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Review: Labour's missed opportunities
157/Tom O'Malley
Sean Tunney, Labour and the Press. From New Left to New Labour (Brighton, Sussex Academic Press, 2007) £17.95
DATELINE: 15/6/07During the passage of the 2003 Communications Act, senior News Corporation employees met six times with Government officials. The secretary of state, Tessa Jowell dutifully assured them "there was no intention" that a proposed public interest clause in the Act obliging ministers to maintain plurality when considering newspaper takeovers, "could be used to block a takeover". The parties agreed the Act amounted to a "significant deregulation" of the rules on newspaper mergers
From the late 1980s the Labour leadership increasingly sought better press representation at the expense of policies designed to promote diversity in the industry. Jowell's understanding with News Corporation was a natural outcome of this process. Sean Tunney's account of shifts in Labour policy on the press since the early 1970s places New Labour's current position firmly in its medium-term historical context.
Tunney details the emergence, in the 1970s, of pressures from trade unions and party members for reform of press ownership and control. These culminated in the radical proposals of the 1974 discussion document, The People and the Media, elements of which influenced the 1983 election manifesto. Differences existed between those who wanted to promote diversity and others concerned with getting Labour a voice in the national newspaper market. A succession of electoral defeats (1979-1992) and the accommodation of the Labour and trade union leaderships with the neo-liberalism of the Thatcher years, left progressive policies on ownership, diversity and right of reply behind.
This book is a record of failure, despite tremendous efforts of analysis, time and imagination by reformers, to democratise mass communications. Yet it is also an account of the complexities of trying to change press policy and a rich record of the proposals devised to improve the media. To influence the future we need to understand our past. Labour and the Press provides readers with an indispensable aid to understanding and a platform for reflection on future strategies for change.
Last modified: Friday, June 15, 2007
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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
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