A four-week, online debate on critical issues surrounding reform of the media – covering media plurality, privacy, regulation and democracy  – has been launched by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), Our Kingdom, Liberal Conspiracy and Liberal Democrat Voice. Over the next four weeks the website will feature articles and blog contributions looking, in turn, at:

• How can we secure greater plurality in media ownership? Would greater plurality advance the public interest or not? How could it be achieved? Is a different and better structure of ownership of the print media possible? (From 8 August)
• How can we better protect individual privacy while preventing powerful corporate, individual or state interests from inhibiting investigative journalism? (From 15 August)
• What is the best way of regulating the press in the broad public interest if we don’t want the state to license or control journalism? (From 22 August)
• How can we strengthen our democracy to prevent symbiotic concentrations of power in politics, the media and agencies of public authority, such as the police? (From 30 August)

Contributions of up to 600 words may be submitted to the debate website, or links proposed to existing relevant blog sites. For further details, click on the logo below: