Salford Star to appeal local council's rejection of funding applications

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Independent news site the Salford Star will tomorrow appeal the local council's decision to refuse funding, without which the Star was forced to move online-only.

Earlier this year the Star made three applications to the council to cover half of its total print costs of £3,500. But according to an internal report from a council meeting the application to one funding committee was rejected because of the Star's reporting on the council and councillors.

The Star has been an online-only publication for the last year, but previously delivered a free, printed magazine to homes in East Salford.

One of the title's applications for funding was made to the East Salford Community Committee, the area where it had previously distributed 8,000 copies, for £2,500. But at a meeting in March, the East Salford Committee turned down the magazine's bid. According to an internal report from the meeting, as reported by the Star and seen by Journalism.co.uk, the application was rejected on grounds that it is overtly political in nature and is "perceived by many to be a satirical publication which tends to criticise authority in partic [sic] singling out Salford Council and individual councillors".

Any publications funded by the council or its committees must meet guidelines to prevent breaches of the Race Relations Act, Disability Discrimination Act, Age Discrimination legislation and libel laws, but should also not be "of an overtly political nature".

An official statement from the council says the Star did not meet its criteria for funding community publications, but does not specify which guidelines it failed to match up to.

The Star  - which maintains it is not "overtly political" - has previously criticised Salford Council's magazine,  Life in Salford - Freedom of Information figures from March 2010 for which suggest the title is making a loss on each issue .

"The [Star] does have an agenda - to give the community a voice and to hold public bodies up to account. We would argue that this is something worth striving for, and that the concept of empowerment is included in many council documents. The council might not like the voices or the empowerment but we do not believe that this makes the magazine 'overtly political' in any way," the Star said in a letter to the council's committees in March. In a blog post on the Manchester Evening News' website, David Ottewell , chief reporter, has voiced his support for the Star in its appeal against the council's funding decision. But Ottewell's comments on some hyperlocal sites that he suggests regurgitate press releases or take stories from local newspapers has sparked strong reaction from hyperlocal and independent publishers.