Hackney Council freesheet claims to be a ‘fortnightly newspaper’ – but legally may be neither
Hackney Today is published by Hackney Council. Photograph: Hackney Citizen
Hackney Council’s taxpayer-funded freesheet is falsely claiming to be a “fortnightly newspaper” and carries statutory notices, possibly in breach of the law, the Hackney Citizen can reveal.
Hackney Today – delivered to 100,000 homes at an annual cost of over £400,000 – appears less frequently than every 26 days, in possible violation of the legal definition of a “newspaper” and the requirement for carrying statutory notices.
The Newspaper Libel and Registration Act 1881 says: “The word ‘newspaper’ shall mean any paper containing public news, intelligence, or occurrences, or any remarks or observations therein printed for sale, and published in England or Ireland periodically, or in parts or numbers at intervals not exceeding twenty-six days between the publication of any two such papers, parts, or numbers. Also any paper printed in order to be dispersed, and made public weekly or oftener, or at intervals not exceeding twenty-six days, containing only or principally advertisements.”
Other legislation says statutory notices must be published in “a newspaper”.
Hackney Today claims it is “published fortnightly in order to carry statutory advertising… The law does not allow for statutory notices to be published solely online or in a less frequent publication”.
But Hackney Council has confirmed that its paper comes out less frequently over the summer and Christmas periods, with gaps ranging from 21 to 35 days.
Keith Magnum, Editor of the Hackney Citizen, said: “Hackney Today calls itself a fortnightly newspaper, but it is not published every fortnight, and appears not to meet the legal definition of a newspaper.
Hackney Council said ‘there has been no breach of the law’.
“Hackney Council has always justified Hackney Today as a means to deliver statutory notices, but with gaps between issues longer than 26 days, it appears to be doing so in breach of the law.”
He added: “This raises serious questions about how Hackney Council is using public resources, and whether the council is misleading Hackney residents and advertisers.”
Mr Magnum has made a formal complaint to Hackney Council. He has also raised his concerns with the Advertising Standards Authority about the council’s selling of advertising in its freesheet on the basis that it is both a newspaper and fortnightly.
He said: “If it turns out that Hackney Council is mis-selling advertising space in a taxpayer-funded freesheet, this strengthens the case that the council is using public resources to compete unfairly with local news publishers and starve independent local journalism of the revenue it needs to survive.”
Hackney Council says the law does not specify what “26 days” means, and that having sought legal advice from Hackney’s past and current monitoring officers, the council believes it is acting legally.
A council spokesperson said: “Hackney Today is a fortnightly publication which, for practical reasons, has a longer publication gap twice a year.
“During the summer holidays and the Christmas period the publication gap can, for obvious reasons, be longer but only once a year, at Christmas, is the gap longer than 26 calendar days.
“However, the legislation does not provide a definition of what is meant by ’26 days’ i.e. whether it is a reference to calendar days, working days, or does include or exclude public holidays.
Mayor Philip Glanville has defended running commercial adverts.
“Accordingly, Hackney Council takes the view that there has been no breach of the law. Our publication schedule is published online at the beginning of every year, where it is available to the public, and is shared with our advertisers.”
The spokesperson said the council defines “fortnight” as 14 nights.
When asked to confirm that this meant 14 consecutive nights, they responded: “We have said that Hackney Today is a fortnightly publication, that means it’s published every 14 days i.e. every other Monday.”
Magnum said: “Hackney Council’s quibbling over the definition of a day is the most ludicrous defence since Bill Clinton’s famous hedging over the definition of the word ‘is’.”
In November last year, Magnum called on Mayor Philip Glanville to stop selling commercial advertising in Hackney Today, accusing the council of “unfair competition”. The call was backed up by rival paper Hackney Gazette and was covered by The Guardian, Hold The Front Page and Press Gazette.
At the time, Mayor Glanville defended taking adverts, saying: “The advertising revenue it raises takes pressure off scant public resources, but the paper has always been run in a way that does not aggressively compete with other local titles.”
Hackney Today has been ordered to switch to quarterly publication by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). Neighbouring Tower Hamlets Council complied with this order in June 2016, replacing its fortnightly East End Life with the quarterly Our East End.
A DCLG spokesperson said: “The government expects all councils to comply with local government publicity rules, which are there to protect local taxpayers. This expectation includes the requirement that councils do not publish a newsletter more than quarterly.
“DCLG wrote to Hackney Council in December last year reminding them about the Publicity Code. Ministers are currently considering the council’s response before deciding whether to take further action.”
This article was amended at 18:30 on Tuesday 5 September 2017 to include a larger quote from the Newspaper Libel and Registration Act 1881. The original quote used did not include the words ” therein printed for sale”.
Interesting arguments. The question of statutory notices and where they should be placed is a tricky one since clearly it is necessary to get those notices to the widest audience which may not be an alternative news outlet (paid or free). It does feed into the need for a wider discussion on how best to inform and engage in a digital era. The cost of the freesheet is disquieting particularly when the content is so poor and the council overall communication is in need of overhaul and renewal as is the reach of distribution which suggests that a new approach is long overdue.
Excuse the honesty but this “bun fight” between Hackney Citizen and Hackney Council is uncool, and makes you look bad.
“Put up, or shut up” … take them to court, or drop the issue but stop whinning about it.
If the founder of your company started it on the business model of seeking to take over business of Hackney Today, or is trying to force Hackney Borough to pay to publish its satutory notice via Hackney Citizen and it has not worked out … then change your business, or move on.
Stop using your own paper to make this political.
You’ve turned me to support Hackney Council on this one … which if you knew how I feel about them, you’d know is saying something.
The Hackney Citizen describes itself as a ‘monthly newspaper’.
Personally I find Hackney Today a useful way of finding out about local events, initiatives and other council news. I am fully aware it is the council mouthpiece and the fact that it contains advertising does not concern me, in fact if it helps with publication costs then I support it.
I tend to share the view of the comment below that this ongoing ‘bun fight’ between you does make you look rather petty (the image heading this piece is a good example – a grubby looking Hackney Today, next to a nice copy of the Citizen) It undermines the otherwise good coverage you give on uncovering the real issues with Hackney Council. So how about rising above this and focussing on the matters your readers are concerned about, not these paper tigers!
Ha ha ha … you removed a comment about how the Citizen is for Hipster cafes and Today for people on the Estates.
Seems as if you don’t like criticism to go both ways.
You can give it but can’t take it … you can’t take Hackney reality.
Please note that no prior comment of yours has been removed. Thanks, Ed.
The cost may be disquieting, but would the cost be even greater without the freesheet and would the coverage be as great? Are there published accounts for Hackney today as a separate entity from the “normal” council activities. Once a year the District Auditor open up the Council’s books for inspection. Perhaps the Citizen should do some investigative journalism at the appropriate time – or use FOI to get something more substantive to hang its campaign on.
Agreed. I would like to see a breakdown of what that money buys against the reach of the paper. How to get statutory notices to the widest audience with best-value-for-money is a real conundrum. Whilst one can understand why HC & HG want the ad spend, a matrix of reach/cost to make comparisons is also required. Whilst HC & HG may not like it, some things such as engagement with planning notices could be improved by a change of process for example street notices that could be scanned by phone and linked to website, larger developments have larger notices paid by the developer/applicant and so on. Suspect the issue will rumble on for some time yet.
getting a bit sad and desperate with the HC constant campaign to pick up advertising revenue for planning notices