Rejected petition Remove the paywall for pandemic related news on major news websites

Work with news outlets so that key news is able to be disseminated more quickly and effectively during crisis times e.g. the Covid-19 pandemic. Crucially the paywall must be removed for specific news topics. The paywall can and should remain for normal news as this is key to these businesses

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The paywall on major news websites makes it much harder to access critical breaking news, as well as guidance and analysis. In times of crisis the timely spread of information is absolutely critical to ensuring that the public can do the right things. Given we are facing a time of many people in quarantine or self isolation, it is paramount that people are able to see what is going on in the world around them. Removing the paywall for this topic will help people with their self isolation.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

It’s about something that the UK Government or Parliament is not directly responsible for.

The use of paywalls on privately-owned news websites are a matter for individual news organisations, not the UK Government or Parliament.

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 16 March 2020
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