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Toxic Sludge
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The first UK edition of Toxic Sludge Is Good For You!: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry, by US media critics John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, with an introduction by Robert Newman, has just been published by Constable and Robinson, £6.99.The book was given a distinctly cool review in PR Week by David Gallagher, the London CEO of Ketchum, one of the agencies attacked in the book. He described it as ‘a dusty reprint of a polemic first published in 1995. I had hoped to be challenged; instead I was bored.’ He concludes, ‘Should you read this book for yourself? Sure, if you’ve got the time and patience.’
We beg to differ. It remains a relevant, and disturbing, expose of some of the more dubious and dishonest tactics used by the PR industry, and a very informative read.
Last modified: Saturday, October 9, 2004
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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
1979, trade unions and journalism
Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power and Patrimony by Paul Ginsborg, Verso £16.00
Support the European Social Forum
Free Press - 115
Free Press 116 - complete contents
FBI seizes hard drives of Indymedia server in the UK
IFJ Condemns Israeli Twists and Turns of Justice as Banned British Journalist is Forced to Return Home
CPBF Condemns "Bizarre Judgement" in Ewa Case
Ewa Wins Appeal - Still Detained
Privacy and accountability
The Sun and Hillsborough
Media Monitor: Ronald Reagan and Commemorative Amnesia
Russia: Clamping Down on Independent Media
Doing Its Job?
Mordechai appeals restrictions
Paul Foot
International Petition Calls for Israel to Lift Restrictions Against Mordechai Vanunu
New Link: Global Echo
ABUSIVE IMAGES
Reporting the Miners' Strike
MEDIA MONITOR: Charter for the Minority Press
Without Comment
Book Review: Privacy and the Press
US Free Press
Murdoch Watching
MEDIA MONITOR: ITV told 'Keep it local'
THE MEDIA AND THE MINERS
Campbell In Denial
WITHOUT COMMENT
Judge drops Bloody Sunday threat
