Byline Times tells us that it has submitted in evidence to the Hallett Inquiry on Covid-19 a report which it first published in the early days of the epidemic in the UK. It concerned a scheme:
arranged for members of the News Media Association (NMA) – which include the Evening Standard, Guardian, Mail, Murdoch, Telegraph and Mirror groups – in April 2020, a time when newspapers were seeing their circulations fall as the pandemic took hold.
Then Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the public money was being spent “in support of the print newspaper industry” and it was combined with an advertising campaign, with wrap-arounds about the Coronavirus, normal ads and paid-for editorial content labelled as ‘government-sponsored’ (though not always prominently).
While the initial agreement was for £35 million for its first three months, the scheme lasted beyond the first lockdown, with articles appearing into 2022. The ICNN and the PINF believe that the final cost may have approached a staggering £200 million – a figure a Government source has strongly disputed, although for unstated reasons.
[...]
After protestations from community papers, just one local independent outlet covering Wokingham* received access to the scheme.
The Public Interest News Foundation – as well more than a dozen other signatories to the COVID Inquiry submission including Byline Times – believe there has been a deliberate lack of transparency surrounding the scheme.
*It may be a coincidence, but this is John Redwood's marginal constituency
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