As part of the Leveson Inquiry, the editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, took the stand on Monday.
Part of what he said could, if implemented, have a significant impact on local news, in particular online hyperlocal news.
One of the items that he raised, nay recommended, was that there should be a new type of press card – one that he suggested would only be issued to journalists working for printed newspapers. In his view, journalists who didn’t have this card should be shunned by official bodies, barring them from asking questions.
Specifically Paul Dacre said, “There would, however, be universal agreement that briefings and press conferences by government bodies, local authorities and the police, access to sporting, royal and celebrity events, material from the BBC and ITV, and information from medical and scientific bodies would only be given to accredited journalists.”
Our quick reaction to this Dacrecard (as it’s become labelled) was those owning/working at newspapers probably loved this idea as, at a stroke, it would restrict a lot of their competition.
Far-reaching impact
Of course, if it was just newspaper journalists that could qualify, this could not only hit online-only publications like Exaro News (that broke the Ed Lester expose) and the Huffington Post, but the myriad of hyperlocal news sites across the UK, including VentnorBlog.
The clear danger of this would be, with less news sources, there would be more potential for powerful bodies to go back to the bad-old-days of them being able to cover up their mistakes or wrong doings without any public knowledge.
VB views sought by The Guardian
With that in mind the Guardian got in touch with VentnorBlog to ask us what we thought the impact of the Dacrecard could be on hyperlocal news reporting.
Joanna Geary, the digital development editor at the Guardian, wove all of this into an opinion piece – Paul Dacre’s old media thinking threatens citizen journalism – that also included the thoughts of Mike Rawlins behind the Stoke-on-Trent hyperlocal news site, Pits ‘n’ Pots that was published late yesterday.
What’s the problem?
We feel Paul Dacre’s suggested card exposes a desire, or even desperation, to pull up the draw-bridge.
If indeed it was only be available to “members of print news-gathering organisations or magazines” – it’s a transparent attempt to kill off potential competition.
It would hardly contribute to an open market for news, would it? A small number of sources for news can only be worrying.
Many council press officers would love it
On the Hyperlocal front – we’d imagine many Local Authority press officers around the UK had a big smile on their faces that day. If the Dacrecard came into existence, much of the investigative hyperlocal journalism would be swept away in a single move.
In media markets where the local newspaper press is potentially compromised by their level of income from the Local Authority, or where they’re just simply uninterested in finding out what’s really going on in the Local Authority on their patch, who would be able to find out and publish the details behind the stories some would rather weren’t public?
