08/10/16 - Make Google and Facebook pay for public service reporting (15)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/nov/08/make-google-and-facebook-pay-for-public-service-reporting

This article is about how the government are wanting to make online giants, like Google and Facebook pay funds for public services for reports that go out in Britain. The digital economy bill is all being paid by the parliament, however, the politicians are trying to find the way in which some of this can be paid by the social media sites etc; their aim is to make them pay at least 1% levy for the operation of non profitable and independent journalists. This way, people would still have that interest in looking at the news. A spokesman by the Media Reform Coalition says, in a nutshell, how all the national and local newspapers are trying to cut their way out of trouble from different types of costs. They also talk about how Facebook and Google are taking all of the advertising revenue due to the fact that they pay minimal tax despite them making an incredible amount of profit. Therefore, they believe this is a key reason why they should pay the 1%.

• It will propose a 1% levy on the operations of the digital giants in order to pay for independent and non-profit journalism.
• The NUJ’s general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet, says: “We have campaigned for a levy for some time and think it to be of ever greater necessity”.
• “We must continue to press for a news media that places the public interest above those of shareholder and vested interests”.

In my opinion, I believe that this is a good idea on making the larger companies having to pay this 1% levy in order to keep the journalists going. The reason I believe that they should be the ones that pay is simply been stated in this article. They hardly pay taxes and if so, they pay the minimal amount that is required. So, since they make that type of money and revenue, this is a way of them paying back and keeping the journalists going with them having the money and allowing them to add more content. In addition, I believe that this cause catch the eyes of a public interest for those that are contributing in the payments and therefore, may bring more larger companies etc to pay that 1%.