The Prime Minister has praised the role of the regional media at a reception held in Downing Street.
The event, held on the evening of Monday 31 March and attended by the Society of Editors, saw representatives from across regional and local newspaper titles and broadcasters invited to the reception which was attended by the Prime Minister and the Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy MP.
Praising the job of local journalists in holding power to account as well as campaigning on local and national issues, Sir Keir Starmer said that it was often the regional media that asked the most difficult questions.
He said: “Nobody knows your local areas and issues in the way that you do, and I don’t think there’s any other sort of media outlets, interrogators, interviewers who can put the questions in the way that you do because you understand what’s happening on your patch the way nobody else does, and in a sense, I think because you’re able to translate it into what matters where you are, it makes it more meaningful. For example, general statistics only go so far like growing economy or the amount of money going to the NHS, but it doesn’t work very well when you get to communities, it’s the localities to areas where what you do is so important. There’s no one more committed to shining the torch on those issues.”
As well as highlighting the national impact of regional campaigns on knife crime and anti-social behaviour, Starmer said that, despite the well-documented challenges facing news platforms, the “reach of local regional media is going up”.
He added: “The reach of local regional media is going up so there is a good news story here, but the pressure is huge and the challenges coming up at the same time. But it is important that you keep holding us to account. Keep advocating for your regions, because, obviously here in Downing Street is where we have a laser focus of communities that you’re advocating for delivering on their priorities, and you must hold us to account for that: from the economy, putting money back in people’s pockets, safer streets, getting more police officers on the streets, getting the NHS back on its feet and delivering more appointments and bringing down those waiting lists.”
Photo: The Prime Minister speaking to Dawn Alford, Executive Director of the Society alongside Deanne Blaylock, editor of MyLondon
