New Secretary of State for media

and digital, cultural and sport as well

SO FAREWELL then, Nadine Dorries, who has stood down as DCMS Secretary, a brief which includes our media industry.

Dorries caused many a jaw to drop due to her erroneous belief that Channel 4 was funded by taxpayers' money. She was corrected on this by an MP during a Select Committee evidence session. Dorries also believed that Channel 5 had been privatised (although it did once change hands, it has always been privately owned) and asked a representative of Microsoft whether their organisation would stop using algorithms.

With Dorries now elevated to the House of Lords, the new Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport - "Culture Secretary" for short - is Michelle Donelan.

Donelan recently had the distinction of being Education Secretary for less than 36 hours under outgoing Prime Minister Alexander de Pfeffel "Boris" Johnson before she resigned. This makes her the shortest-serving Secretary of State in UK history. Donelan does have experience in the media industry: she formerly worked in marketing for Marie Claire magazine.

© Matt Salusbury

• At the time of writing there had been no announcement on which Minister will be responsible for copyright.
• 10 October 2022 On 5 October it was quietly revealed that the Minister responsible for copyright will be Dean Russell, MP for Watford.