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In an industry-first, national, local and regional news brands in the UK have banded together to create the Make It Fair campaign to raise awareness about the threat of AI.
The launch took place on Tuesday (February 25), on the same day that a government consultation seeking views on how it can ensure the UK’s legal framework for AI and copyright supports the creative industries and AI sector together closes.
The campaign has been developed to “raise awareness among the British public about the existential threat posed to the creative industries from generative AI models, many of which scrape creative content from the internet without permission, acknowledgement, and critically, without payment.”
The UK’s creative industries have today launched an unprecedented campaign #MakeItFair across national, local and regional news brands to highlight how their content is at risk of being given away for free to AI firms as the government proposes weakening copyright law.
Read on… pic.twitter.com/aJokhO41Kn— News Media Association (@newsmediaorg) February 25, 2025
Weekly newspaper titles in the country will run the campaign throughout the next week, in the hope of appealing to members of the public to write to their MPs.
According to the news release, the impact on creative businesses and individuals “will be devastating if this continues unchecked, or worse still if the government legitimises this content theft.”
Newspapers across the UK will run the Make it Fair campaign
The consultation, which began on December 17, seeks views on different objectives including how to ensure AI developers have access to high-quality material to train leading models on.
“I don't think I've ever seen newspapers editorialised with one voice – this is a first.”
News UK COO David Dinsmore explains the Make It Fair campaign, warning about the existential threat posed by generative AI models to creative industries.@DaveDins @StigAbell @KateEMcCann pic.twitter.com/ncGFoXKYpO
— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) February 25, 2025
Owen Meredith, CEO of News Media Association, said: “We already have gold-standard copyright laws in the UK. They have underpinned growth and job creation in the creative economy across the UK – supporting some of the world’s greatest creators – artists, authors, journalists, scriptwriters, singers and songwriters to name but a few.
“And for a healthy democratic society, copyright is fundamental to publishers’ ability to invest in trusted quality journalism.
“The only thing that needs affirming is that these laws also apply to AI, and transparency requirements should be introduced to allow creators to understand when their content is being used. Instead, the government proposes to weaken the law and essentially make it legal to steal content.”
To coincide with the ‘Make it Fair’ campaign, 1,000 UK musicians have today released a joint album which contains recordings of empty studios.
Featured Image: AI-generated via Ideogram
