The Charity Commission should take a lead on establishing investigative journalism as a charitable activity, says Rosamund McCarthy.
Current Parliamentary deals about press regulation mask the wider problems of journalism - journalism’s significance as an educative force but the fragile nature of its commercial viability.
Public benefit journalism, rooted as a charitable activity, could be an answer, among others, not just to ethics of the press, but its economics. But a lead here is needed from the Charity Commission.
In February, the House of Lords Communications Committee noted that journalism “informs and educates us, enhances our democracy, and is a force for good”. At the same time quality journalism is struggling. In 2010, the OECD concluded that “no business models have been found to finance in-depth independent news production” which raises questions about “the supply of high-quality journalism in the longer-term”.
The Lords, in its February report, called on the Charity Commission to provide greater clarity about the charitable nature of investigative journalism. The Commission has already accepted that there is potential for organisations that deliver journalism to be registered as charities. In considering its answer to the Lords, the Commission could do worse than look to the United States.
In the US, tax-exempt status (the American equivalent of registered charity status) has been given to news organisations. ProPublica, for example, which runs an independent newsroom staffed by distinguished journalists, is a registered charity and relies heavily on philanthropic funding.
The US approach could provide a template for the registration of “news charities” in Britain.
Charitable status should be available in principle to non-profit journalism organisations. These news charities would be funded through trading, philanthropy, grants from foundations and public donations. They would not be constituted, as the vast majority of media bodies currently are, as commercial ventures for the benefit of external shareholders. Any profit they made would be re-invested into the business.
Such news charities could easily fulfil existing charitable objects such as education, citizenship or community cohesion. A free press also plays an important role in reducing corruption. There is also a link with existing charities, such as Transparency International UK, which “promote ethical standards of conduct”.
There would have to be constraints for news charities. Charitable news organisations might include an ombudsman function in their arrangements or write an editorial code of practice into their Articles of Association so that balance is ensured and sensationalism prohibited. There would have to be conditions on registration so the floodgates are not opened to news organisations pursuing commercial benefit or political objects.
But at a time when there is growing concern about the commercial viability of investigative journalism, coupled with a recognition of its social role in creating an informed public, news charities could provide and safeguard a tangible public benefit.
