Lib Dems on H&F News
Dear Sir
Andrew Gilligan highlighted in the Evening Standard (27.7.09) a phenomenon occurring in a number of local authorities. Free local papers produced by the controlling authorities and subsidised by tax payers have thrived at the expense of hollowed out local press whose circulation shrink against such unfair competition.
He wrote: “In Tory-controlled Hammmersmith & Fulham, lies H&F News, circulation 75,000, and perhaps the craftiest operation of all.”
“In H&F News, unlike all the other official papers, occasional controversy is allowed - but only in the context of the council listening and taking heed ..…Crime is nearly always falling, even when it isn't.”
We have found that articles or letters that are vaguely critical or challenging of the Council will not be published.
As a democracy, we take pride in having a free press. However at the local level residents have been fed propaganda masquerading as news which are delivered free to their doorstep and are indirectly paid for via their Council tax or by subsidized advertising.
Should we allow this abuse to continue? If you think this is a crying shame then please join me in demanding that either the editorship of H&F News be made independent of the Council or that the Council be prohibited from using tax payers money in the production of their Conservative controlled paper.
Yours Sincerely
Merlene Emerson
Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokeswoman for Hammersmith
3 August 2009