For too long some businesses, corporations and government entities (think the water companies or the Post Office) have acted as if they were solely accountable to their shareholders or paymasters, rather than to the public, regardless of the damage their policies inflict on communities. This new Bylines Network and Changing Ideas initiative aims to ensure that everyone is responsible for their actions. We want to put people before profit.
To set a cycle of change in motion, we invite readers to take part in People before Profit (PBP). This is your chance to use truth as power and let your voice be heard.
How does it work?
On our People before Profit website, we’ve established a secure portal that will allow writers, students, journalists and concerned citizens to:
- Nominate a company or public body that deserves scrutiny
- Raise legitimate concerns about unethical or shady business practices
- Work with us to research and investigate those who flout the law
- Investigate a company that appears to put profit ahead of its employees’ safety
- Ensure accountability
- Enhance awareness about companies that damage both members of the public and entire communities.
This dedicated portal will be opened on all the Bylines Network webpages – which are promoted very widely – enabling citizens anywhere in the UK to alert us to harmful, unethical, or unaccountable businesses and other organisations. Just look for the People Before Profit logo.
PBP will enable citizen journalists to share intelligence that might otherwise be missed, aggregate known concerns, and provide lines of investigation for future years. It’s accountability in action.
How to submit details
If you have a story, visit the website and fill out the nomination form giving details of business or public body malpractice. You will need back-up information and evidential proof, where possible. The more information you as a writer can provide, the more helpful this will be.
To verify the information we will be using two exhaustively tested AI platforms, and it will be further analysed by one of the PBP team. We understand that not every writer will be confident with Freedom Of Information (FOI) tools or the rudiments of journalistic investigation. We will be able to help.
We ask that no one submits an AI-generated story.
We also ask you to bear in mind the basics of ethical journalism. Our team will work with you, where needed, to ensure that the story is legal, not purely gossip driven, that you get your point across, and will support you across the process. For any concerns about privacy and confidentiality, please read our Privacy policy.
People Before Profit Awards
PBP is supported by Changing Ideas, a non-profit organisation dedicated to creating a more just and sustainable world, and together we aim to give an award to the worst offenders, as a result of the stories that you submit and the articles that those stories generate. We can ensure the awards reflect collective civic scrutiny and participation and that they lead to real-world impact.
Together, we can hold businesses involved in shady or corrupt practices to account and create a better future for all.
Over to you
In a world which sometimes feels as though the powerful can act with impunity, this really is an opportunity for citizen journalists to become involved in some important investigations into wrongdoing. We are looking for more than just a hunch or second-hand gossip, but if you can provide a few basic facts our team will work on establishing whether there is a case to answer. The main aspect of an investigative story is to provide the proof to back up your assertion. If you’re not convinced that your narrative fits our fact testing – submit anyway. We can work with you.
People Before Profit launched in early May and we are already investigating a number of leads that have been submitted. One concerns housing associations that appear to be set up for profit alone rather than for the needs of the residents; another is about a developer with a track record of by-passing planning regulations and selling defective properties
Please submit your stories, with evidence. We will verify them and then together we can make your story become an investigation. Think of Sir Alan Bates and The Post Office, or the Al Fayed and Epstein cases, or water companies going rogue: these were stories where no one felt their voice was heard.
This initiative gives everyone a voice. We look forward to hearing from you.
