A real privilege to speak with Members of Parliament in Denmark at an expert hearing about the work we did in the commission on news media subsidies.
In our report, we propose a platform- and technology-neutral model for providing direct support for independent news publishers with a set of criteria for who would qualify, mechanisms for distributing the support based on investment in editorial, and a series of safeguards to ensure support does not compromise editorial autonomy, publishers’ independence, or breed dependence on state aid. We also highlight a set of questions for citizens and their elected representatives about which kinds of publishers (e.g. local titles, independent titles) one wants to give additional support.
Really rich discussion at the hearing, with far more – and far wider-ranging! – questions from members all across the political spectrum than we could do justice too, which I take as evidence of the genuine interest in and curiosity about the potential media policy has.
Video of the whole hearing (in Danish) here, the full report (also in Danish) published last year is available here.
If you are interested in a basic outline of the model we propose, you can read more in English here.
I have had many interesting conversations already about these ideas with civil servants, journalists, politicians, and publishers from Austria, Brussels, Canada, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, and hope others too will find our work useful.
rasmuskleisnielsen.net 