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A Voice for Media Freedom
150/Granville Williams
DATELINE: 25/2/06
There are a number of distinctive and continuing themes which emerge from a review of the 149 back-issues of Free Press, the public face of the CPBF....
The first is that our work and activity have inspired others to emulate us. In February 1987 FP39 reported the launch of FAIR: ‘Inspired by the example of the CPBF a group of journalists in the US last year launched their own campaign with the aim of providing a progressive critique of bias in the American media.’
And in FP137 we reported the launch in November 2003 of the Free Press Media Reform conference in Madison, Wisconsin, an inspirational event which I was privileged to be at. Both this conference and the second, even larger, event held in St Louis (FP146) revealed a powerful movement for media reform in the USA and the co-founders, Bob McChesney and Bill Nichols, acknowledge the CPBF was their model for the project.
In Canada, Rob Hackett, an occasional contributor to FP, and also someone who has documented our history, established a CPBF organisation. And in 2006 we are involved in a project to develop a network of organisations based on the CPBF model, initially within the European Union, and further afield eventually, as part of our response to the threats of an increasingly globalised media.
Dramatic changes in the media have also been reflected in the journal’s pages. At the AGM in April 1982 the organisation’s name was changed to include broadcasting, and the original seven founding aims were modified and extended to ten (we have subsequently updated our aims again to include the important new communications technology, the internet, and to address media manipulation and ‘spin’). Two contributors to FP, Gary Herman and Nicolas Jones, have helped us to understand the importance and policy issues behind both these developments.
But what leaps out, as one goes through the back issues of the journal, is the energy and commitment of a range of individuals and organisations who have contributed ideas and energy to the coherent set of policy ideas which still inspire and shape the organisation’s work. We have produced three Media Manifestoes, for example, to intervene in policy debates in the run-up to general elections (1986, 1996 and 2005) and when the media beats the drum for war we have produced special issues of FP to analyse the media’s performance during the 1982 Falklands War, the 1991 Gulf War, Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq 2003.
January 2006, the twentieth anniversary of the Wapping lock-out, is an appropriate time to recognise that the CPBF was a coalescence of media trades unionists, academics, political activists and individuals concerned about the impact of press concentration on the accurate and fair reporting of industrial relations. It was our argument that the ownership of national newspapers by a few powerful media groups and proprietors distorted the reporting of news, but particularly about trades unions and industrial relations. This led to nearly all the national unions affiliating to the CPBF. And we saw during the 1984-85 miners’ strike powerful evidence to demonstrate how the state and the media were able to do their damage.
Of course over the years some issues have shifted to the margins. Financial pressures have forced the CPBF to give priorities to the core issues we can pursue but we have sustained an important critical voice for media reform since 1979. That’s no mean achievement.
Last modified: Saturday, February 25, 2006
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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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