YORK Central MP Rachael Maskell has spoken in Parliament of her concerns about the future of local newspapers.

The Labour MP said local media were ‘part of our local democracy and local citizenship', claiming: “Local media are where stories are broken, where research is done, where we find out what is really going on in our communities and where people are held to account.”

She said social media could often be ‘an echo chamber for news, where fake news is often recirculated.

However, she said local media really work at the craft of reporting stories and getting to the heart of matters’.

But Ms Maskell was concerned about ‘real cuts’ in the number of local journalists, saying the number at her local paper, The Press, had fallen significantly since 2008.

She also told Parliament she was concerned about newspaper ownership, and said: “It is clear that we need a proper inquiry into what is happening in the governance and structures of local media.”