Speaking at The Press Awards last week, the News Media Association's new CEO Theo Bamber, hit back at a Google claim in recently published evidence to the Competition and Markets Authority that publishers want a “free-rider’s charter” by seeking transparency over how their content is used.
“With seemingly no irony or self-awareness, Google recently had the spectacular gall to accuse news publishers of seeking a ‘free-riders charter’ for having the apparent temerity to ask for greater transparency over how their journalism is used by the platform,” Theo said.
“This is a breathtaking inversion of reality from a company driving trillions in revenue by scraping content it did not pay for. And what is Westminster doing about it? Dithering.”
Ministers must deliver support that “must mean something in practice” rather than simply claiming to back the industry without delivering anything of substance, Theo told an audience of journalists and editors.
He added: “The human perspective you bring to every story is what sets your work apart from faceless AI slop. It's why people read what you write and must be recognised in policy.
“The ideas, the opinions, and the transparency you provide are not just professional standards—they are fundamental rights that you afford and defend for all of us.
“If the government speaks of support, that must mean something in practice: protecting the value of professional journalism and protecting you, the journalists.”
Theo praised the journalism highlighted in The Press Awards this evening but warned of the increasingly hostile environment for newsgathering in which journalists face threats to their physical safety and lawfare designed to suppress legitimate reporting such as SLAPPs.
“We are disappointed that the government would apparently rather shield London’s thriving litigation circuit, than protect freedom of speech and legislate against SLAPPs,” Theo said, adding that the NMA would support Baroness Tina Stowell’s Private Members’ Bill to crackdown on SLAPPs.
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