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Reporting the Riots
Four days of rioting and looting in London, Birmingham, Manchester and other major towns and cities was a testing time not only for the police and the courts but also for the news media.
Blanket coverage on television news channels was blamed by some for inciting continuing unrest and copy-cat crimes. Widespread use of messaging services and social networking sites raised worrying speculation about the extent of state surveillance of mobile phones and the internet.
Tabloid newspapers leapt at the chance to promote a tough law-and-order clampdown. Unprecedented exploitation of images captured on closed circuit television helped the police make hundred of arrests. Again the popular press were cheer leaders, publishing their own “rogues’ galleries” of potential suspects.
Nicholas Jones chairs a discussion aimed at examining the many issues involved.
He talks to a broadcaster, photographer and journalist with wide experience of the difficulties of reporting civil unrest: Alex Pascall, presenter of the radio programme Black Londoners and a well respected voice of the Caribbean community, Jess Hurd, chair of the London photographers’ branch of the National Union of Journalists, and Tim Gopsill, former editor of The Journalist who has written extensively on the way the media report protests and demonstrations.
Last modified: Wednesday, August 31, 2011
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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.
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DATELINE: 26/3/10
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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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