Defining the boundaries of journalism and news publishers: implications of the Online Safety Act 2023 for the public interest and media freedom.
This paper examines how provisions in the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA), designed to protect journalism, may unintentionally create challenges to media freedom by enhancing platform power. By granting protections to news publisher content and journalistic content, the legislation requires platforms t...
| Published in: | Journal of Media Law Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 38 - 68 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Jul2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=188645323&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 188645323 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 17577632 AWW0 jtl: Journal of Media Law issn: 17577632 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2025 vid: 17 iid: 1 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 188645323 10.1080/17577632.2025.2491806 ppf: 38 ppct: 30 formats: tig: atl: Defining the boundaries of journalism and news publishers: implications of the Online Safety Act 2023 for the public interest and media freedom. aug: au: Kira, Beatriz Townend, Judith affil: School of Law, Politics & Sociology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK su: United Kingdom Journalism Freedom of the press Gatekeeping Public interest Illegality Paradox Internet content regulation sug: subj: Journalism Freedom of the press Gatekeeping Public interest United Kingdom Illegality Paradox Internet content regulation keyword: digital platforms gatekeepers media freedom news publishers Online Safety Act 2023 digital platforms gatekeepers media freedom news publishers Online Safety Act 2023 ab: This paper examines how provisions in the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA), designed to protect journalism, may unintentionally create challenges to media freedom by enhancing platform power. By granting protections to news publisher content and journalistic content, the legislation requires platforms to determine who qualifies for these privileges, thereby making them gatekeepers of journalistic status. While news entities advocated for these provisions to protect themselves from content takedowns, we argue the OSA exemplifies what Tambini terms the 'privilege paradox' – where protecting journalism necessitates defining its boundaries, creating new 'vectors of control'. Unlike jurisdictions such as Australia and Canada, which have established alternative mechanisms for determining what qualifies as journalism, the UK law places this power primarily with platforms. This approach, combined with questions about the enforceability of the OSA's duty of care framework, may inadvertently strengthen the gatekeeping role of platforms over journalism rather than rebalancing power relations as intended. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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