UK media groups unite to tackle AI ‘scraping’ of journalism

DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by Irish Times, click this post to read the original article.

Five of the UK’s leading news organisations, including the BBC, the Financial Times and Sky News, have drawn up plans for a coalition aimed at preventing artificial intelligence (AI) tools from exploiting their journalism without permission.

The coalition, which also includes the Guardian and Telegraph groups, has published an open letter raising “urgent questions about fairness, consent, attribution, transparency and trust” relating to how AI platforms are being trained and used.

The letter signed by the bosses of the five media groups says that “reporting, our archives, our original content, have become foundational training material for AI systems”.

It adds that content is being “scraped, copied and reused with no common standards to enable permission or payment, weakening the economic model that supports journalism”.

The five news organisations called on others across the publishing, broadcasting and media industry to join the coalition, which is called the Standards for Publisher Usage Rights, arguing that this is “a pivotal moment for our industry”.

The coalition will seek to establish shared technical standards and licensing frameworks for AI developers to access “high quality, reliable journalism in legitimate, responsible and convenient ways”. In turn, publishers will be able to “retain practical control of their content and receive fair value when it is used”.

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The launch comes several weeks ahead of the publication of the UK government’s latest ideas for policies to support the development of AI in Britain while also providing vital copyright protection to creative industries.

Ministers last year backed down from controversial plans for an exemption to copyright laws that would have allowed tech companies to use work ranging from music and books to media and photos to train AI models, unless the rights holder actively objected.

The plans angered many in the creative industries, with executives warning they risked undermining one of the country’s largest and most successful sources of growth. A previous attempt to agree a voluntary AI copyright code of practice was also unsuccessful.

Media groups are now worried that the government will try to bring in concessions for the tech industry through the extension of a copyright exemption that applies to some AI training for research purposes.

The government is required to complete its report alongside an economic impact assessment of AI and copyright policies by March 18th. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026