More than 100 figures from the worlds of entertainment, journalism and academia have written to the Guardian calling for all UK political parties to commit to introducing new media plurality legislation in their election manifestos.
The 111 signatories to the letter include comedian Frankie Boyle, actor and Hacked Off campaigner John Cleese and Nick Davies, the award winning Guardian journalist responsible for breaking the phone-hacking stories that led to the closure of the News of the World.
“Media concentration in Britain remains at worrying levels and, despite what we have learned over the last few years, a handful of media corporations and individuals continue to have considerable power over our news, cultural life and access to information,” reads the letter.
Related: A new media plurality law should be in all parties’ 2015 election manifestos | Letters: Frankie Boyle, John Cleese, Richard Peppiatt and others
The letter was organised by the Media Reform Coalition, an coalition of groups and individuals. Goldsmiths professor Des Freedman, the organisation’s chair, said
he believes there are a number of politicians, including Ed Miliband, who would “love” to introduce legislation supporting media plurality.
“The question is simply are they going to trust the instincts of their potential supporters and the voters, or are they just going to bow down to media power yet again,” he said.
The letter also warns that the digital media environment could “increase this risk” of consolidation with “giant intermediaries like Google, Facebook and Amazon”.
“Additionally, a title like the Daily Mail which was highly influential in the offline world is now even more influential in the online world. The internet, by itself, will not democratise an unequal media environment.”
The general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Michelle Stanistreet, Bectu general secretary Gerry Morrisey, and Christine Payne, general secretary of actor’s union Equity, have also put their names to the letter.
Stanistreet said: “The NUJ believes that media plurality is vital for a healthy, functioning democracy. Citizens need to hear a range of arguments and have equal access to information and opinions to participate in local and national democracy. Countries which have a large number of newspapers and an independent media are less susceptible to corruption by politicians and business.”