Last chance to have your donation doubled this week
Plus: Leading journalism experts and Richard Leonard MSP use their platform at our Edinburgh event to call for more Scottish Government support for journalism...
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Over the last month, The Scottish Beacon has been raising funds as part of the ‘No News is Bad News’ campaign, launched by the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF).
As part of that campaign, PINF introduced the Indie News Fund - doubling the donations of our supporters - and throughout the month of June we’ve been trying to reach our target of £3,000.
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The Citizens’ Agenda survey is closed - what’s next?
At the Scottish Beacon, we believe in doing journalism differently, and we believe that the future of journalism is collaborative. That means local newsrooms collaborating with each other. But it also means working more collaboratively with our readers and the communities we serve.
That’s why we have been asking our readers to set the Citizens’ Agenda for political coverage of the general election campaign. Thank you to everyone who took part in the Citizen’s Agenda survey.
Rather than let the candidates and party machines determine the topics that get coverage, this approach is designed to put power back in the hands of the people that politicians are meant to be serving.
What now?
Since the survey closed we’ve been organising and analysing all the responses gathered by us and our partners, to find out what the main issues are for voters this general election.
From that data, we have put together a set of questions which have been adapted by our partners based on responses in their own patch, and put forward to the electoral candidates ahead of polling day.
The plan is to publish their answers and then hold elected representative accountable to their answers after the results are in. We’ll also be doing more reporting on the many issues that were raised.
The latest from our website…
Richard Leonard MSP calls for a Scottish government fund to relocalise and democratise media ownership
By Devon McCole, The Scottish Beacon| Photo by Iain McLellan
At the ‘No News is Bad News’ event, MSP Richard Leonard delivered a powerful address on the vital connection between media ownership and democracy.
He urged the Scottish Government to establish a support fund to help relocalise and democratise media ownership, aligning with the NUJ’s policy of supporting employee and community ownership of local papers facing closure or sale, stating:
“It is my view that the Scottish Government should establish a support fund to help relocalise and democratise ownership of the media. These are local assets and should be located in the communities they serve.”
In closing, he reiterated the urgent need for a participatory democracy, one that goes beyond merely voting every few years, saying:
“This is about a critical and timely struggle for the regeneration of our media, but also the regeneration of our communities. And in the end, it is about the struggle for democracy itself,” he concluded, leaving the audience with much to ponder on the future of journalism and democracy in Scotland.
Journalism experts call for government support for a Scottish Public Interest Journalism Institute
By Roisin McCann, The Scottish Beacon | Photo by Iain McLellan
The establishment of a Scottish Public Interest Journalism Institute was recommended by a cross-industry working group, but remains stalled due to lack of start up funding.
In a panel on this issue, the discussion was led by Nick McGowan-Lowe the NUJ’s national organiser for Scotland. He was joined by Rachel Hamada, Director of the Take One Action Film Festival and co-founder of The Ferret, Richard Walker, founding editor of the Sunday Herald, and Joyce McMillan theatre critic and columnist at The Scotsman. All of the speakers have been involved in discussions of an establishment of an institute to take forward this issue:
“It’s clear that the media is the lifeblood of any kind of working polity. You can’t have a political community without reasonably reliable communications.
“Media is vital as a way of holding communities together, enabling them to assess the situation that they’re in, and enabling them to make informed decisions.”
The subject of the panel discussion was the need for a functioning Scottish Public Interest Journalism Institute to support the development of Scottish-based news outlets and further the impact of community journalism.
Because, amidst changing business models and economic pressures, the traditional mechanisms sustaining journalism have been strained. Joyce lamented the diminishing resources available, emphasising the detrimental effects on both local and national coverage. She noted:
“We’re seeing newsrooms shrink, investigative teams disbanded, and important stories left untold. This isn’t just a loss for journalists; it’s a loss for society as a whole.”