Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions the Government is having with other governments on the creation of international rules to ensure that online news publishers are fairly remunerated by technology companies for the news content they generate.

Fair and competitive digital markets sit at the heart of the government’s strategy on press sustainability. Central to our plans in this area is our pro-competition regime for digital markets, which will include an enforceable code of conduct to rebalance the relationship between publishers and platforms. No decisions have been taken on this yet but we expect to launch our consultation later in the year.

Given the global nature of digital technologies and markets, we recognise that we will be most effective if we work together. We therefore continue to monitor developments in this area internationally and to engage with other governments to understand their approaches.

We are discussing our approach to press sustainability in the context of digital markets with international partners through bilateral engagement and as part of our G7 presidency. The Secretary of State has raised the issue of press sustainability with his G7 counterparts with a view to promoting competitive, innovative digital markets while protecting the free speech and journalism that underpin our democracy and precious liberties.