Better Media

Women, Community Media, and the Work of Holding Communities Together in Times of Conflict How do women working in community media respond when their communities face tension or conflict? What does it mean to tell local stories from within the community rather than from a distance? And how can everyday communication through radio, local journalism, and storytelling help rebuild trust between neighbours when misinformation and misunderstanding threaten to divide them? These were the questions explored in a discussion recorded for International Women’s Day, bringing together women who are actively involved in community media and local communication projects. Sumaila Jafri opened the discussion by reflecting on her own background as a journalist who had previously worked in national and international newsrooms.

How do women in community media respond when tensions affect local communities? This discussion reflects on the 2022 unrest in Leicester and asks whether storytelling, radio, and local journalism can help rebuild trust & encourage dialogue across communities

The BBC Charter Renewal Should Renew Public Purpose Media, Not Just the BBC The current BBC Charter Review should not be treated as a narrow exercise in institutional maintenance. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport opened the present consultation on 16 December 2025, it closes on 10 March 2026, and it is intended to inform a new Charter from 1 January 2028, when the current Charter period ends on 31 December 2027. That timetable matters because it offers a rare chance to ask a bigger question than the one now being posed most often.

Should support for the BBC also strengthen the wider not-for-private-profit media sector? As Charter Renewal is debated, should independent, civic and community media be recognised as equal partners in a public purpose media ecology rather than remaining outside the system?

BBC Charter Renewal and the Liberal Questions We Are Not Asking The debate about BBC Charter Renewal is already becoming familiar. The BBC says it needs stronger constitutional protection, a more secure funding settlement, lighter regulation, and a renewed public mandate so that it can continue to act as a universal public service institution. Those arguments are serious and deserve to be taken seriously. But there is another side to this discussion that is receiving far less attention.

Are we asking the right questions about BBC Charter Renewal? If media is now diverse and abundant, does one universal institution still need exceptional privileges? Could reinforcing the old model risk solving yesterday’s problem rather than tomorrow’s?

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Local Trust, Public Accountability and The Limits of Regional Broadcasting Robert Thompson, Interim Director of BBC Local has published a blog arguing that, in a divided world, local news brings communities together. That is an admirable aspiration. However, in Leicester during the communal tensions of 2022, the BBC was widely perceived as absent, reactive, and structurally distant from the realities unfolding on the streets. The SOAS report published this week…

If local media brings communities together, why did Leicester face 2022’s tensions without trusted, accountable local coverage? Should the BBC address its blind spots before Charter Renewal, and make space for genuinely local civic dialogue to rebuild trust?

Rebalancing The Airwaves – Reflections From The Better Media Consultation The recent Better Media online consultation sessions brought together practitioners, advocates and policy observers to reflect on two live processes shaping the future of UK radio: Ofcom’s licensing review and the DCMS Radio Review. The purpose was not simply to respond to technical questions, but to examine what kind of broadcast ecology the UK intends to sustain over the next twenty years.

What would a genuinely plural radio system look like in 2036? Can we diversify supply, apply a meaningful localism test, and treat broadcast as civic infrastructure rather than a legacy market? How should DCMS and Ofcom respond to consolidation and gatekeeping?

The BBC Charter Renewal Needs Wider Public Voices The BBC’s Charter renewal is not a technical exercise. It is a decision about what the BBC is for, who it serves, and how it should be held accountable for the next decade. That matters because the BBC is not just another media brand. It is a publicly funded institution that helps shape how people understand public life, cultural identity, and the shared facts that make democratic debate possible.

BBC Charter renewal must not be an insiders’ agreement. It should ask what the public needs, how the BBC proves it is meeting those needs, and who holds it to account. The voices not in the room matter most if trust and legitimacy are to be rebuilt.

In his last monthly update as Campaign Coordinator, Rowan Gavin reflects on some highlights of our work since 2022, looks forward to some current and upcoming events in media, and recommends some ways to keep informed outside of socials.

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Better Media is a membership org working to support campaigns for media reform in the UK. We are a successor to the union-backed Campaign for Press & Broadcasting Freedom (CPBF), which ran from the '70s to the '10s. Follow for updates on how you can Be The Media, Know The Media and Change The Media.