JEREMY Corbyn has offered an olive branch to the media following weeks of bad press by outlining a series of sweeping reforms which he insists would set journalists “free to do their best work”.
The Labour leader wants to force tech giants such as Google and Facebook to plough cash into a “public interest media fund” while giving some local, investigative and public interest journalism organisations charitable status.
He also reiterated plans to expand and strengthen freedom of information laws – bringing private companies delivering public services under the legislation for the first time – as well as overhauling the BBC to make it “freer from government influence”.
Mr Corbyn will address the prestigious Alternative MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival today, where he will argue “we need bold, radical thinking on the future of our media” because of low levels of public trust and the impact of the digital revolution.
It comes after weeks of intense scrutiny of his leadership amid an ongoing row over anti-Semitism within the Labour Party.
Mr Corbyn will insist a “few tech giants and unaccountable billionaires will control huge swathes of our public space and debate” unless major reforms are brought in.
He will say the free press is “essential to our democracy” but that journalists need to be “set free to do their best work, not held back by media bosses, billionaires or the state”.
He will continue: "The best journalism takes on the powerful, in the corporate world as well as government, and helps create an informed public. This work costs money. We value it but somehow that doesn’t translate into proper funding and legal support.
"One solution to funding public interest media could be by tapping up the digital monopolies that profit from every search, share and like we make."
Mr Corbyn will also call for BBC staff and licence fee payers to have a say in electing its board.
He will suggest placing the BBC on a permanent statutory footing to end government control through charter renewal.
And he will argue the broadcaster could lead the way in publishing transparent workforce equality data – "including for social class".
It comes after he visited asylum seekers threatened with eviction in Glasgow.
Alongside Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard, he threw his weight behind a campaign supporting Areeb Umeed Bakhsh, 13, and his brother Somer, 15, who are facing being deported to Pakistan.
They fled the country after their father Maqsood was subjected to death threats due to his Christian faith.
Mr Leonard hinted Labour is open to rethinking its policy on the devolution of immigration as it looks to reform the current “hostile environment” for asylum seekers. The party currently opposes Holyrood taking control of immigration powers.
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