Today the government has launched a public health campaign that will not reach you. It won’t reach you because the government has not included independently owned community news publishers like Island Echo in its campaign.
The All in, All together campaign is a welcome response from the government to provide essential information at this time. It is also a demonstration of the government’s support for the press. However, unless you pick up a physical copy of selected papers or a national newspaper, you will not have heard about it.
Island Echo is a member of the Independent Community News Network (ICNN), which is the official trade body for independent community news publishers. Together, we reach over 5million people online each month, and over half a million in print. This makes us part of the 4th largest news publishing organisation in the UK.
Organisations like ours are the true frontline key workers in this industry who are keeping our communities afloat with genuine, accurate and important information during this pandemic.
Sadly, we are also the ones most at risk from the current crisis. The impact of COVID-19 on organisations like ours could have a catastrophic impact on public health across the UK. Yet the Government has seen fit to exclude us from its public health campaign. And that means they have excluded you too.
It is critical for public health that organisations like ours continue to give essential, verified and useful information to the communities we serve. Any public health campaign that does not include publications like ours is insufficient and is a dereliction of the government’s duty to communities at this time.
This is why we are calling on your support to demand urgent action from the Government to support organisations like ours at this time and give us an equal share of its public health advertising spend.
Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely has recently said:
“Local journalism, both in printed form and on online news sites, is important to help keep people in the community informed, especially people who are self-isolating and are not out and about hearing news from their family, friends and work colleagues in the way they normally would”.
Please share this article with family and friends and on social media using the hashtag #saveindependentnews.
This article has been published in support of the ICNN’s campaign. This message will appear on each ICNN member’s website.
Island echo, you have been singled out because you are doing proper journalism, reporting what the people want,and giving them a voice. Well naughty you, you must be more like the sun,or daily express, report what you are told to report and no more. I like many enjoy your reports and given the chance to an opinion. Unfortunately this is all coming to an end. Opinion and a voice I mean,but thank you.
Opinion and a voice will only end if you permit it and do as you are told by the nanny state without question.
Those who seek to deny you a voice and opinion, must be singled out, isolated from others and endlessly pestered, publicly, into submission.
I would go as far as to say local sites such as this are more important to the most at risk people at such times as this.
This is because larger media outlets too often try to sensationalise news on the negative side to grab headlines to sell their papers, which is off putting to many elderly and worried people.
You and local reporting is usually more fact based, and where the public can comment, this gives a more ‘friendly’ and diverse take on worrying news, as if someone living alone had their family or friends discussing such.
Certainly you will get negative views, but these are right and proper to have too, and are cancelled out, as they would be in a meeting of friends or family, by those views held by the majority, thus giving a very balanced and more accurate representation of the true feelings of the ‘people’ rather than a perhaps ‘biased’ take if just reading what a single author has penned.
Being free means more people will read this and I congratulate you on a very interesting website and long may you continue to provide freedom of speech for all but the offensive, as all opinions are valid and needed to gauge what the real public are thinking, feeling, angry or contented with. We are all very different people.
Island echo you really dont need the gov’s help they will only mess it up
Just carry on as you are this site is the best around so thank you island echo
Self isolating ended weeks ago Bob its forced isolation