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London Bombings: Missing Questions
15/8/05: After the London bombings hate filled headlines from sections of our national press whipped up hysteria. Some, like the Express headline, really did plumb the depths. The day after the shooting of the innocent Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes, the Sun front page headline on 23 July was ‘ONE DOWN, THREE TO GO’.
Menezes’s behaviour was presented as the justification for him being gunned down. The ‘facts’ about the police shooting (or indeed whether it was police or special forces involved) - that he wore a bulky jacket and leapt over the ticket barrier - have now been rejected. Such ‘facts’ led Bruce Anderson to conclude that ‘the police were right to shoot…anyone who behaves in that way cannot have been keeping abreast of current affairs’. (The Independent 25/7/5)
The function of such hysterical coverage is to create a groundswell of support for exceptional powers to combat terror threats. The shoot-to-kill policy is one which prompts the questions: when was it introduced and why there was no debate in Parliament or public information? Another is the proposal to close bookshops and internet sites. As The Economist (30/7/5) points out: ‘This is both foolish and draconian. Foolish because in an open society and the age of the internet such a ban on free speech would not work.’ And where would such limits on free speech be set?
The media should be playing a vital role in asking awkward questions and presenting information, but there are huge gaps and selectivity in their performance. The real facts about the ongoing death and destruction in Iraq or the links between the Iraq war and the London bombings get scant coverage. Indeed those that raise such issues are themselves attacked by the media. At times like this we need to go to other sources: Paul Rogers at www.opendemocracy.net is one. But we also need to challenge the media for its selectivity and bias and www.medialens.org does that.
LINKSOpen Democracy
Media Lens
Last modified: Monday, August 15, 2005
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Journalism Ethics
Alter-EU launched
Marketing Labour
US threat to protection of sources
Protection of sources: 'A denial of justice'
Astroturfing
When errors hit the information superhighway
BBC puts its house in order (complaints-wise)
The Blame Game
Shock jailing of reporter in CIA-leak case
Faking It
The Guardian and the Lexus
Launch of The RAM Report
Aliens in the Media
Lies, Spies & Whistleblowers
Sunday Mirror pays out over slur
Check Calls
CBS Purge
Journalism & Public Trust
Regulating journalists... Whatever next?
