Ledbury Portal Community Forum

Journalist George Monbiot raises some interesting points in his article yesterday 

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Monbiot states that local newspapers 'exist to amplify the voices of their proprietors and advertisers and other powerful people with whom they wish to stay on good terms.... they contribute to.. the entrenched power of local elites.'

Monbiot complains about local newspapers being the mouthpieces of local councils by publishing their press releases verbatim without double checking their accuracy. These press releases are often little more than propaganda he states.

After having a working relationship with Herefordshire Council for two years, the Council this summer pulled the plug on the Ledbury Portal by refusing to send us any more press releases. At first they wouldn't say why, and then the council started making claims against the Ledbury Portal that they have since failed to substantiate. They said we were not 'press', not 'professional', not 'established' and finally not 'recognised'.

I believe the truth of the matter is that as a writer with the Ledbury Portal I have stood against Herefordshire Council, criticised them and asked them awkward questions as they attempted (unsuccessfully) to evict a Bosbury dairy farmer whose cause I decided to defend.

The bottom line is they cannot control my freedom of speech and that of others writing on the Ledbury Portal. They have absolutely no control over the Ledbury Portal and this, I think, scares them. The only tactic they have is to sanction the Portal by removing and denying communication/information between the council and the Portal. Ironically this is the same council who have just renamed their offices 'information shops'.

This childish withdrawal and ignor-ance by the Council goes against their own beloved propaganda about supporting local businesses, local tourism and the local community. As the Ledbury Portal does genuinely and actively support local businesses, tourism, and the arts etc the denial of such information by the Council to Ledbury people (via the Portal) is a denial of the council's own purpose and makes a complete nonsense of their stance.

But is there something much more sinister taking place here? Have local councils seen the weakness of local newspapers and decided to muscle in on the action. As well as their 'news' websites councils are also increasingly producing free papers (or 'propaganda sheets' as Monbiot likes to call them.) When the local newspapers finally fail because of diminished readership and advertising, how do you fancy having the local council as your number one provider of local news?

As a writer and editor for the Ledbury Portal I feel that Herefordshire Council has lost its credibility. Whether its evicting hard-working farmers, uglifying our streets, mismanaging rubbish collections, taking away our off-road parking spaces, breaking promises on public buildings or supporting sycophantic 'local' newspapers ahead of and above a truly locally owned and critically minded media website that does support freedom of information and freedom of speech, the council have my no-vote.

As far as I am concerned they can take their hegemony and insert it back into their well-oiled propaganda machine, which is, of course, what they do anyway.