THE International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on Australia to ensure a plan to make Google and Facebook pay for news content helps to fund public interest journalism rather than enrich existing media monopolies.
A law that will require the tech giants to negotiate payment with news outlets for linking to their content will be debated in the Australian Parliament after the Senate economics legislation committee said today it was happy with the draft.
The committee’s report said that “public interest journalism is a cornerstone of democracy and its survival is imperative in a society increasingly vulnerable to misleading information.”
Claims that digital media has rendered press power obsolete are a dangerous myth, argues DES FREEDMAN
As advertising drains away, newsrooms shrink and local papers disappear, MIKE WAYNE argues that the market model for news is broken – and that public-interest alternatives, rooted in democratic accountability, are more necessary than ever
On the 40th anniversary of the Wapping dispute, this Morning Star special supplement traces the long-planned conspiracy that led to the mass sackings of printworkers in 1986 – a struggle whose unresolved injustices still demand redress today, writes ANN FIELD


