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One in four editors say councils threatened to pull ads

More than a quarter of local press editors say councils and other public bodies have threatened to pull advertising as a result of editorial coverage, a survey has found.

The Newspaper Society is marking the start of Local Newspaper Week by publishing the results of a survey of editors carried out earlier this year around press freedom issues.

It found that 27pc of local newspapers have received a threat from a public body to suspend advertising as a result of journalistic activity such as a story being published, a query being made or a reporter attending a meeting.

Of those who had been threatened, 40 per cent had seen the threat carried out, the survey found.

Researchers also found that 70pc of editors said it was getting harder to get information from public bodies, with only 8pc saying it was becoming easier.

And nearly half of all editors believe the Leveson Inquiry has had a negative impact on their titles’ relationship with its readers.

One editor commented: “There are readers – including local councillors, for instance – who have failed to make the distinction intellectually between national and local press and we have therefore been tarred with the same brush.”

Data protection was cited by 24pc of editors as the single biggest obstacle to press freedom followed by libel (22pc), privacy constraints (22pc), self censorship in the wake of Leveson (19pc) and court reporting and contempt restrictions (11pc).

NS president Adrian Jeakings said: “This survey illustrates that the current legislative and regulatory framework affecting the press is already having a negative impact upon press freedom and the last thing we now need is to be subjected to yet more burdensome regulation.

“Local newspapers’ ability to hold authority and the powerful to account on behalf of their readers underpins local democracy in Britain and we are in serious danger of seeing this become irreparably damaged.”

5 comments

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  • May 13, 2013 at 11:42 am
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    It’s a permanent threat hanging over any editor who refuses to play the public sector spin doctors’ games.
    Sadly, there’s fewer and fewer of that kind of editor around.

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  • May 13, 2013 at 1:55 pm
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    There are plenty of editors who stand up to councils, it’s just when the council then goes over their head to the MDs, who look at the bottom line that the papers cave.

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  • May 13, 2013 at 2:44 pm
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    I know of hacks who have been fired because they had a row with press officers.

    Whether it was their editors, or their MDs (very rarely journalists, almost always salesmen) who were ultimately responsible, I don’t know. But I know that it has happened.

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  • May 13, 2013 at 5:04 pm
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    Our problems with Carmarthenshire county council have been extensively covered by HTFP and elsewhere, but when I see posts on this website (presumably from journalists) defending the local authority’s stance I wonder what the hell I’m still doing in this bloody profession.

    The most galling aspect of all this is that other papers who toe the party line continue to be amply rewarded through advertising revenue.

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  • May 13, 2013 at 5:08 pm
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    We’ve been subjected to an ongoing council ad embargo since last September.

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