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RACISM AND THE MEDIA - UPDATE ON FREEPRESS 138
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In the last issue we highlighted the racist coverage of immigration in papers like The Sun and Daily Express. The Express carried headlines such as BRITAIN HERE WE COME and WE CAN’T COPE WITH HUGE GIPSY INVASION to accompany stories that all the gypsies in the states joining the EU in May would come to the UK and claim benefits.Journalists on Express Newspapers in London have condemned their own paper’s ‘racist’ coverage of immigration and demanded a ‘conscience clause’ to allow them to opt out of working on such stories.
At a packed chapel meeting a resolution expressed concern about the pressure put on journalists to write anti-gypsy articles and called for a letter to be sent to the PCC ‘reminding it of the need to protect journalists who are unwilling to write racist articles which are contrary
to the NUJ Code of Conduct’.
This is the second time the NUJ has complained to the PCC about racist coverage in the Express. In 2001 the union submitted a complaint after a revolt by the Express chapel over a week of splashes attacking refugees.
Journalists said, as they do now, that it was pressure from proprietor Richard Desmond that was driving such coverage.
Redwatch, the BNP and the NUJ
The British National Party (BNP) is to field over 600 local council election candidates this summer. Searchlight, the anti-fascist magazine comments:
‘This year will either propel the BNP into the European parliament and dozens of local councils, like similar fascist organizations in other West European countries, or shove it back into the margins of political life, its bubble having burst.
The BNP pay a good deal of attention to the media. Indeed there is clear evidence that they have a concerted campaign to intimidate those members of the NUJ who publicise and highlight in the local, regional and national press the real policies and unpleasant characters behind the BNP. The Redwatch web site has the names, photos and other details of journalists on it, as well as other trade unionists active in organizing against the BNP. The clear intention is to make people named on the site targets for attack.
On 16 February the BNP decided to protest outside the NUJ HQ in London.
The mobilization was a flop for them. A counter-demonstration leafleted passers-by. The leaflet contained an unequivocal statement applauding and supporting ‘…the journalists and newspapers around the country that do investigate and expose the BNP and their lies. We will resist all intimidation by the BNP - it is a fascist organization.’
No Conscience Clause
The idea of a conscience clause, to protect journalists who refuse to write stories on moral grounds, will not be included in the revised Editors’ Code of Practice.
A committee of editors looking at revisions to the code, which guides the work of the Press Complaints Commission, decided that it should be up to editors to be the conscience of newspapers and magazines, not individual journalists.
The idea of a conscience clause has long been supported by the NUJ.
Last modified: Wednesday, April 7, 2004
Previous miscellany stories
Public Interest Tests
Campaign welcomes new BBC chair
Protecting Your Sources
Digital radio: when more means less
MEDIA MONITOR: Nasty Racist Reporting
MEDIA MONITOR: Criminal Negligence
WITHOUT COMMENT
book review: Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq, ed David Miller (Pluto Press £12.99)
BOOK REVIEW: Journalism Principles and Practice, by Tony Harcup (Sage, £18.99)
BBC: Wrong or Wronged?
Press Regulation in Eire
GCHQ whistleblower charged
MEDIA MONITOR - Amusing Ourselves to Death
MEDIA MONITOR - Stifling Dissent
MEDIA MONITOR -Goodman’s Memoirs
Without Comment
Powell’s Rules
USA Conference Challenges Corporate Media
PLATFORM - A Safe Pair of Hands?
REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media distortion in the Attack on Iraq, ed. by David Miller ,Pluto £12.99
Labour’s TV Policies: Book Launch
NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON’T
BENIGN DICTATORSHIP
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AND BEEBWATCH
THE DOTTY & BARMY WATCHDOG
The Murdoch Dossier
BCT PIPELINE PROTEST
LAKENHEATH TRESPASS DAY
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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
Miscellany
Public Interest Tests
Campaign welcomes new BBC chair
Protecting Your Sources
Digital radio: when more means less
MEDIA MONITOR: Nasty Racist Reporting
MEDIA MONITOR: Criminal Negligence
WITHOUT COMMENT
book review: Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq, ed David Miller (Pluto Press £12.99)
BOOK REVIEW: Journalism Principles and Practice, by Tony Harcup (Sage, £18.99)
BBC: Wrong or Wronged?
Press Regulation in Eire
GCHQ whistleblower charged
MEDIA MONITOR - Amusing Ourselves to Death
MEDIA MONITOR - Stifling Dissent
MEDIA MONITOR -Goodman’s Memoirs
Without Comment
Powell’s Rules
USA Conference Challenges Corporate Media
PLATFORM - A Safe Pair of Hands?
REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media distortion in the Attack on Iraq, ed. by David Miller ,Pluto £12.99
Labour’s TV Policies: Book Launch
NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON’T
BENIGN DICTATORSHIP
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AND BEEBWATCH
THE DOTTY & BARMY WATCHDOG
The Murdoch Dossier
BCT PIPELINE PROTEST
LAKENHEATH TRESPASS DAY
