Big techs: Academics propose remuneration for journalism – 07/24/2023 – Mercado

A group of academics released this Monday (24) the document “Big Tech and Journalism: Principles for Fair Remuneration”, whose objective is to provide guidelines for regulation or legislation that establishes negotiation between media vehicles and internet platforms for content remuneration.

Among the principles is the need to have public interest journalism as a priority for funding by big techs.

“Mechanisms should support and invest in journalism in the public interest, that is, news and information produced in accordance with professional journalistic standards that inform the public about matters relevant to their rights and responsibilities as citizens.”

The principles were devised by Anya Schiffrin, professor at Columbia University, Jonathan Heawood, executive director of the Public Interest News Foundation, UK, Courtney Radsch, research fellow at the Institute for Technology, Law and Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Michael Markovitz, director of the Gibs Media Leadership Think Tank, South Africa. The final version was agreed during a conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, on the 13th and 14th of July.

Several countries, including Brazil, are discussing models for remuneration of journalistic content by big techs. Australia was a pioneer — in 2021 it adopted the Bargaining Code. The model determines that vehicles negotiate individually or collectively (to increase their bargaining power) with platforms for payment for journalistic content. If they cannot reach an agreement, arbitration is envisaged. Since the code went into effect, Google and Meta have closed deals worth a combined $200 million with Australian vehicles.

In Canada, the C-18 Bill, similar to Australian law, was passed in June and has six months to take effect. Google and Meta announced that they will remove news links.

Before the C-18, Canada had approved a series of measures to support journalism — in 2019, a government package included tax incentives for hiring journalists, for subscriptions, and the creation of a new fiscal type of journalistic philanthropic company. In addition, a government fund was created to support journalistic vehicles from minorities or underrepresented groups.

In Brazil, remuneration for content by platforms was included in PL 2,370, by Deputy Jandira Feghali (PCdoB-RJ), which should go to the vote in August.

“The launch of the principles is an important step in addressing the global crisis that threatens the sustainability of public interest journalism,” he told Sheet Markovitz of Gibs.

One of the guidelines of the document is equity: “The basis for payments and use agreements must be the same for everyone in this market and determined based on objectively verifiable criteria”.
Another principle is transparency. In Australia, the terms of agreements between platforms and vehicles are secret, and organizations are opposed to greater transparency. In Canada, terms will need to be shared with the regulatory body.

“The highest possible degree of transparency must be adopted both for the process of proposing and implementing the mechanisms and for the results obtained”, guides the document.

The guidelines also emphasize the need for plurality, to encourage small and medium-sized journalistic vehicles. “[Os mecanismos de remuneração] should not create a bias in favor of established organizations, but should serve to mitigate any bias that favors already established organizations, so that the public can —in the medium and long term—benefit from a greater variety of available content.”

The principles call for compensation mechanisms to be “reviewed regularly by independent evaluators, who must be able to publish an honest and robust analysis of the mechanisms’ performance.”

“These principles are designed to be applicable across continents and hemispheres as a guide for regulators, governments, big tech and news outlets; but conference attendees recognize that these policies are very new and that different jurisdictions will require different solutions,” said Markovitz.

Among the signatories of the principles are the Digital Journalism Association (Ajor), the Vladimir Herzog Institute, Camille Grenier, director of the Forum for Information and Democracy, France, Joseph Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University and Nobel Prize in Economics, BBC Media Action, Foro de Periodismo Argentino (Fopea) and the Open Markets Institute.