Mary Fitzgerald

So Team Starmer couldn’t ’possibly have known’ Mandelson was lying about his relationship with a convicted paedophile. Despite mountains of publicly available evidence.

Yet they spent £30,000 on private investigators trying to dig dirt on journalists who asked them troublesome questions? 🤔

Think you mean @maryfitzger.bsky.social :)

OMG we only went and bloody won!! 🎉🎉

In barely two years Democracy for Sale has gone from nothing to winning a British journalism award

Am absolutely blown away!! Thanks to everyone who reads D4S and supports us. Couldn’t do it without you all 😊

Now 20k views on our video and counting

Former Observer big-hitters launch new title with redundancy payouts Five former Observer journalists including Carole Cadwalladr have launched their own culture publication using their redundancy money.

VERY excited about this ❤️💪🔥

pressgazette.co.uk/news/former-...

First Boris. Now Tony…

Take Big Money Out of Our Politics British politics is awash with money from super rich donors. In 2023, two-thirds of all private donations came from just 19 people. These so-called ‘mega donors’ enjoy privileged access to political p...

Democracy for Sale has been working w/ @38degrees.bsky.social on a campaign to cap political donations in the UK.

Our petition is now at over 49,700 signatures!! 🎉

Can we get it to 50k and send a really strong message?

Please share! Ta you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...

A comprehensive comms success.

How to grow thriving media businesses in the toughest circumstances Making enough money to grow and sustain good journalism is tough everywhere. But in places where governments and their proxies come after you for what you publish, where most foreign grant funding is ...

Excited to be back in gorgeous Perugia for #ijf25

Come hear how creative media leaders are growing high-impact businesses despite the odds… in places with hostile governments & and where most foreign funding is banned 🔥

www.journalismfestival.com/programme/20...

The Department of Government Efficiency, for example

Democracy for Sale journalists targeted by secretive police unit A little-known policing unit is instructing forces to withhold information, track journalists, and rescind previously approved FOI responses.

🚨 A secretive policing unit has been instructing forces across the UK withhold information, track journalists, and rescind previously approved FOI responses.

@jennacorderoy.bsky.social 's debut on Democracy for Sale - and it's a banger

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/democracy-...

Irrelevant and unloved: how the press lost its touch Journalism is in freefall—and the public doesn’t care

Plus in the same @prospectmagazine.co.uk issue, @rasmuskleis.bsky.social has some bracing news for today's journalism industry

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...

AI is the media's chance to reinvent itself AI threatens today’s news industry—and with it, our shared reality. But it could also radically transform journalism for the better

As AI upends everything, do we want journalism delivered by Elon Musk (or Melon Tusk, as my 8 year old calls him)?

Or, can we do better?

Me & Dave Caswell on why the BBC & others must step up. We need a public service revolution now. Before it's too late

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...

The Convention - An evening for Gaza In aid of Shelter Box Join us for an evening of music and readings in aid of the nearly two million Palestinians who have lost their homes in the war in Gaza. The humanitarian need is unprecedented. With a ceasefire now in...

We're raising cash for 100 Palestinian families for @shelterbox.bsky.social. It's a minuscule amount but better than ignoring Gaza.
Join us. Fund us Repost. I need your help to get to £44k target. Thanks!
www.eventbookings.com/b/event/the-...
@claraandersson.bsky.social @doctoroxford.bsky.social

Letter from the editor: a testing year for democracy As record numbers go to the polls in 2024, the FT launches a debate on what’s at stake with short films by four renowned artists

SO proud to have supported @financialtimes.com's Democracy 2024 series, produced by the brilliant @julietriddell.bsky.social, now nominated for the RTS Journalism Award ❤️

Comes on the back of a slew of other nominations & awards for these beautiful films from women around the world: osf.to/3Q60KDe

Strongmen celebrate as Trump aid freeze hits media Independent outlets in former Soviet Union are poised to be hurt by temporary shut down at key US agency

'Putin has been trying to kill independent media for God knows how many years now. Ironically the country that has this free speech is now about to give [it] the death blow'

www.ft.com/content/10b6...

Call for Proposals: Strengthening independent public interest journalism in Europe - Civitates Open call to support independent public-interest media outlets in Europe.

Money for public-interest journalism!

Are you a media outlet based in Hungary, Poland, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia - or do you know others who are?

Please spread this call
widely… 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

civitates-eu.org/funding-oppo...

UK law firm that acted for Putin’s warlord Prigozhin 'broke no rules' Exclusive: Taking cash from a sanctioned Russian mercenary chief to enable him to sue a British journalist is not an abuse of our legal system, solicitors' regulator finds

'But he seemed like such a nice chap...'?

BREAKING on Democracy for Sale today:

How Putin's mercenary chief made a mockery of Britain's legal system.

And how it will happen again, and again, and again until Keir Starmer's government acts on #SLAPPS

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/uk-law-fir...

Let’s fact-check Mark Zuckerberg’s fact-checking announcement Zuckerberg didn’t mention that a big chunk of the content fact-checkers have been flagging is not political speech, but the low-quality spammy clickbait that Meta platforms have commodified.

Zuckerberg claims he's canning Meta's factchecking program to stop politicised censorship (ie. to make friendly with Trump).

But what's really driving this move?

Clue: It's all about the money, money, money...

www.niemanlab.org/2025/01/zuck...

More than 140 Kenya Facebook moderators diagnosed with severe PTSD Exclusive: Diagnoses part of lawsuit being brought against parent company Meta and outsourcer Samasource Kenya

ALL 144 Facebook content moderators assessed by a psychiatrist in Kenya have PTSD because of their work moderating content for Facebook.

Let that sink in.

www.theguardian.com/media/2024/d...

The European golden visa hotspot where inheritance tax bills don’t exist — The Telegraph With its warm weather and various tax perks, more Britons are flocking to this archipelago

Beyond parody.

Guess where? 🙄

apple.news/AfR70lKoLQDC...

🚨 We're hiring!

TBIJ is looking for a diligent and detail-oriented fact-checker to join our team next year

Contract: 12-month fixed term (with the possibility of an extension)

Salary: £37,000–£40,000

Location: London office/hybrid working

Deadline: 3 January 2025

Apply 👇

‘Butcher of Hama’: Assad’s uncle used Guernsey fund manager to stash… Ginette Blondel worked without a licence or oversight for alleged war criminal Rifaat al-Assad

BREAKING: TBIJ and the Guardian are unmasking a Briton who helped manage hundreds of millions of pounds allegedly looted from the Syrian people

The Briton worked on behalf of Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of Bashar and a man known as the “butcher of Hama”

So pleased to see @tbij.bsky.social's & @theguardian.com excellent reporting on the Abramovich empire win @pressgazette.co.uk award. Hugely deserved 👏

www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2023...

Democracy For Sale A survey into people's attitudes to the health of British politics from leading investigative journalists who write about lobbying and dark money

Worried about #ElonMusk buying his way into UK politics? Think we need to take money out of our democracy?

Help #DemocracyForSale's people-powered plan to #SafeguardDemocracy by taking this short survey: democracyforsale.co.uk/safeguard Please share. Thanks!