View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

MPs: Journalists should tell us how much they earn

By PA Mediapoint

More than 20 MPs have signed a parliamentary motion urging journalists to disclose their income before passing comment on pay levels in the public sector.

Labour’s Gordon Prentice (Pendle) congratulated Guardian commentator Polly Toynbee for revealing to the Public Administration Select Committee that she was paid a salary of £106,000.

In a Commons motion, he urged “journalists, broadcasters, commentators, politicians and others to follow her example before pronouncing on pay levels in the public sector by first disclosing their own income, earned and unearned”.

Toynbee volunteered details of her salary at the committee’s first evidence session on Executive Pay in the Public Sector last month.

Prentice’s motion has so far received cross-party support from 22 MPs. Labour’s Paul Flynn (Newport West) said he looked forward to reading more “frank confessions in the tabloid press”.

Writing on his blog, he said: “Now we are in the world of abject openness, could we hear what our critics on the Mail or Express are getting – and their expenses?

“But they are not paid out of public funds – directly. What about David Dimbleby? He is paid out of public funds.”

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network