Public Interest Journalism Working Group minutes: 20 October 2021

Attendees and apologies

• Rob Edwards, The Ferret (RE)
• Rachel Hamada, Bureau of Investigative Journalism (RH)
• John McLellan, Scottish Newspaper Society (JMcL)
• Joyce McMillan, independent journalist (JMcM)
• Frances Rafferty, NUJ (FR)
• Allan Rennie, University of Stirling (AR)
• John Toner, NUJ (JT)
• Denise West, media consultant (DW)
• India Divers, Scottish Government (Secretariat) (ID)
• Hazel Parkinson, Scottish Government (Chair) (HP)

Items and actions

HP chaired the meeting. The list of attendees can be found in Annex A.

HP provided an update on the progress officials were making with providing advice to Ministers. She noted that there was a change of personnel in the team as Simon Cuthbert-Kerr had left, Bettina Sizeland had started as the new Deputy Director and Penelope Cooper had started as the new Director. 

Over the last few days officials had been developing advice to Ministers and having conversations with other relevant areas of Scottish Government to include their advice on the recommendations in the advice sent to Ministers. The new Director was very interested in seeing this advice. Officials hoped the advice would be with Ministers by the following day. It was noted that Mr Robertson was on annual leave but would return the following week. 

Ministers would have 3-5 days response time so officials would receive the response by next week. Officials would liaise with Comms to prepare a news release or Tweet to promote the publication of the paper. Officials were aiming for the end of next week or week after to publish the working group’s paper online. It was hoped that the Scottish Government response would be published a few weeks after this.

Action:

• officials to contact Comms regarding promoting the working group’s paper

It was raised that COP26 was coming up and that it was important to make sure the timing of the Comms activity was right. The group considered whether to wait until the conference had finished to promote their report as both the first weekend of the conference and the end of the conference would be big for press. The group considered whether there would be a lull in the middle of the conference when they could publish it. The group wanted the report published as soon as possible. 

The group requested a release in advance so that they could alert their networks.

Action:

• officials to contact Comms regarding getting access to the news release in advance to share with the group

It was noted that officials would consult the group for advice if Ministers had detailed questions on the report to ensure that the information they provided was accurate. 
The Scottish Government response would be published a few weeks after the report was sent to Ministers. It was noted that this might be a good point for Ministers to meet with the group and go into the detail of the recommendations.

It was raised whether there was scope for officials to put pressure on Ministers to get a response by the beginning of the next week so that the report could be published before COP26. 

It was noted that the group’s networks were keen to know about the report and were ready to promote it once it was published. The group wanted to avoid the report being reported on a Friday.

If the report could not be published by the next week, the group considered publishing it on the last week of COP26. 

Action:

• officials to speak to comms to get a steer from them on the best time to publish the report

The group discussed option for the title of the report and agreed on: Scotland’s News: Towards a Sustainable Future for Public Interest Journalism.

Officials asked, if the group were to continue, whether they saw their role as an advisory group that came together every few months to review how the work was going or as a working group that would work with officials to develop the recommendations. It was suggested that the group could meet quarterly to begin with but that, if SPIJI was created, the group would make itself redundant. 

It was noted that the current working group was set up as a short-life working group so if it became medium-term then the group would need to revise its terms of reference. Officials were advising Ministers to extend the life of the group.

If the group’s life was extended, having Ministers at the first meeting would be an opportunity to reframe it as an advisory group.

The group noted that they appreciated all the work Simon and officials had done for the group.

Summary of actions

• officials to contact Comms regarding promoting the working group’s paper
• officials to contact Comms regarding getting access to the news release in advance to share with the group
• officials to speak to Comms to get a steer from them on the best time to publish the report

Update:

• since the meeting, officials contacted comms who advised that due to the volume of comms attached to COP26, the report could not be published until Wednesday 17 November. The report was currently with the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture who was reviewing the group’s recommendations. Officials were preparing a news release to promote the report and liaising with the website team to organise the report being published on the Scottish Government website