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New pamphlet from Spinwatch: Spinning the Wheels
DATELINE: 7/10/08
Spinning the Wheels: A guide to the PR and lobbying industry in the UK is a new publication by SpinWatch. The booklet provides a snapshot of an industry that prefers to stay out of the limelight. It documents the tactics used by leading PR and public affairs companies on issues such as nuclear power, science, food and local government. It then takes you on a tour of leading PR companies, think tanks and corporate funded science organizations in the UK.It documents the tactics used by leading PR and public affairs companies on issues such as nuclear power, science, food and local government. It then takes you on a tour of leading PR companies, think tanks and corporate funded science organizations in the UK.
Spinning the Wheels also gives an insight into lobbying, a sub-sector of the PR industry. It argues that while lobbying is a legitimate activity, the majority is undertaken by or on behalf of industry. By examining the links between personnel in commercial lobbying consultancies and politics in the UK, it reveals the enormous disparity in access and influence between the business interests able to afford their services and those lobbying in the not-for-profit sector.
The booklet was launched on Monday 22nd September at a fringe event at the Labour Party conference. The event, called Will Lobbyists Come Clean? was a debate on transparency in lobbying and whether rules should be introduced to open up lobbying activity to more public scrutiny. It was organised by the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency
(ALT), of which SpinWatch is a member.You can either download a copy for free or order a hard copy from the SpinWatch bookshop.
More information:
http://www.spinwatch.org/-articles-by-category-mainmenu-8/40-pr-industry/5176-spinning-the-wheels-a-guide-to-the-pr-and-lobbying-industry
Last modified: Monday, November 3, 2008
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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
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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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