Nationally Elected SNP Representative Endorsements

If you have an SNP MP or MSP, please email them and ask them to personally endorse the Media Freedom Act.

https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

https://www.parliament.scot/msps/current-and-previous-msps 

Sample Emails:

SNP UK Parliamentary Campaign

For SNP MPs :https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

Dear XXXXX MP,

I hope you are well.

I would like you to personally endorse the Media Freedom Act, which will free Scottish and British democracy from capture by a tiny group of billionaire media owners, and commit to supporting its measures in the UK Parliament.

We will only have a free and fair democracy when our media is freed from domination by a tiny unrepresentative minority.

The Act has five measures:

1. ⁠Media owners must be legal UK residents.

2. To free national media ownership from domination by billionaires and corporations:

   2.1 .The maximum ownership share allowed of a national media outlet by any one individual or family is 20%. 

   2.2 Companies can only own one national media outlet.

3. ⁠Distribute media ownership across society, with a levy on social media billionaires to fund local, independent, and cooperatively owned media.

4. UK media must be members of a press-abuse complaints authority independent of government and owners.

5. ⁠Requires think tanks covered by the media to disclose donations in real time.

I look forward to your positive reply.

Many thanks
A N Other 

Please let us know if you have done this and what the result was.

SNP Scottish Parliament Campaign

Suggested email text for SNP MSPs:  https://www.parliament.scot/msps/current-and-previous-msps 

Dear XXXXX MSP,

I hope you are well.

I would like you to personally endorse the Media Freedom Act, which will free Scottish and British democracy from its capture by a tiny group of billionaire media owners.

I would also like you to table a motion in the Scottish Parliament calling for the British Parliament to back the Act.

We will only have a free and fair democracy when our media is freed from domination by a tiny unrepresentative minority.

The Act has five measures: 

1. ⁠Media owners must be legal UK residents.

2. To free national media ownership from domination by billionaires and corporations:

   2.1 The maximum ownership share allowed of a national media outlet by any one individual or family is 20%. 

   2.2 Companies can only own one national media outlet.

3. ⁠Distribute media ownership across society, with a levy on social media billionaires to fund local, independent, and cooperatively owned media.

4. UK media must be members of a press-abuse complaints authority independent of government and owners.

5. ⁠Requires think tanks covered by the media to disclose donations in real time.

I look forward to your positive reply.

Many thanks
A N Other 

Please let us know if you have done this and what the result was. 

SNP Trade Unionists and Endorsements For The Media Freedom Act

If you are an SNP supporter and a trade unionist, please submit a motion to your local trade union or trade union council (TUC) to formally endorse the Media Freedom Act and submit it to your Scottish or UK trade union / TUC conferences.

Trade Unions, including Scottish Trade Unions, hold 50% of the voting power at UK Labour Party conferences and are vital to our campaign to get Labour to back the Media Freedom Act’s proposals, just as the Green Party has adopted many of them.

Suggested text for motion to local trade union branch:

Trade Union branch xxx formally endorses the Media Freedom Act and calls on Parliament to pass the Act, which will free British democracy from capture by a tiny group of billionaire media owners.

We note that:

1. Ownership of the United Kingdom’s national news media (press, broadcast and online) is concentrated in the hands of a tiny number of individuals and corporations, most of them based outside the UK, giving them enormous unaccountable power to dominate and control our Scottish and British politics.

2. The UK Parliament has taken a very modest step to bar foreign states from controlling more than 15% of a UK newspaper company, but no equivalent rule applies to individuals or companies not resident in the UK.

3. The loss of local newspapers has left much of the UK without reporting of our courts, councils and communities, as advertising revenue has moved to a small number of offshore technology corporations, leading to a seriously destructive democratic deficit. 

4. Dark-money-funded think tanks allow billionaires and foreign corporations to anonymously and unaccountably influence Scottish and British government policymaking. 

5. The UK’s billionaire and corporate-owned media have refused to join the post-Leveson complaints authority, which is independent of government and media owners. 

We therefore endorse the Media Freedom Act, whose measures include: 

1. ⁠Media owners must be legal UK residents.

2. Free media ownership from domination by billionaires and corporations:

a.The maximum ownership share allowed of a national media outlet by any one individual or family is 20%. 

b. Companies can only own one national media outlet.

3. ⁠Distribute media ownership across society, with a levy on social media billionaires to fund local, independent, and cooperatively owned media.

4. ⁠UK media must be members of a press-abuse complaints authority independent of government and owners.

5. ⁠Requires think tanks covered by the media to disclose donations in real time.”
   
   Please let us know if you have done this and what the result was. 

This branch agrees to submit this motion to our national conference for endorsement.