Paying for the news?

Our Prime Minister has apparently just said that investment in journalism "is critical to healthy democracy".

Oh yes, it is a lovely thing to say if you can see money in it. Do not be fooled. The plan to try and make the tech giants pay for the news they "use" has nothing to do with a healthy democracy. This is about control. This is about money.

A 2.25% tax may not sound like much but the Prime Minister is saying the tech giants will have to pay the tax even if they pull the news from the likes of Google, TikTok and FB. He is very generously saying he will reduce it to 1.5% if the tech giants do deals directly with the bigger outlets and works with government on the smaller outlets. 

He is also saying "we believe it is only fair that these platforms contribute to the hard work of journalism that enriches their feeds and that drives their revenue".  According to the Prime Minister it is "not a tax". 

Of course this move has the support of the media giants like NewsCorp. 

Yes, I agree you should pay for something if you are using it but the reality here is that the tech giants have generally got agreements with groups like NewsCorp. There are mutual benefits here. If you doubt me then how often have you seen something you would like to know more about only to find it was behind a paywall? This is advertising. Want to know more? Then pay to read it.

What is really the giveaway here is that the proposed legislation includes our ABC, our national broadcaster which is paid for through our taxes. It includes the SBS, also taxpayer funded. The Guardian is there along with the usual commercial suspects but the inclusion of the ABC and SBS makes it clear that this is a tax. It is a money raising exercise.

I get my news from a wide variety of sources. I read more than one newspaper. I pay for some, have some paid for me and there are some I pay for indirectly. It's a fair mix.

Bring the tax in and the US government is threatening to raise tariffs. If that happens then this will spiral. We will lose news content. Some of it may not matter much. If it leads to less sport then I am not too concerned. If it wipes the likes or Orla Guerin and her colleagues from our screens and pages then I will be a great deal more concerned. 

It is not a simple "user pays" situation. "Who" pays, "how" and "why" matters when it comes to sources of information.