REGIONAL AND LOCAL MEDIA

Early day motion 502, tabled 19 January 2009 by Dai Davies (Independent). Signed by 47 members.

That this House views with growing alarm the flood of newspapers and reporting jobs being lost all over Britain as a result of cut-backs by the Trinity Mirror publishing group; records the fact that 44 newspapers have been cut in the past 12 months alone; understands that a further £20 million worth of cutbacks in 2009 will have a further severe effect on much-needed reporting in communities across Britain; is deeply worried about the way these cutbacks are impacting on the regional and local coverage of politics, cultural, communal and other issues; cannot stress strongly enough that a healthy democracy needs a healthy media which holds political institutions and politicians to account and questions everything they do and that having a top-rate, vigorous, questioning media is vital to communities and people right across Britain; and urges the Government to take all steps it can to ensure that a much-needed thriving regional and local media industry is maintained and strengthened.

Signatures by party: Labour 27, Liberal Democrat 12, Conservative 3, Independent 2, DUP 1, Plaid Cymru 1, Social Democratic and Labour Party 1.