person in this country.

As somebody who spends more time than I would probably like to admit listening to the radio, I also agree with the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, about the role of the World Service internationally.

The noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, asked where we might be going with the charter review. The Secretary of State’s ambition is clear in this respect: she sees the charter review as an opportunity to secure the BBC’s future for decades to come.

The noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, also asked about Ofcom and the review of the Broadcasting Code. In the Government’s view, it is essential that news broadcasters are regulated effectively by Ofcom to ensure that broadcast news is duly accurate and impartial. Ofcom has an ongoing duty to keep the Broadcasting Code up to date. Following the judicial review that the noble Baroness referenced, Ofcom has announced that it will consult on changes to rules to restrict politicians from presenting news in any type of programme. That is a matter for Ofcom as the independent regulator.

The noble Baronesses, Lady Stowell and Lady Fleet, the noble Lords, Lord McNally and Lord Parkinson, and my noble friends Lord Knight and Lady Keeley referenced the issue of SLAPPs and media freedom. It is also essential to have a healthy news ecosystem in which journalists can report without fear of abuse, threat or intimidation. We recognise concerns over the use of strategic lawsuits against public participation—SLAPPs—to intimidate, harass and silence journalists, and understand the very real financial and psychological impact that this has on victims.

Our immediate focus is on implementing the anti-economic crime SLAPPs measures in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act. Our future approach will be informed by monitoring the operation of new procedure rules being implemented by the Civil Procedure Rule Committee so that future reform options are backed by evidence. We do not wish to legislate in haste, risking unintended consequences that could upset the interplay between the rights of access to justice and to free speech. We also continue to consider the issue of SLAPPs within the National Committee for the Safety of Journalists, which brings together stakeholders to discuss journalists’ wider safety issues.

The noble Lord, Lord Faulks, raised a number of points around press regulation; in particular, IPSO. Like others, I recognise his work in this area. Of course, with press freedom comes responsibility. We recognise the work that press regulators such as IPSO and Impress do to hold our press to account. This independent self-regulatory system is vital to ensure that the press adheres to clear and high standards.

I end by reiterating the importance of public interest journalism in our democracy. A free, fair, sustainable and plural press in an age of misinformation and disinformation is genuinely more important than ever. As politicians, we rely on and sometimes take for granted access to a wide range of views across media. We are among the most news-dependent—what the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, rightly described as “news junkies”. We forget at our peril the rise in news avoidance and should ensure that we work across party divides to fight mis- and disinformation, rebuild trust and find ways to ensure access to high-quality news for all.

I again thank the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, and the committee for the work that they have done in this regard. We are committed to supporting the future of news and the committee’s report is an excellent reminder of everything that is at stake.