Keir Starmer has said the media should have control over their work – and be paid for it – as AI technology transforms the economy and the UK.
Calling journalism the “lifeblood of democracy,” the prime minister vowed to “defend press freedoms” and ensure that “the growing power of digital technology does not begin to undermine” the ability of journalists and editors to defend values. democratic.
In a launch piece for the News Media Association’s Journalism Matters campaign, Starmer said AI, the creative industries and media were central to the government’s economic growth mission, and that he was working with both sectors. to “balance” its industrial policy.
“We recognize the basic principle that publishers should have control over their work and demand payment for it, even as they think about the role of AI,” Starmer said. This was “essential to a vibrant media landscape, where the sector’s provision of trusted information is more vital than ever.”
The Prime Minister’s apparent calm comes as the Observer revealed that ministers are facing a backlash over plans that would allow AI companies to mine content from publishers and artists. The BBC is among organizations opposing a plan that would allow technology companies to train artificial intelligence models using online content by default, unless publishers and other content creators specifically opt out.
The government wants to attract investment from technology companies and has announced more than £25 billion of investment in UK data centres. But last month Google warned that Britain risked being left behind unless it built more data centers and allowed tech companies to use copyrighted works in their artificial intelligence models, which publishers said would is “similar to requiring homeowners to post notices outside their homes asking thieves not to rob them.”
Starmer argued that the Consumer, Competition and Digital Markets Act, which will allow the UK’s competition watchdog to tackle the “excessive dominance” of a small number of tech companies over consumers and businesses, will help “rebalance the relationship”.
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In June a report from Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that the proportion of people selectively avoiding the news was 10 percentage points higher than seven years ago, reaching a new high of 39% in 20 key markets. It was the highest level of news avoidance registered from the institute Digital news report started in 2012.
Starmer wrote that with more than 900 local and national titles in the UK, the British news industry still reaches more than 80% of the population. “Despite all the doom prophecies about the future of news, that represents an extraordinary force,” he said.
He praised the “determined, incisive and irrepressible members of the fourth estate” who had held him and former prime minister Rishi Sunak “vigorously” to account during the election campaign. “Neither I nor the now opposition leader are complaining about this. None of us turned our partisan supporters against the media. “We go about our business, as all our predecessors have done, accepting that this is democracy in action,” he wrote.
“And yet, this is not a fact. All over the world, journalists are putting themselves at risk in defense of those values,” he added, paying tribute to journalists such as Ukrainian Victoria Roshchyna, who died in Russian detention after being captured by Moscow while reporting from occupied eastern Ukraine, and the “ Hundreds of journalists killed reporting on the unimaginable suffering in Gaza.”
There was concern in the summer when Labor delayed proposals to tackle Slapps – spurious lawsuits brought by oligarchs and others aimed at intimidating journalists, academics and activists. Frederick Ponsonby, Labor’s justice minister in the House of Lords, said he could not commit to bringing forward stand-alone legislation on strategic claims against public participation or set a timetable for addressing the issue, although he promised the government would carry out a review. .
But Starmer, defending press freedom, said the government would “address the use of Slapps to protect investigative journalism, along with access to justice”.