SHOULDN’T THE MEDIA REPORT ON THEIR OWN PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY EFFORTS?

In the United Kingdom you have what are called ‘All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) at the Houses of Parliament. They are formed by MPs and Peers with an interest in a particular country or subject. In general, the groups advocate for or about the thing which is on their name and some receive funding usually to cover administration and some events, from those interests who stand to benefit from the group.

There is a BBC All Party Group, funded by the BBC (to encourage debate and discussion about the future of public service broadcasting and the BBC’s role in the digital age). There is also a Channel 4 Group (to provide a forum for discussion of Channel 4’s content, strategy and contribution to public service broadcasting in the U.K., as well as wider relevant regulatory issues). There is an ITV Group (to provide a forum for parliamentarians and discuss the role and contribution of ITV in broadcasting in the UK and regulatory issues). There is a Media Group funded by the media (Guardian, ITV, Channel 4, BBC etc.) (to provide a forum for the discussion of public policy on the media). The Telegraph itself, also funds the Media APPG. Even OFCOM, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries) does.

What’s more, all these organisations employ in-house political public policy advocates and pay public policy advocates. They do all this because they have a legitimate interest in the legislation and whatnot which affects them and understand that in many ways public policy advocacy is politics.

Under such circumstances shouldn’t the media be more honest when talking or writing about what public policy advocacy actually is and why they engage so aggressively in it themselves ?

Newspapers and other media proprietors, senior editors and executives of media companies should be required to report about their dealings with politicians when they engage in advocacy.

Key Media

Impresa (largest media group in Portugal); Telecom Italia (Italian telecom and media conglomerate Inc., Italia Media, MTV Italia, TM News); the Economist Group; The Washington Post Company; Microsoft (online media, entertainment and social media brands and companies); Grupo PRISA, El Pais, Prisa TV in Spain etc.); Der Standard Medienwelt (Austrian Daily); Publicis (Publicis Entertainment); Hürriyet (Turkish newspaper and website); Tamedia AG (Swiss media group); Bonnier AB (Swedish media); Indigo Books & Music Inc (Canadian Retail Chain); The Financial Times (UK); La 7 TV (Italy); The Wall Street Journal; Die Zeit (Germany).