Our Santa Watch Webcam will be live again for Christmas Eve

OUR 2021 Santa Watch Webcam will be online from 4pm GMT on Christmas Eve. This year we are please to announce that Southport's number 1 jigsaw shop, Mind Games are sponsoring it. This years cam will be slightly different to previous years in its operation, as Santa is under far more pressure than normal, due to Covid19. As you can see in this edition, he has got his Covid Vaccinations and is all set to go. So, log click on from 4pm to this LINK and see if you can spot him! You can see some footage taken last year now on YouTube.

Also, we are popping out to the Tin Shed, in Formby, if Covid19 restrictions allow, to get a few photos of the celebrations. If you have a venue that's open on New Year's Eve, please let us know now, as we plan to cover a few locations, if possible.
 

OUR press regulator IMPRESS has told us that they welcome the joint committee recommendations published on 14 December 2021, regarding the need to revise definitions of journalistic content proposed under the Government's draft Online Safety Bill. IMPRESS is ready to work with the Government on this task to ensure that any new legal tests for journalistic content take account of existing legal definitions and respect existing systems of self regulation of the press.

In a statement the regulator has said:- "We also welcome the opportunity to ensure adequate means of redress are provided under the bill for well regulated publishers, to ensure that their content is not subject to excess moderation and that their exposure to audiences via online platforms is not reduced."

Lexie Kirkconnell Kawana, Head of Regulation at IMPRESS added:- "IMPRESS is concerned about the role played by private social media companies in enforcing new regulations about who qualifies as a news publisher and what counts as journalism. This presents a real threat to the freedom of the press and undermines established systems of self regulation. We endorse Facebook's position that private companies should not be the arbiters of what constitutes journalism or what is democratically important. News publishers who are already well regulated in the public interest are experiencing significant interference in their ability to reach audiences because of platform over moderation. As the only UK press regulator approved in law, IMPRESS is ready to work with Government and Ofcom to develop a definition of journalistic content that will preserve the freedom of expression, while protecting the public from abuse, particularly from unregulated sources of misinformation."