Media Freedom Act: Lobbying at Party Conferences
Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom
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Aim
The Media Freedom Act campaigns to end the corruption of UK democracy by media billionaires.
Fund Media Freedom Act: Lobbying at Party Conferences!
The Media Freedom Act campaign frees British democracy from capture by the billionaire-owned media (BOM).
Following our successful Parliamentary Petition, which forced the Labour government to state its position on media billionaireism, we now need funds to cover lobbying costs at this month’s party conferences to persuade them to back the Act.
Whilst we kept total accommodation costs to just £66, entrance tickets for these conferences are very expensive for campaign groups.
For example, two tickets for us to attend the Green Party conference for two days cost £800!
We also need to cover train and subsistence costs.
Our total estimated budget is £4,350, which covers our lobbying at the LibDem, Green, Labour, and SNP conferences this month.
We hope to get to the Tory and Reform conferences next year.
The Media Freedom Act has 5 measures:
Media owners must be UK legal residents.
Free media ownership from domination by billionaires and corporations.
The maximum ownership share of a national media outlet by any one individual/family shall be 20%.
Companies can only own one national media outlet.
Distribute media ownership across society, with a levy on social media billionaires to fund local, independent, and cooperatively owned media.
UK media must be members of a press-abuse complaints authority independent of government and owners.
Requires think tanks covered by the media to disclose donations in real time.
Full draft here: https://mediasovereignty.org/the-media-sovereignty-act-full-draft/
We do not have a free and fair democracy as long as our media is dominated by a tiny billionaire class.
Read the government response and our analysis of it: mediasovereignty.org/government-response/
Now we're moving to stage two: Lobbying political parties, trade unions, and NGOs to support the Act.
Our target is clear: by the next general election, we want enough parties, candidates, peers, MPs, and civil society organisations to formally back the Act so that its passage becomes inevitable in the next parliament.
Why We Need This Fund
Getting there means being in the room where decisions are made. That means attending and lobbying at the Green, Liberal Democrat, SNP, and Labour autumn conferences.
The cost of making that happen is around £4,350 for this round of conference attendance alone: expensive conference tickets, travel, accommodation, materials, subsistence, etc.
To date, our campaign has run almost entirely on volunteer effort and personal savings, except for a Crowdfunder that successfully covered our YouGov poll on public support for the Act.
Every pound from this Crowdfunder goes directly toward getting us into those rooms to talk face-to-face with policymakers, manifesto drafters, and party members.
What Your Support Does
Pays for us to attend four party conferences this autumn to lobby political parties to back the Act.
Funds entrance fees, travel and accommodation for Directors representing the movement.
Builds the. political foundation to secure Parliament's passage of the Act.
Whatever you can give helps. If you can only spare a fiver, thank you. If you can give more, even better. Share this page too, talk to your branch, your union, your student society, your book club, etc.
How We Got Here
Two friends saw how corruption from billionaire media ownership was blocking parliament from addressing our climate, democracy, nature, and poverty crises, and decided to do something about it.
Since then, a community of volunteers has grown around the campaign, writing, designing, organising, and spreading the word.
The campaign includes a daily blog, a social media presence, a petition, and outreach to friendly journalists and allied campaigns like Hacked Off, Media Lens, and the Press Justice Project.
Prominent supporters include Peter Oborne, Mark Rylance, George Monbiot, Zack Polanksi, Clive Lewis MP, Professor Richard Betts, Sir David King and others.
Conclusion
Your support gets us into the rooms where the next parliament's agenda is being shaped. Any additional money will go towards other administrative campaigning costs, such as website and Mailchimp fees.
As this is a volunteer-led campaign, donations towards conference attendance costs are deeply appreciated.
Many thanks
Donnachadh McCarthy FRSA, Caspar Hughes, Directors: Media Freedom Act.
Rough budget for conferences:
Lib Dem £760
Green Party £1,100
Labour £410
Scottish National Party £780
Staff / misc £1300
Total: £4,350
All donations, small or large, are very appreciated.
If you would like to sponsor a particular party conference lobby, that would be really great!
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 4th January 2027 at 3:38pm