Journalism and Public Trust
CONTENTS 32 THING'S AIN'T WHAT THEY ‘SEEM’ TO BE Page John O 3 INTRODUCTION 34 LOSING FAITH IN COLLEAGUES I THOUGHT WOULD HELP Sandra Nyaira * PART 1: 37 BE AWARE OF THE IMPACT OF JOURNALISM AND PUBLIC TRUST OUR WORK Bob Dale 5 WHY CITIZENS DISTRUST 38 ARE YOU LISTENING? JOURNALISM Jim Latham * Dr Karin Wahl-Jorgensen 7 THE BBC'S FAILINGS ARE A WARNING TO ALL PART 3: JOURNALISTS MORE SPINNED AGAINST… Andrew Gowers 9 THE THREAT TO THE MEDIA 41 NUMBER 10 AND THE MEDIA: IS REAL CO-DEPENDENTS IN THE SPIN Martin Kettle CYCLE Graham Allen MP 11 JOURNALISTS' SELF- 44 UNSOURCED AND RIGHTEOUS ARROGANCE HAS UNSUBSTANTIATED GONE TOO FAR Nicholas Jones * Martin Kettle 46 RETHINKING ANONYMITY 13 JOURNALISM'S KEY BATTLE IS Bill Norris WITH ITS OWN INTEGRITY Joyce McMillan 15 WHEN ENTRAPMENT REPLACES PART 4: THE NOTEBOOK TRAINING JOURNALISTS Bill Hagerty 17 ROTTWEILERS SAVAGE 47 THE CHALLENGE FOR DEMOCRACY JOURNALISM EDUCATORS Barry Richards Deirdre O’Neill 19 BALANCING ETHICS AND 50 TEACHING JOURNALISTS TO COMPETITION COVER EUROPE Roman Gerodimos Paul Rowinski 21 A COMPACT OF TRUST BETWEEN JOURNALISM AND THE PUBLIC? PART 5: Mike Jempson * REGULATION
53 THE PCC - FAST, FREE... BUT PART 2: NOT VERY FAIR MINORITY VIEWPOINTS? Andreas Koumi 55 APOLOGISING FOR MISTAKES 24 TO TREAT ME AS DIFFERENT THE AMERICAN WAY IS UNFAIR Jacob Ecclestone Stephen Brookes 57 NEW CODE FOR 26 FROM THE PULPIT BROADCASTERS Fareena Alam * Fran O’Brien * 28 ROBUST, RIGOROUS 60 TRUST AND LIBEL LAW AND ETHICAL? Bruce Whitehead Hamza Vayani 62 A QUESTION OF IDENTITY? 29 ROMAPHOBIA – EUROPE’S Patrick Trollope ‘ACCEPTABLE RACISM’ 63 CLEANING UP THE ACT Valeriu Nicolae * Bill Hagerty
* Denotes speaker
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Journalism and Public • only 14% gave credence to tabloid newspapers which between them Trust outsell all the other papers.
Public confidence in journalism should One perverse message that could be be the best guarantee that the powerful drawn from these figures is that most are being kept in check. After all newspaper readers prefer to rely on journalists are supposed to be the outlets they don’t trust for their ‘Fourth Estate’, acting as the eyes and information about the world… ears of the public. In the most recent poll about public Yet it has become axiomatic that confidence in political discourse, journalists rate low in public esteem, conducted for The Independent in down there among the politicians and October 2004: estate agents – ironically the very people • 78% said the Hutton/BBC tussle we are supposed to be keeping an eye had made little difference to their on. belief in the BBC’s trustworthiness. • 9% said it had made them trust the At the end of a year when editorial BBC more practice in the most highly regulated • 9% said it had made them trust the and hallowed ‘public service’ BBC less. broadcasting institution has been picked apart in forensic detail by Lord In answer to the question Who is more Hutton; when the highly-profitable to blame for the decline in trust in the demise of Piers Morgan became as political process? talked about as the faked pictures of • 55% blamed politicians alleged war atrocities he published; and • 20% blamed the media when Alistair Campbell finally departed • 21% said both. from Downing Street to spin yarns on stage, where do journalists stand in the Asked whether accuracy in the news pantheon of public trust? has improved in recent years • 25% it has improved Soon after the Hutton Report was • 27% said it had worsened published in January 2004, the • 42% said it was about the same. Newspaper Society polled 1,515 people and found that: If we consider the trust rating of • 20% regarded regional newspapers journalists in the earlier polls that is not as the most trusted news source saying much… • BBC TV came second with 19% • Teletext came next with 12% Of course, there are lies, damned lies, • National daily newspapers won trust and statistics – but this year has also from a mere 11% see a plethora of articles (some included • BBC radio had a 10% trust rating. here) by respected journalists challenging their colleagues to look A year earlier a YouGov poll had asked a again at their attitudes and practices. similar number who they trusted to tell the truth: It is appropriate, and significant, that • 82% trusted commercial TV news the year should end with a conference journalists about journalism and public trust • 81% BBC News organized by the NUJ Ethics Council. • 80% Channel 4 News Within a week of its announcement over • 65% broadsheet journalists half the available places were snapped • 60% local newspapers up. Restoring public trust in journalism • 44% their local MP is clearly close to the hearts of those • 36% mid-market papers who work in the trade. • 25% government ministers • 20% opposition MPs Mike Jempson • 16% estate agents NUJ Ethics Council
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WHY CITIZENS DISTRUST PART 1 JOURNALISM
Dr Karin Wahl-Jorgensen JOURNALISM AND Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies PUBLIC TRUST
JOURNALISM cannot be trusted because news organisations are too commercially driven, biased, and aligned with government and special WHY CITIZENS DISTRUST JOURNALISM interests. There is a ‘conspiracy of Dr Karin Wahl-Jorgensen silence’ on the part of government and media, who tell citizens only what they THE BBC'S FAILINGS ARE A WARNING TO want them to know, and keep the ALL JOURNALISTS important information secret. Andrew Gowers This bleak view of journalism prevails THE THREAT TO THE MEDIA among respondents to the Mass IS REAL. IT COMES FROM WITHIN Observation Archive at the University of Martin Kettle Sussex.
JOURNALISTS' SELF-RIGHTEOUS The archive seeks to capture the ARROGANCE HAS GONE TOO FAR opinions of ‘ordinary people’. It solicits Martin Kettle detailed written replies from respondents around Britain to JOURNALISM'S KEY BATTLE IS WITH ITS questions about set topics four times a OWN INTEGRITY year. In the summer of 2001, that topic Joyce McMillan was their opinion of the mass media, and the extent to which they serve the WHEN ENTRAPMENT REPLACES THE public interest. The 161 responses NOTEBOOK provide a rich source of detailed Bill Hagerty opinions from a wide range of British citizens who speak in their own voices.1 ROTTWEILERS SAVAGE DEMOCRACY I have studied these responses, and was Barry Richards surprised by the strength of these citizens’ distrust in journalism. JOURNALISTS IN THE EYE OF THE STORM: BALANCING ETHICS AND COMPETITION The citizens who write to the Mass Roman Gerodimos Observation Archive revealed that because of their dislike of conventional A COMPACT OF TRUST BETWEEN journalism, they are increasingly turning to alternative sources of JOURNALISM AND THE PUBLIC? Mike Jempson *
1 The panel has a high proportion of women (around 70%), and a very high proportion of older people (more than 90% over 40). In terms of geography and class it is also somewhat skewed (towards the south of England and
middle-class respondents). In the summer of 2001, 161 individuals responded to the directive. The interviewees are identified by the information they provide, which varies from one respondent to the next. Quotes from respondents are subject to the copyright of the Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive, 2004.
5 Journalism and Public Trust information, threatening the long-term incentive driving print journalism. As viability of journalism. one elderly man put it, “the media's main intention is to make money on The respondents’ opinions lend stories that sell. Therefore we hear credence to widespread ideas that there biased opinions about more sensational is a “crisis of public communication”2 events rather than receiving true facts because politicians and the journalists about more important and crucial who report on them are seen as out of issues of concern”. touch with the concerns of citizens. A female respondent felt that “if the It is a crisis that has a financial impact media supplied only factual on news media, as evidenced in the information, I think they would rapidly continuing declines of newspaper lose their audience/customers, and circulation and readership. But it also quantities of political pundits, points to the apparent inability of mass commentators, journalists and spin media to serve their ideal role in a doctors would be out of a job. The democratic society; that of creating an newspapers and commercial radio and informed public. We expect the media TV have to consider the political stance to serve as an independent ‘watchdog’ of their advertisers and owners”. on government3, to provide a platform for a diverse public debate, and to Respondents questioned the encourage citizen participation in independence of media; as one woman politics.4 put it, “no part of the media is really a free agent, they are all paid or are The media are unreliable responsible to someone and act accordingly”. Mass Observation respondents were both aware of these responsibilities, and Turning away from mainstream media quick to point out how media fall short of meeting them. A young man While many respondents pointed to expressed the prevailing view succinctly government spin as a culprit for when he argued that “generally, the misinformation, some believed that media supplies pap for the masses”. there is a darker truth behind the manipulation of public information. One A 68-year old retired teacher expressed elderly woman gave voice to this theory her disenchantment in a tone that as follows: “Of course we depend on the showed the depth of her frustration: press, but it seems most unlikely that “What is the point? Why read the the general public get fully informed on papers, or watch the news, if I believe so sensitive or volatile issues. The little of what is written/talked about?” conspiracy of silence on matters that could be viewed as important is so great Many other respondents used strikingly that the public are unaware even that similar language, though some reserved anything is going on…. We learn of special scorn for the red top press. As government cover-ups months/years/ one 74-year old woman put it: “I'm decades later.” afraid I don't see how anyone who only reads tabloids and relies on TV for news Another respondent echoed this view can be sufficiently well-informed to be when he wrote that “very often we are an effective member of a democracy, not told facts but conjecture and half and this depresses me.” truths, we are fed what the media wants In part, respondents saw news as us to see and hear, and with unreliable because of the commercial information that the government has censored and considered before releasing it. We are not told the truth 2 Blumler, J., & Gurevitch, M., The crisis of public unless it is innocuous”. communication. London, Routledge, 1995. To these citizens, it appears that that 3 See p.1, Wheeler, M., Politics and the mass the media, far from working to create an media. Oxford, Blackwell, 1997. informed public, are in league with a 4 See p.99, McNair, B., Introduction to political government and corporate cabal out to communication. London, Routledge, 1999
6 Journalism and Public Trust manipulate the public. This bleak and THE BBC'S FAILINGS cynical view of the media was not universal. A few writers praised the ARE A WARNING media, as in the case of one woman who TO ALL JOURNALISTS felt that “by and large the news seems to be very well presented”. Andrew Gowers Others felt that public service Editor, Financial Times broadcasting does well at informing citizens. However, the overwhelming tone of the responses was harshly WHAT I am about to say may seem negative and cynical. Because of their perverse, even shocking, at the end of a lack of trust in conventional media, week like this one. But here goes: many respondents said they rely on British journalists owe Andrew Gilligan alternative sources of information. One a debt of gratitude. retired woman from Brighton wrote that “the best possible solution is to read a The BBC reporter whose misguided cross-section of the papers and form stories on the government's case for war your own opinions”. in Iraq landed his employer in crisis exposed poor editing, deteriorating Another respondent felt that “with the journalistic values and sloppy Internet, you can access all sides of the management at all levels of Britain's story whether it be true or not. The public service broadcaster. internet can also sell you a lot of untruths and myths but that is its But he should also be remembered as beauty in that it is so free”. the journalist who held up the mirror to British journalism as a whole, exposing Respondents also professed to place its foibles and its faults. For while the their trust in magazines ranging from crisis at the BBC is deep-seated, it is Red Pepper, New Internationalist, merely part of a broader malaise in History Today, and Private Eye. Other British politics and media. And while sources for information included radical reform of the corporation's newsletters from organisations such as management is undoubtedly necessary, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Save the Children, the need for reassessment does not stop and the Ramblers Association. Finally, there. most respondents continually check their information and ideas about key Lord Hutton's judgment on the BBC, in issues by talking to friends, family his report on the death of David Kelly, members, colleagues and the government scientist, is devastating. acquaintances. Mr Gilligan's original broadcast casting Overall, the responses indicate that doubt on government claims about Iraqi news media do occupy a central place in weapons of mass destruction was the lives of citizens. However, they are unfounded. The corporation's news frequently mistrusted by their editing procedures were defective. Its audiences who turn to other sources of system for handling outside complaints information. failed. Its board of governors did not make proper inquiries before backing How can journalism respond to this the story. It is no surprise, therefore, challenge? There are no easy solutions. that both Gavyn Davies, chairman, and But to begin with, there are some Greg Dyke, director-general, walked the searching questions to be asked about plank. why citizens believe that they are kept in the dark by a ‘conspiracy of silence’, What is both alarming and depressing is and what can be done to demonstrate that neither man seems to have begun the democratic purpose and indepen- to understand the lessons of the affair, dence of journalism. or to have reflected on what it means for the BBC as a news organisation or for
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For the true message of the Hutton and changed by Mr Gilligan from one report is that this was a story about broadcast or newspaper column to the journalism, not about the deliberate next. The source, it subsequently embellishment of a government dossier emerged, was misdescribed - and could on Iraqi WMD, against the wishes of the not have known in sufficiently complete intelligence services. That claim - the detail about the matters on which he central one in Mr Gilligan's May 29 was being made to comment. broadcast - was demolished in Lord Hutton's conclusions, in a way entirely Against this background, Mr Dyke's consistent with the evidence at his contention that the thrust of the story disposal. was worth reporting, and that any mistakes were in the detail, defies belief. As for the question of how the Worse, it demonstrates the extent to intelligence services got their which the BBC has been infected by the assessment of Iraq's WMD so grievously poisonous culture that has long since wrong, that is a legitimate, but separate tainted other parts of the discourse issue. between politicians and the media.
The Hutton report is about a story that For Mr Dyke and Mr Davies, it was more was wrong, defended against furious important to resist and oppose the government complaints by a BBC government than to check or correct an management that had not bothered to erroneous broadcast. In other words, an check it, even weeks after it was agenda, born of a desire to demonstrate broadcast, and backed by a board of independence, got in the way of the governors determined to resist external truth. pressure at the expense of obscuring the truth. No one - certainly not Lord Hutton - is suggesting that journalism must now Now, all broadcasters and newspapers, retreat from questioning and including this one, make mistakes. investigating those in authority. On the Even the greatest can occasionally run contrary: such activities are more off the rails, as The New York Times did needed than ever. But they will have to with its rogue reporter scandal last be done better and - like government year. But it is hard to imagine a graver officials - we have a duty not to "sex up" charge against a media organisation what we claim to have found. than the one Lord Hutton levelled against the BBC. Let this dreadful misadventure, then, serve as a wake-up call for journalists. In reply, Mr Davies insinuates that Lord Hutton's conclusions do not fit the facts It should remind us that reflexive media and mutters about threats to press mistrust of every government action or freedom. And Mr Dyke claims the pronouncement - matched by an equal Gilligan story - though mistaken - was addiction to "spin" in government - is in the public interest and that the corroding British democracy and governors had no reason to apologise. In eroding trust in the media themselves. so doing, both demonstrate that they have only a passing acquaintance with It should prompt us to resist the easy, the basic tenets of good journalism. superficial certainties of parti pris opinion and rediscover the virtues of The flaws in Mr Gilligan's story should accuracy, context and verification. Of have been obvious from the moment he course, these things are easier to went on air. It was based on the declare than they are to do and all of us testimony of one source, when most will sometimes fail to live up to these good editors - especially when it comes high standards. to contentious stories - insist on independent verification. When we make mistakes - as everyone does - the BBC's experience should It was vaguely phrased, unedited (at teach us to correct rather than to least in the notorious May 29 "two-way") defend blindly. That is the only way to
8 Journalism and Public Trust start restoring confidence in the THE THREAT TO THE MEDIA broadcast media, newspapers and the thousands of conscientious journalists IS REAL. IT COMES FROM who work in them. WITHIN
This article originally appeared in The Financial Times, Sat 31 Jan 2004. Martin Kettle Columnist, The Guardian
‘In the following comment piece, we
referred to an article in the Spectator by Rod
Liddle and in doing so may have given the
impression that he thought Lord Franks, the chairman of the inquiry into the Falklands war, was a law lord. Rod Liddle, having mentioned Lord Franks and others in his piece then referred to "law lords and the like". He has asked us to point out that he knew quite well that Lord Franks was not a law lord.’
From The Guardian's Corrections and Clarifications column, Thursday 26 February 2004
HAVING read the Hutton report and most of what has been written about it, I have reached the following, strictly non-judicial, conclusions: first, that the episode illuminates a wider crisis in British journalism than the turmoil at the BBC; second, that too many journalists are in denial about this wider crisis; third, that journalists need to be at the forefront of trying to rectify it; and, fourth, that this will almost certainly not happen.
The reporting of Lord Hutton's conclusions and of the reactions to them has been meticulous. The same cannot be said of large tracts of the commentary and editorialising - nor of much of the equally kneejerk newspaper correspondence. Much of this comment
has been sullied by scorn, prejudice and
petulance. The more you read it, the
more you get the sense that the modern
journalist is prone to behaving like a
child throwing its rattle out of the pram
because it has not got what it wanted.
Since in some quarters it has become almost obligatory to dismiss Hutton out of hand, it is necessary to reassert that the law lord did an excellent job in
9 Journalism and Public Trust conducting his inquiry so briskly and hopelessly naive), and unapologetic (the transparently, and to stress that his best Liddle can manage is that Gilligan's report is overwhelmingly consistent with famous 6.07am report went "a shade the evidence he received. too far"). Above all, Liddle's piece is arrogant, embodied in his remarkable This is especially true of what became final sentence: "I think, as a country, the crux of the inquiry: the alleged we've had enough of law lords." sexing up of the Iraq dossier, Andrew Gilligan's reporting and the dispute over Think about the implications of that. To the naming of David Kelly. Liddle's fellow practitioners of punk journalism, it can be excused as sparky, From the start, though, too many or justified on the grounds that it is newspapers invested too heavily in a what a lot of other people are saying. To particular preferred outcome on these criticise it is to be condemned as boring key points. They wanted the government or, like Hutton, hopelessly naive. found guilty on the dossier and on the naming, and they wanted Gilligan's To me, though, it smacks of something reporting vindicated. When Hutton drew bordering on journalistic fascism, in opposite conclusions, they damned his which all elected politicians are findings as perverse and his report as a contemptible, all judges are dis- whitewash. But the report's weakness reputable and only journalists are was its narrowness, and to some extent capable of telling the truth, even though its unworldliness, not the accuracy of what passes for truth is sometimes little its verdicts. more than prejudice unsupported by facts. Liddle is an extreme case, if an There was rattle throwing from the right influential one (he was ubiquitous in the of the pram - "a great disservice to the studios last week, acting out his British nation" (Sir Max Hastings in The juvenile Howard Marks fantasy). But he Daily Mail) - and from the left - "Lord is the iceberg tip of a culture of Whitewash" (Paul "We are paid to be contempt towards politicians (and thus cynical" Routledge in The Daily Mirror). of democracy) and judges (and thus of But the worst example, appropriately the law) that is too prevalent in British enough, came from the man who has a journalism (think Jeremy Paxman, for good claim to be the author of the entire instance, both as interviewer and problem between Downing Street and author). Too much of the initial the BBC, the former Today producer response to Hutton has wallowed in that Rod Liddle. fashionable but ultimately destructive cynicism. Liddle is the man who hired Gilligan. He is also the man of whom a former Fortunately, however, not all of it. Amid colleague said (as told to Today's the excessive condemnation of Hutton historian): "Rob didn't want and the equally exaggerated (and conventional stories. He wanted sexy frequently self-interested) dancing on exclusives ... I remember Rod once at a the BBC's imagined grave, there were programme meeting saying 'Andrew gets other voices, which deserve to be heard great stories and some of them are even more widely. true' ... He was bored by standard BBC reporting." So, hats off to The Economist editorial that skewered Gilligan for a report that Liddle's article in the current Spectator was "typical of much of modern British exemplifies this approach, and journalism, twisting or falsifying the incarnates a great deal of what is wrong supposed news to fit a journalist's with modern journalism. Liddle's article opinion about where the truth really is wrong on the facts (Lord Franks, lies. Some in the British media have chairman of the inquiry into the described such journalism as 'brave'. Falklands war, was not a judge, much Sloppy or biased would be better less a law lord), sneering (Lord Hutton's words". Ulster brogue is mocked, and he is described as anachronistic and
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Bravos, too, for Saturday's signed article JOURNALISTS' SELF- by The Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers, which described this "dreadful RIGHTEOUS ARROGANCE misadventure" as a wake-up call for HAS GONE TOO FAR British journalism, and said it "should prompt us to resist the easy, superficial certainties of parti pris opinion and Martin Kettle rediscover the virtues of accuracy, Columnist, The Guardian context and verification".
A round of relieved applause also for the BY ANY meaningful standards, Piers BBC's acting director general Mark Morgan ought now to be a disgraced Byford for his direct response to David man. The former Mirror editor told a Frost's question this week that "Mostly very big and an extremely prominently right isn't good enough for the BBC". displayed lie in his newspaper and, as his lie unravelled, continued to defend There is certainly a threat to modern it. Even when the lie was finally nailed, journalism, but it does not come from he refused to apologise, and was Hutton, or even from Tony Blair. The therefore sacked. over-reaction to Hutton has had the unintended consequence of ensuring It sounds like an open-and-shut case, that Blair cannot be seen to intervene and in my view that's just what it is. Yet further against the BBC. Providing Morgan is laughing all the way to a Byford continues as he has begun, the shiny new career in television and his BBC's independence is safer now than it demand for a £1m payoff seems to have would have been had Hutton spread the touched no general nerve of outrage. blame around more evenly. Not for the first time, an egregious piece of journalism - a front-page story that The threat to modern journalism is real, should never have appeared with so but it comes not just from without but little checking - has caused no dents in also from within. It comes not just from the British press's self-image. the manipulations, favouritism and half-truths of the discredited, and By rights, Morgan ought to make us partially abandoned, Labour spin journalists look into our souls. Instead, culture, but also from the media's we mostly just shrug our shoulders and disrespect for facts, the avoidable failure move on, unwilling or incapable of to be fair, the want of explanation and putting our house in order. the persistent desire for melodrama that are spin's flip side. The Mirror's faked tale was not some one-off event. It was merely the latest A month ago, the Phillis report on manifestation of a widespread and in government communications set out some ways peculiarly British disease. some ways that the post-Campbell This holds that, within increasingly political world could clean up its act. elastic limits, a journalist is entitled to These need to be followed through. But say pretty much what he or she likes, do we in the media have an equivalent whether or not it is precisely true, awareness of the equally urgent need to without being subject to any outside raise our own game? I do not believe we sanctions or professional penalties for have even begun to realise the damage doing so. that some modern journalism is doing to the fabric of public and private life. Please don't get this wrong. Journalism has inherent limitations, and many As Rod Liddle might say (but wouldn't), journalists are only too well aware of I think, as a country, we have had them. They recognise, as the American enough of such things. political reporter David Broder puts it, that a newspaper is always "a partial, This article originally appeared in hasty, incomplete, inevitably somewhat The Guardian, Tues 3 Feb 2004. flawed and inaccurate rendering of some of the things we have heard about
11 Journalism and Public Trust in the last 24 hours". But a lot of us addiction that many reporters seem believe that the flaws and, above all, the barely to know they are crossing the aggressive self-righteousness are getting line. Is this down to a lack of out of hand. Last time I wrote critically professional standards? Yes, in part. about the British press in this column, But it also reflects lack of just after the Hutton report, I was accountability. flooded with private emails from other journalists who shared these concerns. Forty years ago, there was another irresponsible power in the land, one Anyone who doubts that things need to that also considered itself outside the change should look at The Mail on rules that others made and obeyed. Sunday two days ago. "Blair told: go Then, it was the trade unions that now" was the massive headline across resisted every attempt to bring them the front page, accompanied by the within the terms of a shared civil subhead: "Party bosses in open revolt as society. For decades the unions leadership race begins". explicitly denied that an unjust society had a right to place conditions upon the Only by reading the accompanying story way they did their job. Their most could one discover the reporting on powerful leaders - rightly dubbed which such a big claim was based. "A barons - often behaved as though they Mail on Sunday survey" had approached had no responsibility for the condition 25 Labour officials in marginal seats; of of the country beyond the gratification these 25 the number who said that of their own self-interest. Blair should go was - wait for it - five. It took many decades for the trade And what motives, other than reflexive unions to be brought within the resentment of the law and the desire to boundaries of civil society and the law. make mischief, lay behind the attempt It had to be done, but it was not done last Friday by a group of The Sun, The well. We still deny trade unions their News of the World and The Mirror to true importance and we lack, as a challenge the order banning them from society and as trade unionists, a shared revealing details of Maxine Carr's concept of good trade unionism that identity and possible whereabouts? The would allow workers' organisations to order aimed, rightly, to put a firewall play their rightful role in the workplace between modern journalism and its and in industry. But at least trade intended victim. Without it, the press unions no longer make the claim, would undoubtedly have attempted to solemnly endorsed as recently as the solicit attacks on Carr. Donovan royal commission of 1968, that these things are best left to the Yet this is the logic and momentum of unions themselves to sort out. modern journalism. People at the top of nearly all institutions in this country, Yet that is the situation that still applies reports Anthony Sampson in his new to the press today. The parallels with book Who Runs This Place?, see the the unions of the 1960s are striking: a growth of media power as the biggest parallel belief that the law has no place change in modern Britain. "They in their affairs; a parallel conviction that mention the media more often with fear self regulation is all that is required; a or dislike rather than with respect, and parallel belief that government action in with a contempt for their short-term this field is malevolent; a parallel horizons, their superficiality and contempt for public opinion; and a destructiveness," Sampson finds. parallel cadre of barons who do not accept that anyone else has rights to set The result is the siege condition under against their own. As Onora O'Neill put which an approximation of public life is it in her 2002 Reith lectures: "The press conducted in Britain in the year 2004. has acquired unaccountable power that The media's temptation to flaunt its others cannot match." power is old - "Kiss 'em one day and kick 'em the next," Beaverbrook once It doesn't have to be this way. As a put it - but it has now become such an society we once tried to decide what
12 Journalism and Public Trust kind of unions we want. Now we could - JOURNALISM'S KEY BATTLE and should - ask the same questions about the kind of media we want. IS WITH ITS OWN INTEGRITY Throughout his important new history, The Creation of the Media, the American sociologist Paul Starr hammers away at Joyce McMillan the theme that societies have regular Freelance columnist, member of NUJ opportunities to set the framework of National Executive Council the kinds of media they require, and to set them in accordance with the needs of civil society for good media, as well as A BRITISH journalist is kidnapped and in the material interests of the media subsequently released in Iraq; and owners for big profits. across the UK, newsrooms thrill with
empathy and outrage, in a reflex there- We are at such a moment here in but-for-the-grace-of-God reaction that Britain. Or we could be if we tried must grate on the nerves of the families harder to discuss how our press could of other groups whose lives are in be better than it is, and how we might danger in Iraq. improve it without shackling it. What do we really mean by freedom of the press? But even outside the small world of That anyone can say anything about journalism, there’s a growing chill of anyone, however untrue? Or that a concern that events like yesterday’s society needs trustworthy and reliable kidnap in Basra of the freelance information in order to make its journalist James Brandon - just 23 decisions? Surely we deserve something years old, and working on a story for better than what we've got. This is a The Sunday Telegraph - are becoming minefield, of course, but it's also a task more common, and reflect a disturbing absolutely worth undertaking. change in the relationship between
journalists and the news they report. For a start, the government should set up a royal commission on the press. The Iraq war has, of course, been a The crisis of democracy is a crisis in particularly bloody one for the news journalism, warned Walter Lippmann in media. In the first phase of the conflict, the 1920s. Today it is the other way western journalists faced a sharp choice round. between "embedding" themselves with
the armed forces in order to gain This article originally appeared in maximum access to and protection from The Guardian, Tues 18 May 2004. one side in the conflict, or acting
independently, and accepting the high risk of being caught unprotected in
sudden fire-fights and airborne attacks.
By the end of July 2003, according to the International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ), 20 journalists had died, including ITN’s Terry Lloyd,
caught in an exchange of fire while travelling independently in a clearly
marked press car; and the IFJ records 2003 as one of its most dangerous years
on record, with 92 journalists known to have died worldwide in the course of
their work, and many more injured or incapacitated.
Nor is it only in zones of open war that
journalists face increasing danger. Across the former Soviet Union - in
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Russia, Ukraine, Belarus - journalists Comment is free, but facts are sacred, who seek to expose corruption in high the great CP Scott of The Guardian once places face terrifying risks; only a few said. But in an age when "facts" are weeks ago, in the latest of a series of increasingly seen as weapons, to be killings of investigative journalists and ruthlessly selected and spun in order to broadcasters, the editor of Forbes support an already existing point of business magazine in Russia, Paul view that distinction is becoming Khlebnikov, was seized and shot, and desperately hard to maintain. What’s his body dumped in a lay-by on the more, the hyper-competitive climate of outskirts of Moscow, in what many saw the western media is not conducive to as a revenge killing for his negative the long-term fostering of an ethic of coverage of the affairs of leading civic journalism, characterised by high Russian business figures. standards of accuracy and integrity.
From Colombia to the Philippines, the "There can be no press freedom if situation of journalists who seek to journalists exist in conditions of fear, expose links between government, drug- poverty and corruption," says one of the related mafias and violent death squads IFJ’s own favourite slogans; and even if is equally perilous. And last November most British journalists manage to keep in Belfast, a conference on ‘Journalism poverty and corruption at bay, there’s Under Threat’ heard the shocking news no denying the fear - of failure, of that Northern Ireland’s tentative - and, unemployment, of never making it in for some, destabilising - transition one of the world’s most intensely towards peace has brought no respite competitive professions, or of arbitrary for those reporting on the conflict; on power in all its forms - that keeps the contrary, there are now at least 16 journalists away from some of the Northern Irish journalists known to be world’s most difficult and sensitive living under explicit threats from stories, that compels some of them, various paramilitary groups, a higher often against their own consciences, to number than at any time during the keep churning out hate-filled headlines height of the conflict. on subjects such as asylum and migration, and that, on occasions, And although these facts are chilling drives ambitious young writers and and depressing, I suppose that to many photographers, often working freelance people they will hardly seem surprising. without protection or training, to take In the world of 21st-century conflict, it the kinds of risks that can lead to often seems that the battle to control tragedy. the news agenda, and to shape the images the world sees on its screens, is And the official answer to all this, at even more important than the real-life least on the side of the journalists’ conflict on the ground; and in that organisations, is for political, military battle - the new virtual war, if you like, and paramilitary powers the world over between Fox News and al-Jazeera - to take a step back, and to start treating journalists are front-line troops, all journalists covering situations of providing the information, words and controversy and conflict as if they are images that can be shaped into a major what they should be: impartial reporters opinion-forming narrative. of the facts, and neutral purveyors to their waiting audiences back home of In the turmoil of post-war Iraq, this is truths unsullied by ideology or spin. obviously true, but it’s also increasingly the case across the planet, as To that end, the IFJ is campaigning for journalists and their editors become the deliberate targeting of journalists leading players in everything from major and media staff to be made a war crime disputes between environmental in its own right, for any failure to activists and economic developers, to protect journalists to be punishable decisions about which of the world’s under international law, and for a new many humanitarian crises demand international framework for the international action. impartial investigation of the killing of journalists and media staff.
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But clearly though I understand the WHEN ENTRAPMENT case for these reforms, I have a feeling that the campaign is unlikely to REPLACES THE NOTEBOOK succeed, so long as journalists remain one of the unpopular professional Bill Hagerty groups on earth, often perceived as exercising their huge influence on Editor, British Journalism Review public opinion and debate without integrity, responsibility, or even basic decency. SORT the fact from the fiction.
It goes without saying that journalists First quote (one journalist talking about should be free to report on conflict another): “The man was clearly an without fear or favour, and with as asshole but I am not a snob and if he’s much independence as they can a Belfast tabloid oik, he’ll know a lot of achieve. But in order to earn the kind of things I don’t know and need to know.” automatic protection from all sides which they need to do that job - and Second quote (addressed to two which James Brandon seems, journalists): “You have zero remarkably, to have received from his imagination…so humanity is a mystery Shia captors in Basra yesterday - they to you…the stink of your own spleen also have to demonstrate, and to be and bile – the pain you inflict – is a allowed to demonstrate, levels of mystery to you. You people…I don’t honesty, objectivity and courage in their think you know what you do.” work that mark them out as servants of the public interest and of the truth, as It’s been another bad few days for the well as of the particular media popular press. organisations for which they work. The description of a fellow professional As we all know, free and accurate in the paragraph above was credited by information is the lifeblood of Andrew Marr to the erudite Ian democracy, the force without which it Hargreaves, following the new and becomes a manipulative mockery of subsequently short-term editor of The itself. Independent’s initial encounter with then Mirror Group boss David But if we journalists want to defend our Montgomery. At the time Mirror Group profession from the growing external Newspapers shared control of this attacks which it suffers, then we will newspaper with the current sole also need to defend it from those owners, Independent Newspapers, and, attacks to its integrity which come from declares Marr in his coruscating new within, from our own attitudes, our own book5, Montgomery, journalist turned working and management practices, chief executive, had a ruthless and our own desperation to field the management style and wanted to own sensational headline at almost any cost. The Independent outright.
Otherwise, in our fight for the right to The attack on two hacks, also ruthless report freely on a new century of wars, and driven, comes from a new play, we may look around and find ourselves Dumb Show6, written by Joe Penhall. friendless; shorn of the allies on whom Penhall, a former local newspaper we might once have depended, but reporter, has no hesitation in biting the whose respect and support we have hand that once fed him. His loathing for often forfeited, to the great long-term the foot soldiers, rather than cost not only of ourselves, but of the Hargreaves’ contempt of a well-heeled whole society we are supposed to serve.
This article originally appeared in 5 My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism, The Scotsman, Sat 14 Aug 2004. Andrew Marr, Macmillan, September 2004. 6 Dumb Show, by Joe Penhall, opened at London’s Royal Court Theatre in September 2004.
15 Journalism and Public Trust general and the equally virulent dislike fakes? – “They’re not special. They’re of Montgomery’s lieutenant, Charlie pariahs.” Envy, a generous salary and Wilson, by Marr – another former expenses, plus the often mistaken belief Independent editor – is absolute. that the degrading of celebrities sells newspapers, adds up to a heady Put them together and the book and cocktail. play deliver a condemnation of sections of the press that an industry constantly In an interview, Penhall advanced the ducking sniper fire could do without – theory that “there seems to be a and that’s even before the inevitable tabloidisation of culture, whereby the works based on Lord Conrad Black’s love of the grotesque and the sadistic excesses tumble from the word thrill of other people’s trauma and processors. embarrassment are becoming legitimate entertainment.” One only has to watch Forget Montgomery for a moment, hard half-an-hour of Big Brother to grasp his that this may be for those bruised by point. him. Dumb Show tells the story of a mainstream TV comedian entrapped by Editors and executives responsible for a girl reporter and her “investigations unleashing journalists whose morality editor”. They ply their victim with drink, has been parked outside with the office con him into producing drugs and gift- car will argue that “the market” is wrap their exposé with hidden responsible for such stories. Yet the microphones and cameras. The comic, papers that pursue celebrities even greedy and needy for something to fill when there is no vestige whatsoever of his void of a life, is allotted his share of public interest to the dirt they scrape the author’s disdain, but compared to from the bottom of their shoes are the reporters he is Mother Theresa. mostly struggling. Chasing the worst of reality television down a blind alley has All popular journalists are not like this – done nothing to solve the problems of Penhall never mentions the word slipping sales. “tabloid”, but you can tell that his piranhas are not from the Financial The truth is that the public gets the Times. And, indeed, neither are all newspapers it deserves – and, in what celebrities so venal, even if the names of are still large numbers, it wants. If one or two press gang-banged egotistical Penhall’s condemnation of the red-tops, television performers spring to mind. and the conduct of such industry But there can be no question that there leaders as those vilified by Marr and are reporters cheerfully willing to stray Hargreaves, honourable journalists into ethical no man’s land in pursuit of both, doesn’t say much for this branch a tacky story, or that entrapment has of the media, it says even less for become as vital a part of their armoury contemporary society. as once was a notebook and readable shorthand.
“I love this job,” says Penhall’s This article originally appeared in investigations editor, sensing the kill. The Independent, Thurs 7 Sept 2004. “…Working up an ‘act’. Learning lines. Remembering them. Getting, you know, butterflies…it’s just like being an actor.” Can the thrill of performance really be a motivation for the kind of unscrupulous hunting down and humiliation of celebrities that features in some of our newspapers, especially the Sunday red- tops? Are the hunters and the hunted much the same?
Or is it, as the same character claims, the belief that famous people are all
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ROTTWEILERS SAVAGE see why this is so. They can transmute instantly into loveable Labradors. When DEMOCRACY not baring their teeth, they may come over as humorous, warm and decent Barry Richards people. Their approach to many topics is sensitive, and their treatment of non- Professor of Public Communication in politician interviewees is usually very the Bournemouth Media School, respectful. Bournemouth University Arguably this makes their contribution to political culture all the more THE serious news programmes on damaging, as they are easily identified national television and radio (such as with and have high credibility. They are Today, The World at One, Newsnight, probably seen as nearer to the TV news C4 News) play a key role in sustaining reader, who is trusted by 66% of the our democracy. But is it possible that population to tell the truth, than they this broadcast genre, often celebrated are to the journalist, trusted by 18%.7 for its integrity, may be more damaging to our political culture than a lot of However a number of voices are now ‘tabloid’ style programming? being raised questioning the trends towards attack and disrespect in news We all know about the Rottweilers, the and current affairs presenting and in aggressively challenging interviewers British political journalism as a whole. who bite lumps out of politicians. They Some like John Lloyd8 are from within are often applauded as they do so, and journalism. Some politicians too are feted as a major democratic advance on fighting back, and other critical voices their forbears, the deferential such as Steven Barnett9 are from interviewers who let politicians get away academia. with murder. What are the common forms of attack Of course, the sceptical persistence of used by interviewers? Giving new life to an interviewer may sometimes perform an old cliché, these could be called an importantly useful role in opening an ‘soundbites’. aspect of political reality to public gaze. But amongst the Rottweilers, scepticism Amongst the main categories of ‘bite’ are is enveloped in cynicism and hostility, accusing, bossing, and wedge-driving. in an attitude which on a daily and Accusations come in a number of sub- basic level is likely to have a number of types. Interviewees are accused, usually adverse effects on audiences. in slightly less direct language than this, of being incompetents, weaklings, This attitude is likely to promote turncoats or liars. Bossing comes in cynicism about politics, it gratuitously various forms, all intended to construct polarises arguments and people, and it the interviewee as the moral inferior of militates against creative thinking about the interviewer. We can include here problems in society and how to tackle finger-wagging (usually conveyed in tone them. Overall it brings a negativity and of voice), chopping off, and the Parthian fractiousness to the emotional tone of shot. our politics - and it does so in an age when the decline of traditional party Lastly, wedge-driving involves a form of affiliations and the rise of personal and questioning that is designed to emotional agendas in many areas of life demonstrate that whatever policy or means that the emotional dimensions of practice with which the interviewee is politics are of increasing importance.
These are obviously serious charges 7 MORI, February 2003. against an influential form of media 8 ‘Media manifesto’, Prospect 79, October 2002, content. Not only are the Rottweilers pp. 48-53. 9 accepted, they are probably widely ‘Will a crisis journalism in journalism provoke a popular. And in many cases it is easy to crisis in democracy?’ Political Quarterly 73(4), 2002, pp. 400-408.
17 Journalism and Public Trust trying to resolve a conflict will inevitably assumption that positions are things to fail. The interviewer is in effect pressing be adopted for argument’s sake only. the case that ‘the shit will hit the fan’, and that whatever antagonisms are There is a current of urbane nihilism in involved in the issue to hand are this, and it carries us far beyond a irreconcilable ones. subtle use of devil’s advocacy to clarify a debate, into a world where we have Why are the accusatory, contemptuous argument for argument’s sake (at which and cynical words of interviewers a point most people close down on problem? What is their impact on politics, as they do on Parliamentary audiences? Audience research, which as yah-boo) and where nobody can be far as I know has not been undertaken, believed. Comprehensive cynicism, or would be necessary to answer that an impractical idealistic rejection of the question fully, but we can reasonably world as it is, are the only positions propose that there are two serious risks then available. here to the health of our political culture. Secondly, there is an effect likely to flow from the wedge-driving practice, which One is linked primarily to the accusing seeks to demonstrate that problems are tendency, though it is also reinforced by unresolvable and conflicts are absolute. contemptuous bossing. It is that respect If it has any effect on how the audience for politicians, confidence in the understand politics, this must democratic political process and belief encourage views of the world as in the sphere of politics as a worthy field hopelessly ridden with unmanageable of human endeavour are further eroded. antagonisms. Such views either lead in turn to more cynical despair, or feed Of course trust in politicians and in fundamentalisms of all kinds. politics may have been in crisis anyway for other reasons, to do with the limits This compulsion of journalists and and flaws of political institutions, and especially interviewers to try and drive the shortcomings of individual wedges into negotiations as they are politicians. But instead of encouraging taking place is something we have heard us to see these problems as potentially and seen much of in the Iraq debate, remediable, Rottweiler interviewing and is one area where we may wonder leads us to despair and to call a plague at times about how aware some on all their houses. journalists are of their responsibilities in the political process. This is not only because politics is presented as adversarial ritual. Nor is it The wedge-driving proclivity of only because one politician after interviewers invokes impoverished ways another, across the political spectrum, of thinking amongst audiences, for is treated contemptuously. It is also whom new resolutions and creative because the interviewees, with whom as compromises are less likely to be audience we spontaneously identify, entertained as they fall outside the take up one contradictory position after poles of antagonism to which the another. interview constantly returns.
In order to retain a confrontationist Overall this has a corrosive effect on stance with different interviewees, the thinking. Now it is a piece of interviewer must first adopt one conventional wisdom in media research position, then – with equal relish – its that the media cannot tell us what to opposite. As John Humphries has think, but they can tell us what to think pointed out10, he cannot believe in all about. In fact this power of agenda- positions. So we are schooled by the setting can amount to a power to tell us presenters as our role models in the how to think.
At least it aspires to that: the recurrent message of much political journalism, 10 See Paul Donovan, All Our Todays, Jonathan and especially of the radio and Cape, 1997, p. 135
18 Journalism and Public Trust television interview, is that we must JOURNALISTS IN THE EYE think in cynical and pessimistic ways. We must assume that politicians are OF THE STORM: adopting incoherent or unworkable BALANCING ETHICS AND positions, and that they are striving to hide inconsistencies, cover up failures COMPETITION and deny conflicts with colleagues or allies. Notably, many politicians are for Roman Gerodimos various reasons complicit in their ritual Associate Lecturer in Political humiliation. And some audiences seem to have an appetite for blood which the Communication Centre for Public Rottweilers satisfy. Communication Research, Bournemouth Media School We would need to look at our recent socio-cultural history to understand this fully, but perhaps part of the JOURNALISM is in crisis. The appeal of this kind of interviewing is in profession is losing its credibility, its its contrast to the often seamless and role in society is questioned. Self- bland discourse of politics often regulation of the print press is not favoured by politicians. What we can always working, while broadcasters - call the emotional deficit in political even the BBC - face growing conflicting discourse, the absence of a spontaneous pressures from the government, the and full range of emotional expression, market and the public. leaves audiences hungry for anything which engages the passions and brings Corporate practices are infiltrating the some psychological life and colour to the newsroom culture, both in terms of intellectually demanding work of management and in terms of content. figuring out what is best for us as a The line between truth and fiction is society. becoming increasingly blurred. Yet, we cannot afford to let journalism become If all that is on offer is a kind of just another job/industry in a post- courtroom drama led by interviewers modern community of consumers. fired with righteous passion, then people will go for that. But excessive The role of the Press in democratic consumption of this kind of material communications is too important; the brings on a fever of negativity in a progress of a country and the state of disillusioned audience, not clear democracy depend on well-informed thinking by an engaged citizenry. It may citizens. This brief article argues that succeed at times in exposing the worst unless we can give journalists the space of politicians, but it risks bringing out and incentives for good practice through the worst in all of us. comprehensive reform, any attempts to mend the system will be doomed to What’s the alternative? In Barnett’s failure. historical account of political journalism, there was a brief period in Our understanding of the reasons for between deference and cynicism, when the decline of public trust in journalists journalists approached politicians as is critical in order to devise appropriate equals, in a spirit of constructive and effective solutions that will engagement, and interviewing styles strengthen journalistic practices, and were grounded in courtesy and subsequently, reinvigorate trust. It is intellectual curiosity rather than scalp- simply not accurate to frame the hunting. Perhaps we can hope for a current problem as a simple fault or restoration of this approach, as part of a failure of journalists and editors larger ambition for our media to make themselves; this is a much deeper and more positive, respectful and broader crisis that reflects: emotionally complex contributions to our political culture. a) the cultural shift towards postmodernism and the segmented
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options, channels, voices and free of side effects: one journalist's (or audience choice increases (internet viewer's) public service is another one's and digital revolution), the dominant censorship, totalitarianism or just narrative is bound to be challenged; boring upper-class sophistries. trust in most forms of authority or hierarchical structures is declining. This contradiction, which lies at the Trust as we used to know it is not core of the crisis, is not an exclusive coming back and some argue that it property of decision-makers, it applies is actually a good thing, because to the audience as well. that trust was based upon an unqualified acceptance of a Audiences complain when journalistic dominant narrative (originating standards are ‘dumbed down’, yet they either in Whitehall or in Fleet Street) are the ones leading that very shift to in a semi-religious fashion. What we lighter content and infotainment. should be aiming for is qualified trust based on transparency, Solving the problem may require inclusive discussion and respect of unpopular and long-term solutions that human rights. will reverse the trend towards yellow journalism, privacy invasion, focus on b) the structural shift towards conflict rather than substance and the deregulation, privatisation and patterns of dependence between sources concentration of media interests. (politicians) and reporters (journalists). “Chequebook” and aggressive journalism are there because they That rationale calls for a radical sell. As long as the content and overhaul of press regulation, media process of journalism is directly ownership, journalistic training, party dependent upon circulation and political communications and overall rating figures it will not be possible media culture. Transparency and partial to get the kind of ethical and independence from corporate interests responsible journalism envisioned seem to be the keys to a viable solution. by some well-intentioned utopians. Journalists have not failed the Among other measures that need to be public. Each and every individual taken, those steps would seem vital: journalist is trying their best to survive another day, to hang on to • Non-profit and charity-status media their jobs within an extremely need to be established so that they competitive and fluid industry. It is can support investigative journalism the system itself that needs fixing. within pre-set standards. The principle of Public Service Therefore, asking journalists to be more Broadcasting should be extended to ethically considerate won't make much the print press. difference, unless we can also alleviate • Stricter and narrower limits in the pressures created by the conflict regards to ownership need to be set between competition and public service so as to increase the number of beforehand. voices and interests represented. • All government and party political There is a terminal incompatibility communications should be televised between public service ethos and 21st or recorded and archived so as to century market pressures. increase transparency and minimise obscure practices of leaks that It's really about making a strategic belong to the 19th century. choice: we can either have a totally free, • Given its vital role in contemporary unregulated media market where mass democracies, the Press should competition forces rule (and suffer the be fully integrated into the consequences in terms of content and constitutional framework, becoming ethics) or we can have a strong, public a formal Fourth Estate with equally service-oriented corpus of journalism regulated rights and responsibilities that is independent or fairly autono- as the other three (judiciary, mous of market forces. Neither side is executive, legislature). That would
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also allow for greater judicial and A COMPACT OF TRUST legislative overview of practices, especially when it comes to the right BETWEEN JOURNALISM to privacy. AND THE PUBLIC? • Ethics and reflexivity should become an embedded part of journalistic training and everyday newsroom Mike Jempson culture, while avoiding the trap of Director, MediaWise (The PressWise bureaucratic benchmarks. Trust); member, NUJ Ethics Council
This is no minor or temporary lapse of individual companies or journalists; it is THIS year began with Lord Hutton’s a long-term, ongoing, fundamental report. His most controversial opinion conflict between the idealistic may sound like common sense to most notion/expectation of ‘the public’ and people, but for many journalists it was the actual, everyday experience of the height of effrontery – ‘how dare he individual journalists. tell us how to do our job?’
Unless the magnitude and importance of the problem and the extent of reforms needed are clear, any fragmented 'The communication by the media of attempt to deal with the crises is bound information (including information obtained to fail. by investigative reporters) on matters of public interest and importance is a vital part
Yet there is plenty of recent evidence that the relationship between the Fourth Estate and those who purchase its wares is out of kilter. • The credibility gap opened up by the Gilligan/Kelly debacle; the near paranoia generated by the Hutton Report; a rethink of BBC journalism promised in the Neil Report; and the debate about the Charter renewal; • The sacking of Piers Morgan’s for publishing faked pictures, and the continuing tabloid excesses around issues of tragedy and trivia; • The corrupting influence of ‘spin’ and the failure of public trust in parliament signified by the Phillis Report, Lord Puttnam’s Hansard Society investigation, and books by
11 Par 467, 3(ii) Chapter 12: Summary of Conclusions, Report of the Inquiry into the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Dr David Kelly C.M.G. by Lord Hutton, 28 January 2004
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Ian Hargreaves, Nick Jones and As Onora O’Neill pointed out: ‘reporting John Lloyd; that we cannot assess is a disaster. If • More calls for reform at the Press we can't trust what the press report, how Complaints Commission, and can we tell whether to trust those on PressBof’s decision to produce a whom they report? How can we tell ‘How to keep to the Code’ guidebook whether and when we are on the for editors; receiving end of hype and spin, of • Conferences and debates up and misinformation and disinformation? If down the country about the role and the media mislead, or if readers cannot responsibilities of journalists; assess their reporting, the wells of public • European Parliament proposals to discourse and public life are poisoned’. introduce an automatic Right of Reply across all media. Democracy is harmed, and we are all dis-empowered, when the mass media Hutton was echoing the view expressed abuse their undoubted power. Millions of by Onora O’Neill in her 2002 Reith people each day still buy newspapers, Lectures, ‘A Question of Trust’. but falling circulation is the main worry Speaking about the media in her fifth newspaper publishers. Readers are lecture ‘Licence to Deceive’, she said: ‘If regarded first and foremost as powerful institutions are allowed to consumers and the products are angled publish, circulate and promote material accordingly. When the bottom line without indicating what is known and dominates quality invariably suffers. what is rumour; what is derived from a That which excites the palates of the reputable source and what is invented, readers’ takes precedence over the what is standard analysis and what is heavier preoccupations of journalism. speculation; which sources may be The ‘free market’ approach to news knowledgeable and which are probably production has led to a situation where not, they damage our public culture and most journalists are unwilling to speak all our lives. out publicly about the constraints ‘Good public debate must not under which they work for fear of only be accessible to but also assessable damaging their career prospects. We by its audiences. The press are skilled at rely upon whistle blowers in other making material accessible, but erratic professions, but vilify those who attack about making it assessable. This may be our own, even from within. why opinion polls and social surveys now show that the public in the UK claim And the symbiotic relationship between that they trust newspaper journalists broadcasting and the print media – not less than any other profession’. to mention the increasingly incestuous
patterns of media ownership – mean The consistently poor standing of that all our news media are now journalists in opinion polls seems to infected by the trivia bug. suggest that public confidence in our ability to deliver ‘the truth’ is not I prefer to regard readers, viewers and improving. Yet journalists, and the listeners primarily as citizens seeking publications and programmes they work information about the world and the for depend for their authority upon the issues upon which they have to make public's willingness to trust them… decisions, rather than as consumers
whose money and loyalty can be To earn the opprobrium of power elites extracted by fear and titillation. is an occupation hazard of our trade, but to be regarded with suspicion by We need to develop new forms of media those in whose name we operate is quite literacy that enable journalists and the another. Often editors (and some public to understand each other’s needs journalists) fail to appreciate that a and aspirations. Press freedom is a willingness to admit to mistakes, and responsibility exercised by journalists alert the public to them, is the best way on behalf of the public, so why don’t we to convince people that getting the facts develop a Journalist’s Charter for right is journalism’s primary concern. Readers, Listeners and Viewers?
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How would the punters define their • Its essence is a discipline of reasonable expectations of journalists – verification. at least in so far as news and current • Its practitioners must maintain an affairs are concerned? I am sure that independence from those they cover. accuracy would top their list of • It must serve as an independent demands, closely followed by monitor of power. publication of prompt and prominent • It must provide a forum for public corrections when inaccurate criticism and compromise. information has been published. They • It must strive to make the might even request a right of reply as an significant interesting and relevant. alternative to lengthy negotiations with • It must keep the news the regulators or costly court action. comprehensive and proportional. • Its practitioners must be allowed to Journalists need the protection of a exercise their personal conscience. Charter too. More and more now have to operate as freelances or on short-term MediaWise is now building partnerships contracts. To survive they must produce with colleges where the next generation the stories that editors want to buy, and of journalists are being trained to editors want stories that will increase initiate dialogue between journalists circulation and advertising revenue. and the publics they serve. Students will interview members of the public Journalists are rightly suspicious of about their expectations of journalists, anyone who tells them how to do their and working journalists about how they job – unless it’s the boss. trying to see their role, and what impediments influence how they do their job. they come across when trying to do Successful recognition battles, have their job well. begin to counter the erosion of union organisation over the last 20 years, and The results should give us the raw even the CMS Select Committee material for more detailed research to supported the NUJ and MediaWise calls help improve the standing and for a ‘conscience clause’ in journalists’ standards of journalism – by influencing contracts. That is why it is important newsroom practice and vocational for journalists’ organisations to take a training. We might even see an lead in developing such a Charter. expansion of mid-career retraining, so journalists learn not just from the world Most journalists would share readers’ of hard knocks but also from the concern for accuracy. Some might seek expertise and advice of those with up- ‘a right to report’ - the stories they to-date specialist knowledge. That might believe it is in the public interest to improve their copy, and their outlook… cover rather than being simply ‘of interest to the public’. MediaWise would like to produce a magazine that monitors journalistic To devise the Charter, we need to products and the work of the regulators, engage in dialogue with our publics. and run a Right of Reply website. When the US Committee of Concerned Journalists embarked on a similar Meanwhile shareholders, and adver- exercise of surveys and public meetings, tisers, could take a lead from the what emerged was a set of principles growing movement for socially 12 that would find resonance here: responsible business practices, and • Journalism's first obligation is to the demand more exacting standards of the truth. media outlets they espouse. • Its first loyalty is to citizens. No doubt the public would be better
12 served if there were a more enlightened The results of their project can be found in The and considerate approach to Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople employment practices in the media. But Should Know and the Public Should Expect by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, Crown, 2001. that is another story…. Website: www.journalism.org
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TO TREAT ME AS PART 2 DIFFERENT IS UNFAIR
Stephen Brookes MINORITY Chair, NUJ Disabled Members Council
VIEWPOINTS? WHEN, in February 1988 Time Magazine wrote about Dr Stephen Hawking, they stated that the world’s leading scientist theorist ‘is confined to a wheelchair, a virtual prisoner in his TO TREAT ME AS DIFFERENT IS UNFAIR own body’. Stephen Brookes Somehow, I feel that to make this the FROM THE PULPIT underlying definition of the capability Fareena Alam * and scientific importance of Dr Hawking was somewhat lacking in substance. ROBUST, RIGOROUS AND ETHICAL? Hamza Vayani But that is what disabled people all too frequently feel about their representation in ‘the media’ - glorious ROMAPHOBIA – EUROPE’S ‘ACCEPTABLE stereotyping. RACISM’
Valeriu Nicolae Reporters and editors like to create impact; and under present disability law THING'S AIN'T WHAT THEY ‘SEEM’ TO BE conditions justify it as "powerful" John O writing.
LOSING FAITH IN THE COLLEAGUES Being a disabled person I state that I THOUGHT WOULD HELP journalists have no more right to turn Sandra Nyaira * me into an object of pity with such phrases as ‘virtual prisoner in his own BE AWARE OF THE IMPACT OF OUR WORK body’ than they have to turn women Bob Dale into sex objects. Naturally if there had been an issue of ethnicity or gender ARE YOU LISTENING? there would have been understandable Jim Latham * dismay from various rights groups.
We all are aware of the legal minefield of writing on issues of race – or gender – yet, nearly two years after the European Year of Disabled People, the media generally work around the ‘medical model of disability’ to the exclusion of real news value. Heavily based on ‘courageous’ individuals surmounting adversity, such journalism sustains the fact that real and very normal attributes of disabled people are forgotten to achieve a strong feature, and profit for the writer.
For those to whom the subject is new, disability was historically seen as an individual problem – a medical model – but then came the important development of a social model of
24 Journalism and Public Trust disability. This interprets disability as a press by groups serving disabled people! process of the failure of society rather Charities often approach reporters and than to do with the body of an journals with stories about clients made individual. It moved the nature of any good. individual ‘abnormality’ and re-framed it as ‘impairment’. What is a journalist or editor to do? The answer is to practice good Maybe because a lot of the radical journalism. disability agenda has emerged from university and academic settings we are Is there really a story in the event that currently using a radical dictionary full merits reporting? On the other hand, is of terms like ‘model’ to describe the it merely written for the ‘sympathy distinction between social and medical vote’? Or even worse does it assist in aspects of disability. those awful telethon type shows.
To quote Michael Morgan a colleague Importantly if it does deserve coverage, who is a member of the NUJ Disabled consider the angle that can open up the Members Council, “an admirable TV story rather than the same old campaign on disability was launched in hackneyed ‘in-spite-of’ approach? Northern Ireland last year, which, without having recourse to any At this point I will note that an sociological or cultural theory at all, occasional tug at the heartstrings is brought home the essential truth that thought of as part of the work of a disability is complex. journalist. Well forget it – there has ‘There are sides to disability that been too much of it. most people are unaware of’, it proclaimed and focused, naturally Journalists repeatedly exploit what they enough, on the social dimensions of see as the "interesting" angle – the disabled life – education, employment, disability. The "super-crip" approach poverty. It didn’t once mention the has become the staple, comparable to medical side to disability – because it the social angle once epidemic in stories didn’t need to - but it seemed to me that involving black people. this ‘model’ could be extended to cover all the other dimensions inherent in the Reporters know it's wrong to interject disability experience as well – the their feelings into a news story, but the medical, psychosocial, emotional and ‘in-spite-of’ story – is very much alive, sexual. Maybe no theorisation of well and perpetuated in the media. disability is needed.” Every day I see the use of "afflicted" or "courageous" – even when the disabled That puts us into a situation of asking if person is doing the most ordinary of it is ethically correct to use current things like raising a family or going to terminology to excuse the art of writing school – coming from reporters' note to demean. books.
Well no, for the fact is that it is not just It is not acceptable. unethical to write in a demeaning manner about people, it is all too Where are reporters who are listening to frequently just very bad copy. disabled people rather than using them merely to shore up their own story lines And it's not just the written approach of about what it's like to be disabled? using a model approach to disability that's unethical. Sometimes the dis- Where are the reporters who actually ability has to be the basis of the story. know about the Disability Discrimination Act? Wheelchair athletes frequently success- fully compete in events to raise funds Disabled people should not be used for for rehabilitation groups. But as I know inspiration. If we are to be newsmakers, only too well the worst written stories it should be because we have news to about disabled people are hawked to the provide, and the story should be
25 Journalism and Public Trust covered like any news item or release – FROM THE PULPIT the disability only noted when it is relevant to the story. Fareena Alam I’m disabled, and that is for every day. Managing Editor, Q-News But to treat me as different is unfair, and therefore if I’m not a newsmaker, why can I find that I am in the news? WHEN the Greek poet Homer penned
The Iliad - his harrowing, epic account Disabled people have bad moods, good of the Trojan War - most of his fellow days, and believe it or not they have countrymen probably expected him to sex, so are their lives are unusual? produce a testament that made his own
people appear good and noble. Ethical acceptance is something disabled people long to see. A writer After all, the war against Troy was a should ask why they are seeking a story battle to restore stolen honour, about disability, and are they genuinely returning Helen to her marriage bed looking for the real story behind the and, in the process, demonstrate the ‘unusual’. moral and military superiority of the
united Greek armies. Eager Greek youth Typical stories about disability feature a must have waited with baited breath to lack of opportunity, barriers, or hear the story of their magnificent discrimination. Those are stories. And victory - after ten long years of war - they should be investigated and aided by the pagan gods and the strong reported as they are for any other arm of heroes like Achilles and minority – in an ethical framework. Odysseus.
Achilles, the divinely protected hero of the Greeks, fights valiantly at times but is often consumed by rage and allows emotion to get in the way of his honour.
Menelaus seeks the return of his wife and honour, but is driven by revenge and seeks to see the walls of Troy razed to the ground with much booty taken to fill his coffers.
The enemy king, Priam, on the other hand is portrayed as an aging monarch who has little appetite for war and killing and whose reign has seen Troy prosper. Hector, his son and the Trojan hero, is the champion of his people. Hector is portrayed as civilised and gracious and he acts bravely in defence of his city and defiled in death by his rival Achilles.
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Homer, although a Greek, is clearly no in. An Islamophobic press is less than partisan. His views are honestly and half the story. meticulously documented with little care as to who will be offended. Like a Muslims have the right to demand that good reporter, he offers us a sincere the media be fair, but we must also be version of the truth for all the read. It is open to scrutiny, even when it is a noble, albeit flawed, effort. uncomfortable.
Being a Muslim journalist these days is The Quran tells us, “O you who believe! a task worthy of Homer. She struggles Uphold justice even against yourselves between two extremes. On one hand, or your parents and relatives. Whether she faces acute pressure from the they are rich or poor, Allah is well able Muslim community to ‘serve the cause to look after them. Do not follow your of Islam’. On the other hand, she is own desires and deviate from the truth. faced with a cut-throat media industry If you twist or turn away, Allah is aware that often tries to make her conform to of what you do.” its shifting agendas - at all costs. Our faith sets high ethical standards for Muslims love to hide behind convenient us. It is to these standards that slogans and shallow platitudes (like committed Muslim media professionals “Islam is a religion of peace” or “don’t must aspire. Such a commitment need blame Islam for the actions of Muslims”) not come at the expense of honest, hard to make up for their intellectual deficit hitting and well researched journalism and lack of direction. At a conference I that challenges inspires and above all spoke at recently, I heard one of my forces us to take a second look at favourite Muslims slogans earnestly ourselves. repeated by community elders: ‘we need more Muslims in journalism’. May Allah help us tell the truth, whatever the cost. Ameen. If the purpose of having more Muslim journalists is so they can somehow
Consequently, attempts by Muslim journalists to produce work that is introspective or critical of the community are labeled the work of the “gutter press”. So difficult is this job that many fellow Muslim colleagues have chosen to cut their ties with the community for the sake of being journalists (who happen to be Muslim), committed to a profession, instead of an interest group.
When a community systematically attributes its ill-reputation on the ‘media’, as if it is a monolith, which is systemically and inherently Islamo- phobic, there is a serious problem. Such finger pointing takes away responsibility from us for the state our community is
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ROBUST, RIGOROUS the cohesion and social fabric of a Britain that prides itself in being a land AND ETHICAL? of hope and glory.
Hamza Vayani How do we enable opinions, views and concepts from all standpoints to emerge Chief Executive, Youth Voice, Leicester in a way that brings balance to the debates in the ‘free space’ we call mass media? THE constant theme of today’s media maze is the battle to capture people’s As a young person at the helm of a attention. Little thought is given to the youth organisation with upcoming implications of the language and points talent, it seems to me that some of the of view used - which limit rather than experienced crocs in the murky media encourage debate and engagement with swamp should rear their heads and the mainstream media. share their experiences of highs and lows - what has worked and what hasn’t The need for accurate use and worked. Maybe then we can get young understanding of language is crucial if people to join in with their ideas on how unfair and negative myths are not to be things could be improved. perpetuated. Reporting that lambastes whole communities, using language that But – I hear the chorus now – young stokes hostility, resentment and gives people are apathetic and it’s only the rise to racism and discrimination, has a bright sparks that get involved. Well, for negative impact on, for example, the me that attitude is a cop-out; it is vast majority of law-abiding Muslims. farcical and disempowering.
Facts should be reported, but we need I have tried to lay out the challenge from to ensure that language is used in a young person’s perspective. How is context and correctly. The point may new talent to be guided towards more have been made before, but it needs to ethical journalism in the future? be stressed if we are to avert in Britain the rise of Islamophobia we now see in Firstly the key players - individual Holland. journalists and members of the public - need to be on board for the debate. The It is heartening to see the interventions achievements of journalism need to be of groups like the Muslim Council of emphasised. Bigotry and the production Britain but more needs to be done to of trash should not be the hallmarks of ensure language is used appropriately - journalism. It should be a responsive, it is unfair and improper to stigmatise inclusive and evolving product, so many on account of the few. intelligent and committed to analysis that incorporates arguments for and The next problem to tackle is one of against issues and allows room for perception. It is so important to ensure varieties of views. Social attitudes evolve that reporting seeks to be objective. For and points of view are refined when a lay person it is frightening that one- journalists provide constant and sided and blinkered reporting consistent scrutiny and challenge. subjugates the voices of moderates. On account of a few ‘Radical Islamists’ - a One key challenge, where criticism of term perhaps used inadvertently - many journalistic output is rife, is the others are similarly labelled. Translated coverage of ‘the war against terror’. How from the Arabic, Islam means are we to ensure that atrocities, and the ‘submission’ - not terror or the arguments for and against conflict, are oppression of civilisations. reported objectively - without making individuals and whole communities feel Journalists must consider the vilified for activities they denounce and implications of their actions. It they have no stake in? pursue a route that foments disenchantment, they are undermining
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The answer surely lies in recourse to ROMAPHOBIA – EUROPE’S that dreaded word – ‘standards’. There needs to be clarity and agreement 'ACCEPTABLE RACISM’ among the stakeholders as to what the standards are. Who sets them? Who Valeriu Nicolae enforces them? Will they generate and restore the credibility of journalists and Director, European Roma Information our confidence in them? We desperately Centre, Brussels need to strengthen public trust in journalists if we are to re-invigorate our much cherished British traditions of ALL over Europe majority populations respect for difference and freedom of have very strong preconceived and expression. contradictory notions of Roma. If we are poor it is because we do not want to For this ‘road map to trust’ to be work; if we are rich it is because we workable, we cannot beat senselessly steal. Negative stereotypes have given those who do seek to bring some the Roma identity in Europe the worst semblance of civility to the volatile beast social stigma. In many Eastern that is the mass media. The approach European ‘democracies’ they are has to be holistic. We must support and repeated every single day to saturation compliment those who seek to provide point in newspapers and on television ethical journalism and are in a position and the radio. to promote standards and nurture talent. We must engage in discourse to Under National Socialism in Germany restore confidence and generate trust in consensus among the (otherwise journalism, and to insist that ethical strongly divided) people was created by reporting is a means of strengthening identifying an internal enemy who was democracy, debate and freedom of threatening the German people. Jewish expression. people and Roma, many of them living in Germany for generations were We need a strategy to change the stigmatised as ‘outsiders’, isolated from current culture of the media – where the remaining society and later support for freedom of expression is exterminated. undermined by fear of media output. This conference is an opportunity to While Jewish people have experienced a begin discussing the issues, but we partial rehabilitation Roma continue to need to build a firm foundation that will be the scapegoats. Society chooses to take forward the debate over the years ignore the persistence of racism against to come. Roma. It may seem inappropriate to compare the pervasive contemporary We need to create a media beast that is racism against Roma with the Nazi robust in its analysis, rigorous in its extermination project, but the constant reporting standards and in which reference to racial attributes (Roma as journalistic ethics are the gold standard genetically predetermined to crime) and to which all adhere and from which their alienation from the majority everyone benefits. society (Roma as ‘the others’ against whom people need to protect
Dr Robert Ritter, the moral author of the Nazi genocide against Sinti, Roma and Jews considered that people of mixed Romani and non-Romani (Aryan) blood had an inherited predisposition towards criminality. These were the first targeted for extermination.
An obsession about preventing Roma from polluting the White Volkskoerper is
29 Journalism and Public Trust nothing new but the extent of it and forms of racism, but they are not alone. similarities with Nazi propaganda are Racism has evolved and Europe is now striking. Differences — whether fostering ‘mellower’ forms of racism, ‘cultural’, ‘religious’, ‘economical’ or customized for its second or third rate ‘racial’ — have been used too many citizens. times to explain the extermination of hundreds of millions of people. Talk about ‘cultural differences’ undermining the ‘better values’ held by Europe has played a major role, not just the majority is mainstream and in wiping out entire civilizations in the regarded as innocent, almost liberal. name of those differences, but also in Terms like ‘truth’, ‘objectivity’, finding very sophisticated arguments to ‘necessities of a market-driven justify it. The mass media has been economy’, and ‘the right to be different’, instrumental in building widespread are now used to cover up and acceptance of horrendous acts, sometimes even give a shell of presenting them as ‘divinely inspired’, respectability to racism. Racist irony ‘heroic’, ‘educational’ or, more bluntly, and humour are still permissible and ‘necessary’. widespread in the media, despite the historical fact they were used many The twentieth century began with times before as a reliable way to build atrocities in Africa and Asia perpetrated up ethnic hatred. by the European colonial powers and carefully pictured by a majority of the Anti-Romaism, Romaphobia or anti- mass media as acts of good will towards Gypsyism, is rampant both in its old the ‘savages’. and new versions. A majority of the European population makes no effort to The first legislated forms of racism in hide their belief in strong negative twentieth century Europe came about in stereotypes. the 1930s, when Nazi-owned media took its role seriously and was the main A survey of European media, conducted factor in achieving a national unity by On-line/More Colour in the Media13 around Germany’s racial policies. In demonstrated that “[i]n terms of groups this way, the extermination of those with different national or ethnic origin, identified as ‘parasites’ (Jews, Roma, Sinti and Roma/Travellers are the Sinti and Slavs) became accepted by the group most often portrayed negatively - most ‘educated’ European nation. in almost one third of the cases, but they do represent a very small group in Racism, however, didn’t die with Adolf the sample (i.e. 14 mentions in total). Hitler and the collapse of the Third The portrayal of Roma was neutral only Reich. The last of the colonial wars in half of the time; other groups were the 1950s kept it strong, as the most portrayed neutrally more often.” ‘advanced’ European nations carried on with atrocities in the name of Europe is still in denial of the Roma differences, often invoking ‘national Holocaust, which wiped out over 95% of interests’ and the need to ‘civilize’ the the Roma in Austria and Germany. In ‘dark continent’. The majority of mass November 2001 a poll conducted in media backed up the often genocidal Romania14, (the country with the largest actions of national governments. number of Roma) showed that 99% of Romanians thought Roma deserved the Most recently, the mass media played a least respect among all ethnic fundamental role in the human minorities. The top three descriptions of disasters in Rwanda and former- Roma population by those polled were Yugoslavia. A Nazi type of ‘necessary’ as ‘thieves’, ‘dirty’ and ‘lazy’. Only one transcendent national unity, justifying in 25 of those interviewed was willing to the extermination of entire ethnic consider Roma as equal-status citizens. groups, was promoted by media outlets in both countries.
13 These are the most easily recognizable See www.multicultural.net 14 See www.mmt.ro/Cercetari/Bare%202001.pdf
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The media took the results of this poll as ‘normal’, and even the very few pro- In keeping with its tradition, the UK tolerance, leftist newspapers justified it government doesn’t offer any training to on the basis of the ‘obvious differences customs officials in Romani culture and in values’ between the two communities. language and few people are aware that the UK government has actually In August 2004, a leader of a popular developed a way to physically identify labour union in Bulgaria (with the Roma. Despite a complete lack of logical second highest Roma population in or scientific basis, custom officials in Europe) proposed the creation of one of the most developed countries in paramilitary groups to fight against the world (but with an appalling record Gypsy gangs. The majority of Bulgarian of human rights abuses) can decide who media, including the leftist newspapers, is or is not Roma. responded favourably to the idea. Should we let Gypsies invade England? In 1993 the then Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar, still the most popular This was the title of a telephone poll in politician in Slovakia, demanded welfare January 2004 which attracted almost cuts to Romany mothers in order to 20,000 people willing to pay premium curtail “the reproduction of socially rates to tell The Daily Express that they unadaptable and mentally retarded were not going to put up with the people”. He considered Roma as "anti- ‘gyppos’. The poll was part of a larger social, mentally backward, inassimilable media campaign in the British press led and socially unacceptable”. The Slovak by tabloids that lasted for several press either ignored or saluted his months. The government responded by statement. starting talks about measures to restrict On 21 July 1995, 17-year-old Mario access for Roma to the UK. Goral was beaten, then burned alive at the site of a Gypsy pogrom in World War Let me repeat that: The government II. He died of his burns ten days later. RESPONDED by looking for ways to On 23 August, Jan Slota of the Slovak RESTRICT the ‘invasion’. They did not National Party had no problem declaring condemn the blatant racism, but on Slovak National Radio: “I love roast LOOKED for ways to legitimize it. The meat Gypsy-style very much, but I'd tabloids were writing ‘Victory’ the very prefer more meat and less Gypsies”. next day.
Again nothing happened. Replace the word ‘Gypsy’ with the Anti-Gypsyism is an electoral bonanza similarly pejorative ‘nigger’. Just across almost the entire political imagine the worldwide reaction if the spectrum. The media, well aware that British government was looking at ways racism sells, happily receives and to prevent an ‘invasion’ of African- promotes racist speech from political Americans, and that Colin Powell, for parties of the left, centre and right. instance, was stopped by an overly zealous custom officer from entering the In 1998, under pressure from the country. tabloids, the UK Government re- imposed visa restrictions on Slovakia in There are hundreds of racist articles in order to prevent Romani asylum seekers the mainstream European press every from having their case heard in the UK. day. Those against Roma do not even Only three years later, again under disguise their hate speech. In autumn similar pressure, the UK government 2003, a violent clash between Roma and adopted a ‘special’ border policy, Romanians – the worst such incident in singling out persons belonging to seven Romania in 10 years – was presented by named groups - Kurds, Roma, media as the ‘War of the Gypsies’. A Albanians, Tamils, Pontic Greeks, month later, 100 interviews in the town Somalis and Afghans - for ‘special’ where the conflict occurred showed that measures. Roma and Kurds, however, all the interviewees thought the conflict do not hold passports stating their was between two gangs of Roma ethnicity. This measure is still in place. Mafiosi. ‘Victory’ again.
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THING'S AIN'T WHAT To an outsider it must seem quite strange that the prevalent ‘Romaphobia’ THEY 'SEEM' TO BE all over Europe is downplayed by international institutions. Despite many John O reports by such institutions indicating that Roma are the largest yet most Birmingham & Coventry NUJ; discriminated against ethnic minority in National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Europe, the only real effort seems to be Campaigns to find more or less sophisticated reasons to justify Romaphobia. And the press continues to enforce negative Do headlines have to incite stereotypes about Roma. racial hatred?
There are some efforts by the media to combat anti-Gypsyism, but they are far out-weighed by the ‘economically ASYLUM SEEKERS motivated’ efforts to dehumanize and TO GET IVF ON NHS alienate at least 10 million European BEFORE CHILDLESS SCOTS Roma every day. Asylum seekers will be given NHS fertility Freedom of speech should be the core of treatment on demand in a controversial inclusive democracies, not the basis for move which will mean they are treated defending racism and building up hate. almost three times as quickly as many Scots. When we will stop using freedom of speech to build up a Europe of hate? The Scotsman, Sunday 29 August 2004 http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=10130 It is very easy to say that none of what 52004 has happened is our fault. Seeking to avoid responsibility is built into the education system in a Europe unable to THE correct title for this piece should deal with its genocidal past. But have been, 'NHS post code lottery denies whatever is happening now is our fault rural Scots the chance of fertility because we didn’t try or manage to treatment'. Apart from being factual, it avoid the logical results of tens of would, I am more than certain, have thousands of hate campaigns against sold more copies than the headline The the ‘others’. Scotsman chose.
I am frequently told by people about 'NHS post code lottery' has been good their Roma friends or their childhood copy for a number of years now. Good spent around Roma - trying to claim enough to go on, and stay on, the front ‘knowledge’ of the Roma and to justify page of any national daily, and sell extra the stereotypes they continue to believe. copies because of it. Or to be the lead In central and eastern Europe at least story on any of the TV news channels, six million Roma live side by side with and stay there most of the day. the majority population. Every single one of them knows how to say ‘thank However The Scotsman thought better you’ in the official language of their and ran the story with only one thing in country. How many non-Roma know mind - to 'scapegoat' asylum seekers. To how to say ‘thank you’ in Romani? my mind, whether The Scotsman Almost none. The fixation that Roma are intended it or not, the title 'Asylum different and evil has become the norm seekers to get IVF on NHS before if not a political necessity. childless Scots' is a subtle incitement to racial hatred as it quite clearly lays the It’s ‘Nais tuke’, by the way. blame for something on a targeted minority, whom it knows are getting
32 Journalism and Public Trust fingers to keyboard, that it is not asylum seekers who decide who gets 'Not so much the Right to Family Life treated under the NHS and where and but the Right to have a Family'. This when that will happen. could have been, and would have been my title for the story about Mrs. Chen. What is the real story here? If women in China who already have one child become pregnant with a RULING EXPOSES second and the pregnancy comes to the attention of the authorities, a Chinese IMMIGRATION LOOPHOLE court can issue an order to force the mother to have an abortion and The European Court of Justice in compulsory sterilisation. Where a Luxembourg yesterday exposed a large gap woman does gives birth to a second in Britain's immigration laws when it ruled child, sterilisation is compulsory. that a Chinese woman who travelled to Belfast to have her child has the right to live Already having one child and prevented in Britain because the child became an Irish by Chinese law from having a second, citizen by birth and therefore an EU Mrs Chen decided that she would have national. another child, and then had to decide where it would be born - definitely not The Guardian, Wednesday 20 October 2004 China. Mrs Chen read up on European www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1331225, law and saw a legitimate way to have 00.html her second baby and keep it. It was just good family planning. There's a bloody good full-length article in this if anyone To my mind there are two things wrong cares to write it. with this story. Firstly it is not factual reporting and secondly, it misses a good Conclusions human interest story. Should we as journalists challenge each There is not a loophole in the UK’s other, our editors/bosses on the way immigration laws or in European Union stories are written/presented? Definitely law. This case, when it started in the yes! Beginning with ourselves, as the UK immigration courts, was on the writing starts with us. interpretation of EU law. Quite simply, 'could a foreign national benefit from The flavour of the day/week for editors the fact that their child was a European can damage the health/well-being of national and be able to reside with that thousands of people. Both the articles child in the European Union'. The case featured above were misleading, both in progressed quite naturally through the their titles and content and the first UK legal system and was then referred could/may have increased hatred by the Immigration Appellate Authority towards asylum seekers. to the European Court of Justice for clarification. As journalists/trade unionists we need to challenge each other on the way we The Court’s ruling/clarification was that write stories. The way we would like to 'a foreign national could benefit from write it and the way the editor/boss the fact that their child was a European insist we write it. Collectively challenge national'. Mrs Chen had broken no law our editors/bosses, when they target whatsoever and as 'carer' for the child, minorities with malice aforethought. providing certain criteria was met, was entitled to remain with her daughter in
'Just good family planning'
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LOSING FAITH IN From the time I set foot in this country I realised that refugee and asylum COLLEAGUES matters are not a laughing stock but life I THOUGHT WOULD HELP and death issues. In the last year alone I have read articles, mostly in the tabloids that blamed refugees, nay, Sandra Nyaira asylum seekers, not only for the Exiled Journalists Network; Former resurgence but for the rapid spread of political Editor, Zimbabwe Daily News infectious diseases like TB, the dreaded HIV/Aids virus, SARS, as well as housing shortages and even terrorism. AT the end of September I laughed so hard after reading a humorous article in I am one of those who have been badly The Guardian. The story was about the affected and actually have lost faith in launch of an initiative in Austria, in the people I thought maybe able to which people are taught how to laugh assist me and hundreds more like me. for their own good. It is targeted at, among others at the lower end of the As a Political Editor at The Daily News social scale, asylum seekers. Laughing, in Zimbabwe, we re-ran stories that the authorities had realised, was a appeared in most British newspapers, major stress-reliever, so they had to giving them a home slant, when things teach asylum seekers how to laugh hard started falling apart in 2000 as a result and get their systems working better. of the ruling government land seizures. Naturally I expected the British media, About this time, I went to a library in which seemed to be sympathetic to the Surrey to do some internet research. By cause of the suffering masses in virtue of having come first, I was Zimbabwe, to be able to write stories automatically going to have use of the that supported those people fleeing first available computer. This small political violence and persecution. But library has three computers and two of no, most of them were not. them had already been booked so the woman who arrived after me had to wait It was not just Zimbabwean refugees, an hour for us to finish. And wasn’t she but those from Rwanda, Burundi, the angry that I - she assumed I was an Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) asylum seeker - had been allowed and many others coming from some of access before her… the world’s troubled spots. As soon as they land at Gatwick or Heathrow, they She shouted obscenities and lamented blight Britain’s services. It is all sheer that asylum seekers were being allowed hypocrisy. in, because even where she stayed it was the same thing: “You just never get Right now we have a Zimbabwean a computer because the bloody asylum asylum seeker languishing in prison for seekers have booked them all the time allegedly trying to steal a two-year old way before you”. girl. He claims he was just returning a gesture from the child and was trying to She accused asylum-seekers of the rise greet her at a busy shopping centre as in crime in and around Britain’s major his African custom would require. but cities - just look at what is happening in no-one in the media tried to look at it Glasgow, and so on. that way. As a result of the fears that abound in this society, it simply meant I was shocked by her behaviour, this guy was trying to abduct a child. especially in as posh an area as Surrey. When the system is not coping – when Asylum seekers are also responsible for the NHS fails to reach it targets, for road accidents, dwindling fish stocks in example - people chose to blame asylum the Thames, swans, etc. etc. seekers, mainly because of the way the Journalistic output on asylum issues is media here tell the story. pathetic, yet sadly the public seem to support and appreciate the racist stories that emerge from the tabloids.
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Of course there are those who know and Both the media and the government can readily rubbish the stories but the know the truth about what is happening majority are only concerned with their on the ground and what the immigrant amenities and how resources are being population is doing to keep the country stretched by immigrants. going so why not tell the truth?
We need responsible reporting on such Most immigrant stories are against sensitive issues. In a sense the right- asylum seekers and one cannot wing British press plays the same role honestly condemn a journalist for the far right played in the last French writing the story because the story is Presidential election – it has put the there. The biggest problem we have is contentious aspects of asylum on the that pro-immigrant stories are not being map. The racist, anti-immigrant published at the same rate. We need to National Front voiced the fears of query the decisions by editors in the ordinary people. That is the reason why newsrooms so we can challenge them to Le Pen did so well in the first round of change, instead of aiding the the elections. Ultimately, both the proliferation of anti-immigration stories. centre right and the centre left parties were forced to move to the right on the The use of the term asylum seeker itself issue of immigration. But had either has increased over the past few years party dealt with the issue openly and and seems to carry a lot of negative honestly before, we might have had a connotations with it. I sometimes different result. wonder to whom the media would attribute society’s mishaps if refugees Papers like The Express publish and asylum seekers did not exist. They unconscionable crap about asylum would have to be invented, I guess. seekers but in my view all they are expressing is the worries (brought to the I have a number of friends who have fore mainly by the Press) of many been granted leave to remain here and ordinary people who fear that their jobs some whose cases are still pending. and flats will go to immigrants. Just sitting with them watching the news or reading newspapers can be a I think the real failure is with the nightmare. In one bulletin alone the British government itself in failing to word asylum seeker was mentioned inform its citizens sufficiently about the more than six times – I could see the issue – who are refugees and asylum fear it invoked in them. seekers, what forces them from their homes, how are they helping to build People think they are criminals because towards the British dream, why are they of the way issues that concern them here, and so forth. The government and their welfare are covered. Asylum needs to focus on the worries of the seeker stories have become a staple of electorate and answer questions the tabloids. We cannot go for more forthrightly, not just in the vote- than one week without a front page catching way they do now. story on asylum seekers.
It’s no secret that British people have in Variation between the tabloids - the the past supported tax increases if they Mail, The Sun, Daily Star, News of the were to bring them more hospitals and World, the Express and even The Mirror amenities. Similarly, I would argue, a - is minimal. The Mail is vicious in the well informed populous would rally way it covers asylum and immigration around immigrants to a greater extent if issues, especially with its anti- the government explained the moral government stance. The Mirror is justification, and focused on the need sometimes more generous but The for more young labour in a society with Express is the worst. But it is the an ageing population. Instead the uniformity of their characterisation, and Labour government talks about the lack of balancing viewpoints, that is ‘holding-camps’ in North Africa. striking.
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Remember the 1999 Dover stories that We must appeal for accuracy, and insist described Roma asylum seekers as that the Home Office properly and ‘bootleggers’ and ‘scum of the earth regularly supplies journalists with targeting our beloved coastline’. Things authoritative figures. have not changed much in the way asylum issues are covered, and we are Of course it may be difficult to convince led to believe that refugees continue to some of the tabloids because in my ‘swamp’ Britain. opinion, the racism spewed from these newspapers is not because of We all have our favourite examples of carelessness or lack of thought but a the negative stereotyping of asylum deliberate and systematic campaign of seekers in the press. It just has to be hate which no amount of liberal brought to an end. It’s not going to be pleading will unhinge. easy but I feel more at ease when I know there are journalists trying to fight The journalists and their editors have for change. enormous power and they abuse it in the way they present asylum and From the Mail to the News of the World, immigration stories. What makes it we have to assert that the language of more scary is that such papers sell far inaccurate terms like ‘bogus' and 'illegal' better than the more level-headed is simply making life more difficult for ‘quality’ dailies. tormented souls who are seeking to start life afresh after years of torture, Racist coverage of asylum seekers is a harassment and intimidation. failure of democracy I would argue because it is not the press freedom or According to a recent Mori poll, the freedom of speech that people have result of this kind of daily barrage of fought so long for. What freedom is disinformation is that race and gained if such coverage results in immigration are now perceived as the suffering and attacks upon people? Hate third most important political issue can never be compatible with facing Britain - ahead of defence, crime democracy, for hate destroys everything and the economy. Only health and but itself. education are seen as more important. We must not tire of campaigning for just Scotland Yard has even stated publicly coverage of asylum, refugees and that negative newspaper articles lead immigration issues, and press for directly to an increase in violence compliance with guidelines from the against asylum-seekers but newspapers NUJ and the PCC. The PCC must hold simply do not see things they same way. editors to account and demand that They refuse to take responsibility for they explain to the public why they their actions as a new kind of racism knowingly mislead. continues to take shape in Britain. This issue must not be thrown under As much as I put the blame on the the table. It must be discussed openly government for failing to explain to the to make sure we can all continue to people about asylum issues, I think we fight for what is right and just. must also take stock of how journalists have been using dubious statistics and The public trust most of the things they claims when covering asylum stories. read in newspapers so journalists must be responsible in the way they present We ought to be able to appeal to issues that directly affect the lives of journalists’ professionalism and ask others, especially those who are in no them to report the stories of refugees position to answer back. properly without taking sides, providing the facts rather than assuming they are
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BE AWARE OF THE IMPACT ultimately take legal action. But many newspaper reports simply referred to OF OUR WORK “asylum seekers” as a generic group, leaving the PCC virtually powerless to Bob Dale investigate any complaint of unfairness. With issues as big and important as Dover District Reporter & Asylum and asylum and immigration, maybe it’s Immigration Specialist, BBC Radio Kent time to look at ways of closing this hole?
If we’re going to have more regulation, WHEN I took up my post as BBC Radio then it has to be fair to the journalist, Kent’s Asylum and Immigration but also transparent. People must know Correspondent I knew it was going to be that, if they, or their communities, are one of the most ethically-challenging the victims of an injustice by the media, roles of my career. there are ways to get recourse, but the journalist must also know that, if they Not only did I still have my do their jobs properly, do their research, responsibility to deliver the BBC’s three check their facts, give all sides the right traditional values – to educate, to to equal reply, and write the story even- inform and to entertain – I would also handedly, the process will back them up be telling the stories of people who had too. fled countries that don’t have the luxury of a free media, where just talking to Who should set these standards? someone like me can get you or your family killed. I feel there has to be some kind of industry involvement. Only a journalist The thin line I had to walk for the next or broadcaster can really understand six months, and continue to do so after the kind of processes by which news is returning to my regular job as Dover reported, and the pressures of deadlines correspondent, was to reflect the and editors. But there should also be concerns felt by our listeners about the public representation, the people who asylum issue, while basing all my own are the end users of our product. Who reporting on fact, and fact alone, rather knows, we might even learn something than negative newspaper coverage. if we listen to their ideas on how we should report the news? The asylum debate has been fuelled by generalisation and easy headlines for I honestly believe most, if not all, of my too long, what it needs is clear, colleagues in journalism are ethical. If unbiased reporting, coupled with left to do their jobs, they will investigate human stories. Something that became stories properly and report facts, rather clear very quickly was that, while even than wild rumours. There may be a case the least antagonistic member of the for looking at the role of the owners in public would often be prepared to repeat the print industry, but as a broadcaster the stories they read about ‘asylum through and through I could never seekers just coming here for the claim to have any knowledge of how benefits’, once they had met a refugee much undue influence finds its way and heard their first-hand account of onto the newsroom floor. persecution, the attitude softened, even if only a little. We should always be aware of the impact our work has. I also realised, from attending conferences and seminars, that there is A commercial TV producer friend of a gap in the regulation over coverage of mine, who has worked extensively in the asylum issues. East, was telling me how the World Service is regarded in India. “When they When a story appears about a named hear something,” he said, “They say that individual, and that person feels hard it must be true, because it’s on the done by, he or she can launch BBC”. complaints to the PCC or Ofcom, and
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Since then I’ve often stopped while ARE YOU LISTENING? writing copy, asked myself if I can say with absolute certainty whether this or that is a fact, and if the answer is no, Jim Latham then out it comes. Secretary, Broadcast Journalism Training Council It could be that, in the UK at least, we fall into the trap of hoping that our worldly, cynical audience only half- I CAN suggest one reason why a growing believes what it hears and reads, so it sector of audience and readership doesn’t really matter if we repeat doesn’t trust journalists – apart, that is, hackneyed generalisations. That would from a spineless print complaints be a very dangerous trap to fall into. system.
In today’s crowded media climate it’s Give ‘em a dose of the old Broadcast become necessary to shout even louder Complaints Commission, I say, and to get heard by the public, and maybe they’d sit up and take notice. Don’t get this can lead to sensationalism for the me started. sake of a good headline. It’s important to remember, especially when writing But, how about this? We all work in an about asylum, that we are writing about institutionally racist industry. And, people, often vulnerable and frightened particularly post 9/11, most black and people, people whose lives could Asian people have got the message and genuinely be in danger, rather than are deserting mainstream print and simple statistics. broadcasting journalism in their droves.
Switch the bloody thing off or stop
buying it.
Is anyone surprised by the phrase
“institutional racism?” Or by the fact
that, good heavens, readers, listeners
and viewers, might actually exercise
some kind of choice and take their
business elsewhere? (and I choose my
words carefully.)
The message was there, loud and clear,
from Liverpool.
Authoritative figures give the black and
Asian readership/audience sector as
10-15% of the national population –
much higher in some regional centres –
and likely to rise as high as 30% in the
next 20 years.
In America and Canada, you ignore
your ethnic minority audience at your
peril - “Diversify or die,” is a much-used
marketing phrase.
Can the commercial side of our industry
literally afford to allow its
audience/readers/customers to believe
that they don’t count in editorial and
programme agendas?
38 Journalism and Public Trust
Some UK marketing departments seem Asian journalists you can see in your to have heard the message. Halifax newsroom – send me your answers. Howard is fast becoming an icon. There’ve been plans, legislation, But when the interest rate-rise vox-pops statements, policies, initiatives, come around, a visitor to Planet UK conferences, codes, courses and might well be forgiven for thinking that discussions going on about diversity – no black or Asian family owns a or the lack of it – since the IFJ “Code of mortgage or a house. Bordeaux,” in 1954.
You’ve heard about the grey pound and But in spite of the undoubted progress the pink pound. Your marketing that’s been made, particularly in the departments are talking about the broadcasting sector, largely led by the brown pound and the black pound. Are BBC, there’s been little change in you listening? individual attitude.
Because the business case for diversity The distressing fact is that many has far-reaching implications for journalists believe the racial journalism – we’re beyond the point stereotyping promoted by their own where token representation in by-lines industry and the every-day racism or TV presentation is going to convince experienced by many black and Asian a sophisticated and cynical (with good people on the street, is replicated in reason) audience and readership. many newsrooms.
It’s going to take a lot to balance years Most white journalists have no and years of grotesque portrayal of knowledge or experience of other ethnic minorities in the UK media cultures to inform their reporting of (‘Immigrants eating swans’ – are you anything to do with ethnic minorities. listening?) The accepted definition of institutional The treatment of the Ron Atkinson story racism comes from the McPherson is a marker – he may be a good bloke, Report. It says, amongst other things, but the story at least deserved some that unintentional racism is still racism. analysis of the conditions that would I’ve recently interviewed quite a few produce what he said. black and Asian journalists – their stories bear out every dot and comma of And Alan Green’s more recent attempt the McPherson definition and exemplify, at humour, mid-football commentary, time after time, experiences of racism. did little to persuade me that any lessons were learnt. One example – a black woman journalist arrives in the newsroom and This is about journalism and journalists has to share an office login code until – individually and collectively. Ninety- hers is sorted out and, as a result, sees, six per cent of us are white and middle first hand, the racist jokes routinely class – are you listening? Anyone care to passed round the office e-mail system. suggest why that is the case? And here lies a problem. How can any And I’m afraid – “Well, we never get any journalist have any credibility in the applications from black or Asian day-to-day work of reporting, whether journalists,” won’t cut it – at least until he or she is honestly trying to be you’ve analysed why that should be. objective, fair and balanced, or There isn’t space here but I can suggest particularly when taking a moral a few explanations. standpoint in tackling social injustice, while back at the office they tolerate, Oh, and by the way, do me a favour. condone or even participate in one of While you’re considering the above, just greatest social injustices – racism and let your chair swivel through 360 lack of diversity? degrees and count how many black and
39 Journalism and Public Trust
And if you think this fundamental hypocrisy is lost on audiences, readers and listeners, you’re deluding yourself – it’s at the root of the lack of trust between ethnic minority communities and mainstream broadcasting and print media.
No institution is simply a pure structure with racism built in like the plumbing – they’re made up of individuals holding views, attitudes and beliefs derived from environment, education, and other social processes.
It follows (hopefully) that those attitudes, views and beliefs can be changed – with recognition of their existence as a first step and robust anti- racist mission statements, cultural awareness training (benchmarked to recruitment and promotion,) and revisited disciplinary codes, to follow.
I’m not trying to claim any moral high ground here – I too am white, male, middle-aged and middle class. But I do think some of the daily experiences of our black and Asian journalists and attitudes which don’t deserve the trust or support of a significant slice of our customers, need to be dealt with.
We journalists are fond of advising others (I’m doing it now) from football managers to Prime Ministers, how to solve problems – it’s time we looked at and within ourselves and sorted this bloody mess out.
For the last year Jim Latham, has been working on a BJTC research project on cultural and social journalism in broadcasting. This article represents his personal viewpoint.
40 Journalism and Public Trust
NUMBER 10 AND THE PART 3 MEDIA: CO-DEPENDENTS IN THE SPIN CYCLE
MORE SPINNED Graham Allen MP AGAINST… Labour MP for Nottingham North; author ‘The Last Prime Minister: Being honest about the UK presidency’
BRITISH politics is dominated by NUMBER 10 AND THE MEDIA: CO- Number 10 Downing Street and the DEPENDENTS IN THE SPIN CYCLE media. Everyone else, Parliament Graham Allen MP included, is reduced to the role of on- looker rather than participant. UNSOURCED AND UNSUBSTANTIATED Nicholas Jones * British politics is now defined by this love/hate relationship which is both RETHINKING ANONYMITY unhealthy and undemocratic. Neither Bill Norris the Prime Minister nor the media are directly elected and if our democracy is to develop, the role of directly-elected representatives needs to be accom- modated in a new political settlement.
Some years ago I remember Tony Benn complaining that British politics was being sold like soap powder. He was wrong, and for three important reasons.
First, British soap makers have far more money and far more opportunity to advertise and promote their products than British politicians. Second, people need soap powder in their everyday life far more than they need politics. Third, soap powder is more trusted than politicians. That is not because soap makers are any more virtuous than politicians, it is because of commercial necessity. Over time, a soap powder which fails to meet its claims will fail in the market place.
Three simple points, but they highlight
the critical role of the media in making
our political system work. Political news
not only has to inform consumers of what is on offer in the political market but it also has to advertise and promote it. It has to make people interested enough to engage in an activity which is entirely voluntary - voting – and which generally makes little immediate impact on their lives. Finally, and most critically, the media do more than any
41 Journalism and Public Trust other institution to determine whether those who don't. The natural product of politicians are trusted and whether their such an arrangement is ‘spin’, which I ‘brand’ succeeds or fails in the political would define as the art of interpreting market place. events in such a way that the interpretation becomes as much a part Judged against all three of these tests, of the published narrative as the events. our political system is failing badly. The level of participation and engagement in There is nothing new about spin. Julius politics is at its lowest since Britain Caesar acted as his own spin-doctor, to became a full democracy in 1928. brilliant effect, in the Gallic wars. The Significantly, the people most likely to Tudors employed professional spin- vote at the next election are retired doctors to turn Richard III from a well- voters; those least likely are first-time loved ruler into Shakespeare's mis- voters. People still interested in politics shapen monster. What is new to Britain are increasingly deserting conventional is the intensity and totality of spin - the politics for alternative forms of activity. subordination of every single event to a One single-issue pressure group – the central narrative with a central Royal Society for the Protection of Birds character - the Prime Minister. - has more members than all three political parties combined. Too many people have attributed this phenomenon to Tony Blair personally. It People are not only more apathetic is true that throughout his leadership about British politics they are Tony Blair has been acutely conscious increasingly more cynical. In opinion of the power of the media to destroy polls politicians - and journalists - parties and politicians. I believe that he regularly figure in Britain's least trusted is haunted by the memory of the early occupations. Politicians like to blame 1980s, when he first became an MP, the media, but these developments are when the Labour party was actually the result of a systemic failure systematically vilified by the media. It in our political system and an left him and his closest advisers, Alistair unhealthy relationship of mutual Campbell and Peter Mandelson, dependency between its major players - determined to control the media the Premiership and the media. perception of himself, his party and his government. There must never be a It is no coincidence that both players moment when he appeared uncertain or are unelected and largely unaccount- not in full control of events, particularly able. (The Prime Minister actually in relation to dissent within his own controls the institution - Parliament - party. Such a moment would be used by which is meant to scrutinize him). Their the media to shred his reputation. power has allowed them to set the basic Given the way the media turned on rules of engagement of British politics. John Major as a ‘weak’ Prime Minister, who is to say he was wrong? The Prime Minister of the day sets the political agenda and determines the Blair and his circle have certainly had a basic issues on which the parties will personal impact on relations between compete for attention. In return, he or government (i.e. No. 10) and the media. she is expected to provide news, The power he gave to Campbell, and the instantly on request, at any time of day focus and efficiency with which he used or night. it, were unique in British history. But I believe that the fundamental rules of Without a separation of powers all engagement were shaped as much by stories flow through our unitary system the media as much as by government. with our unelected Presidency at the top. No political competition between an One obvious source of media pressure is independent legislature and an the onset of 24-hour news services. It independent Executive means ‘one- means, quite simply, that political news source news’, which breeds lazy gets stale much more quickly. A story journalism from those who accept what needs to be constantly refreshed for the is offered and cynical journalism from next edition of a newspaper or a news
42 Journalism and Public Trust bulletin. If it is not refreshed by some But that is not going to happen quickly new event (which happens more often enough. I think that in the short term than not), it can only be refreshed by we need new rules of engagement interpretation. The obvious first call for between the news-makers in Number 10 such a response is No. 10. The demands and news organizations. of modern news schedules create a cycle of responses almost as formal as a First, I think that both sides should religious ceremony: event - response restore the boundary between fact and from No. 10 - response to No. 10's interpretation. When that distinction is response – No. 10's response to the restored, I think it reasonable for any response... government to offer its interpretation of any story (whether or not this is Allied to this pressure is the growing requested) and I think it reasonable in tendency of the media to make political most cases for news media to report it news personal rather than general, clearly as interpretation. It might help if which in turn reflects the growing reporters used directly the phrase tendency of news organizations to ‘government spin doctors suggested become part of the entertainment that...’ Perhaps newspapers could put industry. Events become important not ‘spin’ from any source in separate type. in their own right but because of their impact on a political personality. Even Second, I think that Number 10 should the most dramatic or heart-rending no longer maintain a line on every single stories have been treated in this way: story, still less pretend that its line is ‘Blair Rocked By Hostage Crisis’. universally accepted within the government or the Labour Party. In A third pressure comes from individual return, the media should not exploit journalists, at a time when most British this new openness to suggest that the news organizations are contracting their Prime Minister is weak or indecisive or staffs. It has become ever more that the government is hopelessly split. important to get stories regularly published under their own byline, and My third proposal may seem frivolous that generates more calls on No. 10 to but I think it could provide a useful supply the extra ingredient to a story remedy against the uglier excesses of which helps it to ‘make the paper’ or spin-doctoring. I believe that the terms give it a more prominent position. of reference of the Press Complaints Commission should be changed to allow The balance of power between indiv- it to consider complaints by journalists idual journalists and their sources has as well as complaints against them. shifted decisively in favour of the This could offer some support for sources, and this development would journalists who have been lied to have continued under any Prime directly or threatened or harmed in any Minister. Whatever the reasons, there is way in their own career, or felt no doubt that more and more news themselves subjected to any reaches the British people through the unreasonable pressure to report news in prism of No. 10, and less and less of a particular way or to suppress it. that news is trusted and believed. Neither media nor politicians can afford How can this be remedied? to do nothing and allow the present relationship to continue. If both The long-term remedy is to rebalance continue to provide the same diet of our democracy, reviving the power of news which is over-managed and directly elected bodies (Parliament, under-believed each will find itself devolved and local government) to make bypassed by the Internet - a source of and initiate news and ending the virtual news and political activity which neither monopoly given to Number 10, and can control. making the Presidency in the UK one directly elected by the people.
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UNSOURCED AND describe with some degree of authority the step change which has taken place. UNSUBSTANTIATED A glance at a newspaper like The Times would illustrate the point I am making. Nicholas Jones It is not uncommon for the main stories leading the front page to be based Former BBC correspondent; author of entirely on anonymous sources. ‘Sultans of Spin’ & ‘The Control Freaks’; member Campaign for Press and Having worked on The Times as a Broadcasting Freedom parliamentary and political reporter in the late 1960s and 1970s I can say with some certainty that thirty years ago it OF all of the changes which I have was rare indeed to find a lead story in experienced in over forty years as a the paper which offered the reader no journalist I would say that by far the direct attribution for any of the facts or most profound has been in the quotations. Former sports and celebrity phenomenal growth in unsourced and journalists have told me their unsubstantiated stories. experiences reflect mine.
The widespread failure to attribute facts So great has been the transformation and quotations has become a cancer that even the humble caption to a eating away at the ethical standards of celebrity photograph can no longer be news reporting and the probity of the trusted. Invariably the anonymous British news media. quotes tend to be attributed to ‘an onlooker’. Snatch pictures taken by the Among the worst offenders are three of paparazzi fill acres of space in the the most prominent branches of popular press and, as the only witness journalism: politics, sports and show to an ‘event’ has usually been the business. photographer, the caption writer effectively has carte blanche to dream All three have a great deal in common. up the best possible story line. Much of the reporting tends to be personality-led and speculative. So I keep a file on what the ‘onlooker’ says fierce is the competition between and these stereotyped quotes have newspapers, magazines, websites, become a cliché. If, for example, a television and radio, that the relevant footballer gets caught on camera with a journalists are no longer judged solely model, our friendly ‘onlooker’ has a on their reputation for fairness and pocket book full of suitable one-liners reliability but more often than not on with which to embellish the story: ‘They their hit rate when it comes to delivering could not keep their hands to ‘exclusives’. themselves…they were cuddling all the time…they certainly gave the Another significant similarity is that the impression of being an item’. news media’s relationship with the leading practitioners in all three areas is When it comes to political reporting the increasingly controlled by spin doctors, quotes are likely to be equally celebrity agents and the massed ranks imaginative although our ‘onlooker’ is of the various specialists in public usually invested with far greater relations and public affairs. gravitas: ‘A Downing Street insider says…’; ‘The Prime Minister’s aides Access to leading politicians, players believe…’; ‘One cabinet source and performers tends to be strictly revealed…;’ and so on. limited and is often dependent on a pay- back, either in the form of favourable Of course I readily accept that publicity or straightforward commercial exaggerated and unsourced stories have promotion. been part of the lifeblood of Westminster for centuries but I do believe there has My greatest expertise has been in been a further deterioration in the level political reporting and I hope I can
44 Journalism and Public Trust of public trust in political reporting Unless there can be a new presumption since Tony Blair became Prime Minister. that whenever possible government officials speak on the record, a culture Instead of seizing an unparalleled of secrecy will continue as will the opportunity to do his bit to help push inherent tendency of much of the up the levels of accuracy and fairness in Whitehall machine to go on supplying political coverage, Alastair Campbell information to journalists on an off-the- took advantage of the commercial record basis which only encourages the pressures which have driven down fabrication of stories by those reporters journalistic standards. Both he and the left out of the loop. rest of the New Labour spin doctors under his control failed to speak on the If the Prime Minister fails to seize this record whenever possible or to insist chance to reform the lobby system and that their own quotes were properly if he does give way in the face of attributed. protests from vested interests in the House of Commons press gallery, In exploiting the demand for exclusives, Labour can hardly go on complaining by offering access and interviews in about the growth in unsubstantiated return for favourable coverage, he political stories. encouraged the trade in off-the-record tip offs and the growth in unsourced I have never understood why the stories. government does not see the value in treating all journalists equally. Obviously previous governments have been as guilty as Blair’s administration Do ministers not realise it would make in seeking to manipulate the media but it so much harder for us to exaggerate the reliance placed on selective briefings or mislead if we all had simultaneous during Campbell’s six and a half years access to the same information. In that in Downing Street further undermined way reporters inside the magic circle as what is, after all, an essential well as those outside it, really would be foundation stone for democratic tested because the more official sources government, a free and fair flow of there are, releasing information to all information from the state to the public comers on an on-the-record basis, the and equal access for all journalists. harder it would be to defend sloppy, cynical journalism. Given the commercial pressures which drive the intense competition within the At least there would then be a chance to media, journalists left to their own drive up editorial standards. devices are unlikely to take the initiative and clean up their own act. Therefore I do think it is incumbent on the
Instant access for all media outlets and the public can be provided via the Internet and the massive expansion which there has been in websites. There is no reason why Whitehall departments and state agencies could not provide a level playing field.
Televised lobby briefings would open up to public scrutiny what is in effect the last closed shop in British journalism and help bring about a new culture of openness.
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RETHINKING ANONYMITY endless denials when they fell to the ground. Things are somewhat more open now, but behind-the-scenes Bill Norris briefings on ‘lobby terms’ persist. Former ITN and Times correspondent; Associate Director, MediaWise Modern conditions of instant reporting made possible by the new technology, and the advent of 24/7 news, have
made it hard for reporters to resist the THOU shalt not reveal thy sources. It is siren songsters of politics. If they take the First Commandment of journalism; the time to make the proper checks on our banner and creed. In journalistic the story, the fear is that someone less codes of conduct throughout the world diligent will beat them to the punch. it is the one constant refrain, and for good reason: if our contacts cannot It is time, I think, for journalists to take trust us to keep their confidence they a stand. “Can I quote you on that?” is a are not going to talk. And if they do not very good start, to be followed by “Why talk, a lot of important stories are going not?” If the answer reveals no more to go unwritten and unbroadcast. than personal cowardice on the part of
the informant, forget the story. Let us Many journalists have gone to jail to make an end to ‘well-informed sources defend this principle; even in the United in Whitehall’, or ‘friends of the Prime States, where journalists supposedly Minister said...’ etc. etc. The public operate under the protection of the First deserve to know who said what, and Amendment. There, the latest victim is why. New York Times reporter Judy Miller. It is hard to think of any other profession There are, of course, instances in which which would show such bravery in the protection of a source's identity is defence of an altruistic ideal. absolutely vital. Whistleblowers within
the civil service or industry who make And yet….there is a problem. Far from disclosures in the public interest stand encouraging trust in journalists, the to lose their livelihoods or face legal ‘unattributed source’ has become a sanctions if their names are revealed. major reason for public distrust. This is This does not relieve the journalist of especially so in the field of political the responsibility for checking the facts reporting, where spin-doctors and of the story, but these are the people for disaffected politicians have come to rely whom we should be prepared to go to on confidentiality to whisper all sorts of jail. spurious tales into journalistic ears.
When these are proved to be false, and There is a suspicion in the public mind sometimes even when true (think that journalists invent quotes from Andrew Gilligan) it is the journalist who unnamed sources to spice up an carries the can. otherwise dubious story. Of course, this
would never apply to anyone reading The lobby system, under which this article, but lacking a name after journalists are free to print what they those quotation marks, how is the are told but must never disclose the reader to know? source, has been a problem as long as I can remember - which is a very long We need to be more astute when time. Back in the 1960s, and for a long promising confidentiality; to question time before and after, lobby journalists the motives for declining to go ‘on the were not permitted to disclose to anyone record’. It is, after all, our neck on the - even their editors - that daily meetings block when things go wrong. were taking place at No.10 and "under the clock tower" at Westminster. To say
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THE CHALLENGE FOR PART 4 JOURNALISM EDUCATORS
Deirdre O’Neill TRAINING Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Trinity and All Saints College, Leeds JOURNALISTS
WHEN Ryan Parry, an ex-student of mine, made a front-page splash in The Daily Mirror as a royal footman my first reaction was ‘Good on you Ryan, you’ve THE CHALLENGE FOR JOURNALISM made it’. EDUCATORS Deirdre O’Neill But this pleasure began to pale rather quickly. While it is undisputable that TEACHING JOURNALISTS TO COVER Ryan had natural talent and drive, and EUROPE WHEN THE MEDIA FAIL TO will have learnt a great deal of his craft INFORM - A PARADOX on the job, and not from us, I started to Paul Rowinski feel ambivalent after the initial glow of pride about my (admittedly very minor) role in his meteoric rise.
After all, what had he learned from studying journalism? What was the nature of what he had achieved? To go undercover undoubtedly takes nerve and is justified when that which is in the public interest is being exposed.
But under the frankly thin veil of exposing security risks to the Royal Family, what the public really got was the fact that parts of the Palace are rather shabby and some of the Royals are rude – no surprises there then.
As for the exclusive pictures of the Royal breakfast table replete with Tupperware, this may display poor taste, but it is hardly headline news.
This ambivalence permeates all my work as a journalism educator. I might start the day with a theoretical lecture that looks at tabloidization, or the rise of news management and its pernicious influence on journalism, or how the powerful in society tend to win out in accessing the media and getting their voices heard.
From there I trot off for a practical session where I teach students the same old routines, where assumptions about who makes the most ‘credible’ news sources are naturalised, where students
47 Journalism and Public Trust are encouraged to bring out the drama members were required to cover stories in stories. about asylum seekers.
The fact is, one needs a split personality In his book On Television and at times to lecture in journalism. At our Journalism, French sociologist Pierre college we’ve always prided ourselves on Bourdieu argues that it is journalists’ critiquing journalism, discussing views of themselves and the competitive current debates in the field, at the same environment they work in that shapes time as giving students some basic their style of reporting, a style that practical skills in news and feature fosters cynicism and disengagement writing. And what we critique in a amongst news audiences, particularly in theory lecture may be the very points we the political arena. promote in a practical session. ‘Because they are so afraid of being Lecturers must be pragmatists: our boring, they [journalists] opt for students need jobs. Telling them to do it confrontations over debates, prefer differently than how it is done on polemics over rigorous argument, and in newspapers is not going to do them any general, do whatever they can to favours if they wish to work in promote conflict…They are more mainstream media. Competition for jobs interested in the tactics of politics than is fierce while salaries for print in substance…’ journalism outside of the national press are often scandalously low. Bourdieu believes overstatement, simplicity, immediacy and conflict are In an uncertain job market where you the order of the day, rather than the are only as good as your last by-line, complex or subtle explanations that journalists are not likely to question many events in today’s world demand. news gathering techniques or the news values or news agenda in operation. Illuminating and complex reporting was frequently absent from the saturation This explains how, despite changes in coverage given to Ken Bigley, the British staff, the construct of news does not hostage in Iraq. John Pilger in The New essentially change and why, despite a Rulers of the World talks of ‘politics by competitive news market, news media, war by media, justice by media, products are often remarkably uniform. even grief by media’. Perhaps we can add therapy by media. ‘With the stark It is therefore no surprise that even a headlines, and the accompanying wall- female editor of The Sun, Rebekah to-wall coverage of the man, his life and Wade, keeps the anachronistic images his death – it was like Diana, Princess of of semi-naked women. To expect Wales all over again’, wrote Alice Miles individuals to make a stand at the in The Times (13 Oct 2004). expense of their careers is unrealistic – what is needed is a collective response. Believing it to be part of our therapy culture, she criticises the public for Writing in Press Gazette (1 March 2002) working itself up into a ‘frenzy of public my colleague Tony Harcup recognised mourning’ and ‘mawkishly poring over that ethical considerations cannot be the grisly details of Mr Bigley’s divorced from what he describes as ‘job execution, a form of death porn’ while insecurity, understaffing and macho seemingly far more indifferent to the management’. He believes that active deaths of the 68 British soldiers who NUJ chapels can offer ‘an alternative, have died in the conflict (not to mention arguably more constructive way for the British journalists killed). journalists to raise ethical concerns about how they are expected to cover Also unedifying is the blatant hypocrisy stories’. of the press. The Bigley story was accompanied by the very images from a Recently members of The Express videotape of his murder which the press chapel sought to challenge how its claimed should not be aired for fear of providing publicity to terrorists. A few
48 Journalism and Public Trust years ago we had the ridiculous ‘naming Street’s backside and willing to print and shaming’ of paedophiles in the anything Number 10 said’. News of the World, a paper that serves up an unwholesome diet of sex, scandal I also interviewed FBU members and and sleaze, and which is littered with officials about their attitude to the press images of provocatively clad, barely since the strikes. None felt their story pubescent girls. was properly told. My research shows some papers were quite fair in their We’ve come a long way from the old coverage, but the politically-inspired adage, sometimes attributed to Lord excesses of the few – notably The Sun - Northcliffe, that ‘Journalism is what have sullied the reputation of the press somebody somewhere wants to as a whole. suppress; all the rest is advertising’. While Milligan was rather sanguine – With the rise of public relations, these perhaps resigned – about the vitriolic days everyone, it seems, has something response of The Sun, this was not the to sell, be it a book, film, image or line, reaction of ordinary members. Those I and journalists do not appear to have spoke to were deeply hurt and angered dragged their feet in being recruited on by how some sections of the press to the sales team. Free publicity dressed turned against them; how they couldn’t up as news or an exclusive interview, or get to put their case or tell their story. the coverage or credence given to Some stations and individual fire- deliberately planted stories or spin fighters will no longer take The Sun, and hardly inspires trust. a number claimed that they do not read or trust any newspaper. In political reporting, the lobby system can also undermine journalistic Journalism education should involve integrity. And the fault does not lie dealing with some of these issues if the solely with journalists. public is not to lose further trust in the profession. Those of us working in this Nicholas Jones, former BBC political area must reconcile education in the correspondent castigates the former broad sense of the word with skills- Director of Communications Alistair based training. We must encourage Campbell (Free Press, March-April critical expression, instil high standards 2004) for passing up the opportunity to and imbue practice with an ethical ‘drive up levels of accuracy and fairness dimension. by ensuring a level playing field for all political journalists at Westminster’. But if we are to promote a diverse Instead Campbell took advantage of the journalistic output and journalistic competitive pressures on journalists to integrity in our students, we must also exploit ‘the demand for exclusives by remind them of the importance of offering access and interviews in return collective organisation within the for favourable coverage’ and by workplaces they will be entering as the encouraging ‘the trade in off-the-record most junior (and least powerful) tip-offs’. journalists on their publications.
Duncan Milligan, press officer for the
He had noticed that coverage was much more critical of the union when reported by parliamentary correspondents. ‘The Government had power over political reporters that we did not’, he said. ‘Political journalists were up Downing
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TEACHING JOURNALISTS elements within the EU - are by their very nature complex. TO COVER EUROPE WHEN THE MEDIA FAIL TO Take the workings of the European Parliament (EP). Richard Corbett, MEP, INFORM - A PARADOX described Westminster as theatre, saying it was ‘better’ television – lively, Paul Rowinski adversarial and confrontational. “Our (EP) debates cannot have government Senior Lecturer in Journalism, The versus opposition,” he explains. Journalism Centre, Harlow College/Middlesex University; writer on “And then we have all the languages. If Europe you are telling a joke in English, ten seconds later another group laughs. It is not a sexy parliament and it is not LECTURING on the European Union to visual. Where we score well is in undergraduate, and often high-calibre shaping legislation. Westminster is a postgraduate journalism students, I find rubber-stamp parliament. You know the they come to the table with little prior outcome.” knowledge. Compounding the problem, they are often politically phobic, Yet the point that MEPs have real power generally. to change legislation, rather than being ‘lobby fodder’, is rarely made in the One of the key sources normally used to British media. explain the political environment around them is often actually Journalism students generally are accentuating the problem. completely oblivious to how Europe impinges on domestic reporting. Some The British media frequently predicates suffer what I have dubbed ‘political its arguments on Europe on false phobia’ anyway, lacking a sound premises. As a lecturer, journalist and current affairs knowledge. Europe is academic covering Europe, I encounter often the weakest point. very different analyses elsewhere in the continental press, but students can Various teaching methods can be seldom read these. employed to counter this. A device commonly used is going through the Academic fieldwork, based on newspapers. This brings it to life, interviews, has revealed how eminent supporting more formal learning, and UK ‘Europe’ correspondents and those helping to abate bad bouts of political working for the EU institutions they phobia. But not when it comes to cover, are often assumed to be Europe. UK newspapers often ‘evangelists’ or ‘apologists’ for Europe – compound students’ confusion, with because they have ‘gone native’. That mixed messages, predicating reports on they are constructively critical is often false premises. It is hard to stress the ignored. importance of understanding Europe for their effective reporting in the future. The scepticism comes from British politicians, other journalists and their My evidence is experiential - as a former employers. ‘Europe’ correspondents foreign correspondent and writer/ argue that a different set of news values academic on Europe, conducting are applied to their reporting. This often fieldwork with ‘Europe’ correspondents means the discourse on Europe is for the UK. severely curtailed, if not spiked. Any set of national daily newspapers The institutions and structures of the have often done nothing to empower me European Union - due to their inter- – and probably contradict the relatedness with member nation states arguments I present. I, like the ‘Europe’ on one hand and pan-European correspondents quoted below, and the EU press officers serving them, find
50 Journalism and Public Trust myself running the risk of appearing to false premises, is the news agenda of advocate or apologise for Europe. media organisations. Interviewees concurred on this issue, clearly arguing Let us take a fool’s guide to recent that Europe was treated differently. European history, post-Second World War. This may partly explain the false Firstly, there appears to be a resistance premises in the British press. of media organisations in this country to have Europe-specific coverage. This Many of my interviewees suggested that makes the life of ‘European’ because Britain was not directly correspondents difficult. embroiled in the fighting on mainland Europe, it did not perhaps feel such a Baker cited the BBC2 Correspondent compelling need to be bound into an slot. He argues: “In the Correspondent economic and political integration that strand there is the odd programme would prevent future wars – commonly about Europe, but it is up against the cited as the initial motivation of the rest of the world. There is no feeling of initial protagonists. Adenauer, the first protected Europe, with a need for post-war West German chancellor, dedicated journalists, who really know together with others like the Frenchman what they are talking about.” Monnet, founder of the forerunner of the current EU, shared a compelling A debatable point need to make peace and make it stick. Britain, victorious, and separated by a He accepts the BBC covers the world, small stretch of water, felt no such but argues it is not Eurocentric to have compulsion. specific programming as well, otherwise: “If you are involved with the European Britain has suffered a disadvantage Constitution, with laws that are having from joining the European club late, an effect, down your street, it is a huge and not having been one of the six abrogation of responsibility. People are nations that moulded the original actually being kept in the dark…but the project. All of which may explain why British people want that.” discourse within British society is predicated upon a questioning view of David Walter is an ex-presenter of the European project, which grew Eurofile and covered Europe extensively deeper in the post-war period. for both the BBC and ITN. He wonders why the radio programme had to change Frederick Baker, an independent from Europhile to Eurofile. He too documentary film-maker who works for believes another set of values apply to the BBC, Austrian and German Europe than to domestic politics, but television, comments: “I am talking always stopping short of compromising about my experience as a British objectivity. journalist trying to sell stories about the European continent… That is why I say Paola Buonadonna has worked for more that people are emotionally still at 1945. than a decade for the BBC. Her That is where you have to pick people speciality is European affairs. She has up… worked on more than 15 programmes covering Europe. Nearly all were short- “Generally, people want to know whose lived and axed. side they were on in the war, who bombed who… People cannot really She argues: “It is like reporting on a cult handle that countries like France were really. It went from being top of the on both sides, that gets really com- agenda, in terms of what the BBC plicated. People in Britain are still very should cover in its political reporting. It much on the feature film level of The is like pigeon-shooting in the Olympics Guns of Navarone, and the British film now.” industry is still driving that narrative.” Buonadonna claims that when she One of the key issues, in making for started the it was a BBC stipulation European coverage that is predicated on that covering Europe was important.
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“The BBC decided that Europe did not MEPs admitted to me recently, that the draw in the crowds, which is true. But parliament is bad at selling itself. The nor does Westminster, and nobody long preambles do not lend themselves stops reporting domestic politics for that to media coverage. Decisions are often reason.” on different days to the debates. Corbett argued if you tell a joke in English it will Buondonna feels the Reithian ethos take a long while, listening through should apply. She does not work for their headphones, for everybody to get Murdoch. the joke.
Baker cites one Europe-specific This however is no excuse for the programme on British television, which British media who have lost a lot more is not useful to journalism students: than what may be erroneous in “The only show that has survived in my translation. That is no laughing matter. whole career is Eurotrash… It is the longest-running programme that deals
Press-wise a former correspondent used to cite how The Times had an Eighties mentality, when it came to covering the EU, not realising its institutions, like the Parliament, had moved on. They wanted ‘black and white’, as the correspondent put it, but the reality - with so many EU institutions mediating over each development - was actually shades of grey. EU institutions don’t help in this sense.
Dr Martin Bond, an ex-BBC producer and former press chief for the London office of the European Parliament, concurs with Buonadonna. As parliamentary spokesperson he was regularly told by the media they could not cover information on European elections from his office, because it was “propaganda”. Would they view a House of Commons release this way?
Geoffrey Martin, a former head of the United Kingdom representation to the European Commission, wasted months fighting at the Press Complaints Commission, over press caricatures.
“I used to talk to Lord Wakeham, who himself, as a former cabinet minister, misunderstood, or wilfully appeared to me to misunderstand the purpose of Europe. He said, ‘You should get a campaign going.’ I said ‘Lord Wakeham I am not interested, I am interested in that headline in the Daily Mail and the actual facts, the alleged facts, are wrong’. I lost every time”.
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THE PCC: FAST, FREE... PART 5 BUT NOT VERY FAIR
Andreas Koumi REGULATION Secretary, Cypriot Academy; Founder, Exposure, N. London youth media charity www.exposure.org.uk
THE PCC - FAST, FREE... BUT NOT VERY FAIR ‘Statistically, 2 out of 5 Greek women have Andreas Koumi got moustaches and I’ve been out with both of them.’ (Arf! Arf!)
APOLOGISING FOR MISTAKES THE Daily Mirror, Saturday 10 July 2004 AMERICAN WAY Jacob Ecclestone
NEW CODE FOR BROADCASTERS AFTER England’s disappointing display Fran O’Brien * in summer’s Euro 2004 and Greece’s subsequent victory, it’s a throwaway TRUST AND LIBEL LAW line one might hear from a frustrated Bruce Whitehead football fan down the pub. But surely not a comment one would expect to see printed in a national newspaper. Surely A QUESTION OF IDENTITY? not even a British tabloid could stoop so Patrick Trollope low in a bid to appeal to more xenophobic readers during troubled CLEANING UP THE ACT times. Bill Hagerty I’m sorry to have to disappoint. And the newspaper which, only a couple of months previously, had felt compelled to remove its editor for unforgivable inaccuracies, was responsible. (‘Stalemates’, Daily Mirror, 10 July 2004)
On this occasion, however, there was no hint of remorse from either the journalist in question or the new editor tasked with improving the publication’s tarnished reputation. When I together with many others expressed our dismay, the response was the same to all.
“Where’s your famous Greek sense of humour?”
E-mail from Derek McGovern to myself and others, 18 July 2004
When one female target of the Daily Mirror’s bile had the temerity to ask why her particular grievance hadn’t been addressed personally, she was told that there had been too many complaints
53 Journalism and Public Trust which couldn’t all be addressed Not to worry, I thought. If I wasn’t individually. happy with the handling of my complaint I could always refer the matter to the ‘independent’ Charter “Would you have done? When would you Commissioner, Sir Brian Cubbon. have had the time to shave?” Perhaps someone not directly bankrolled by the press might be in a E-mail from Derek McGovern to Olympia at Greek better position to challenge and criticise City video, 20 July 2004 journalistic output.
I wrote to Sir Brian, explaining that the Not to worry, I thought. There’s always PCC’s handling of my complaint might the ‘Fast, Free and Fair’ Press be in breach of the Race Relations Act Complaints Commission (PCC). Surely as it considered the offensive, hurtful they could be relied upon to encourage and damaging physical stereotyping of the Daily Mirror to behave more Greek women as humorous. His ethically. response?
I visited the PCC website for advice. I learned how the organisation was “I’m afraid I cannot help you. I do not constituted and how their Editor’s Code review the substantive decisions of the was formulated. And I began to wonder Commission. I am satisfied that the how this self-regulatory body, funded by Commission fully considered your complaint, the newspapers themselves, could which was seen by all the members of the possibly be in a position to act in the Commission”. best interests of the public. Letter to me, Wednesday 1 September 2004 I discovered the ‘Discrimination’ clause of the PCC Editor’s Code conveniently only protected individuals. As the Daily In other words, I’m an independent Mirror wasn’t deriding anyone in token and, even if the PCC’s actions particular - just every single Greek and, were unlawful, I have the power to do by extension, southern European nothing other than fob you off. Oh and, women on the planet - I wouldn’t get by the way, they’re all guilty... anywhere with that. Not to worry, I thought. If I wanted to Not to worry, I thought. I could com- suggest changes to the Editor’s Code to plain under the ‘Accuracy’ clause. After ensure the public was better served I all, surely no self-respecting woman of could always refer the matter to Ian any race (let alone 2 out of 5 Greeks) Beale, Secretary of The Code of Practice would go out with a sad little man who Committee. The man who helps set the had to do down others in print to make standards. The man who can help himself feel better. strengthen people’s trust in journalism.
The PCC, at no cost to me and in a I wrote to Ian, explaining that, at matter of weeks, lived up to two of its present, it seemed unfair that minorities famous F’s by concluding that no were unable to complain to the PCC on breach of the Editor’s Code had taken the grounds of discrimination. place. As my experiences had proved, the ‘Accuracy’ clause provided people with “The comment was intended to be a inadequate protection. humorous remark rather than a descriptive statement of fact”. I suggested that beefing up the Code to reflect the law, in terms of both the Letter to me, Monday 16 August 2004 Race Relations and the Public Order Act, would send a powerful message to editors who did, after all, have a pivotal In other words, we’re prepared to let the role to play in improving community press get away with insulting certain relations in this country. minority groups so long as we think it’s funny... His response? No can do.
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APOLOGISING “...to change the Code to prevent comment of the sort you specifically mention would FOR MISTAKES effectively prevent all light-hearted THE AMERICAN WAY comment, which would be against the tradition of the British press and an encroachment on freedom of speech.” Jacob Ecclestone Freelance, NUJ Ethics Council member E-mail to me, Tuesday 5 October 2004
In other words, to maintain the JOURNALISTS are not much given to ‘tradition’ of the British press, Greek introspection about the quality and women (and others) had to put up with accuracy of their work. They rarely being treated in an uncivilized way. admit to getting things wrong, and when they do there is a tendency to make And if the PCC is happy to allow excuses. Straightforward apologies are newspapers to get away with this sort of rare. British and Irish journalists stuff, what message does that send to should therefore sit up and take notice xenophobic readers? when two of America’s most prestigious
newspapers publicly own up to serious Not to worry, I thought. If I wanted shortcomings. justice I could always engage valuable police resources. After all, they’re paid for by the public, not the press. My On 26 May this year, The New York complaint has been registered at the Times published a contrite admission crime desk of Enfield police and is now that in the months leading up to the in the hands of the Crown Prosecution invasion of Iraq it had fallen “for Service. misinformation” about weapons of mass destruction. Four days’ later, the My experiences might allow one, paper’s internal ombudsman, Daniel regrettably, to draw and express the Okrent, published a long and detailed following conclusions: critique of editorial failures, concluding • 2 out of 5 tabloid journalists are that those failures “were not individual racist. but institutional.” • 2 out of 5 members of the PCC are conducting a whitewash. On 12 August The Washington Post
published its own mea culpa, admitting I suspect, however, that no one would find this very funny. Unless there are that it had underplayed stories which fundamental changes to the way the called into question White House claims PCC is constituted and funded, how its that Saddam Hussein had an arsenal of Editor’s Code is written and regulated, WMD. The paper’s Pentagon reporter, such offensive statistics, whether Thomas Ricks, wrote: “Administration accurate or not, will continue. assertions were on the front page. Things that challenged the admin-
He went on: “There was an attitude among editors: Look, we’re going to war, why do we even worry about all this contrary stuff?”
The Post’s executive editor, Leonard Downie, wrote: “We were so focused on trying to figure out what the administration was doing that we were not giving the same play to people who said it wouldn’t be a good idea to go to war and were questioning the administration’s rationale. Across the
55 Journalism and Public Trust country, the voices raising questions In one particularly telling part of his about the war were lonely ones. We analysis of how The New York Times didn’t pay enough attention to the had failed its readers, the ombudsman minority.” or ‘public editor’, Daniel Okrent wrote: “The Times’s flawed journalism Bob Woodward, who – as a young continued in the weeks after the war reporter – played a crucial part in began, when writers might have broken exposing and eventually bringing down free from the cloaked government President Nixon 30 years ago, also sources who had insinuated themselves owned up publicly to failure. In his and their agendas into the pre-war present role as The Washington Post’s coverage. I use ‘journalism’ rather than assistant managing editor, Woodward ‘reporting’ because reporters do not put conceded: “We did our job, but we didn’t stories into the newspaper. Editors do enough, and I blame myself mightily make assignments, accept articles for for not pushing harder.” He went on: publication, pass them through various “We should have warned readers we had editing hands, place them on a information that the basis for [the war] schedule, determine where they will was shakier than was widely believed. appear. Editors are also obliged to Those are exactly the kind of statements assign follow-up pieces when the facts that should be published on the front remain mired in partisan quicksand.” page.” To those brought up on the arrogance of Commenting on The New York Times’s British newspapers, these examples of exercise in self-criticism, Greg Mitchell self-examination and self-criticism have wrote in the magazine Editor and an almost revolutionary appeal. How Publisher: “While it does not, in some marvellous to have newspapers that ways, go far enough, and is buried on admit their shortcomings and apologise page A10, this low-key but scathing to their readers. self-rebuke is nothing less than a primer on how not to do journalism, Before getting too carried away, particularly if you are an enormously however, we should perhaps spare a influential newspaper with a costly moment for the bigger picture. invasion of another nation at stake.” Robert Parry, a respected American Mitchell quotes a particularly honest journalist who helped to expose the confession by The New York Times that: Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s, has “Editors at several levels who should commented that although the have been challenging reporters and confessions of The New York Times and pressing for more scepticism were The Washington Post were welcome as a perhaps too intent on rushing scoops way of correcting errors and ensuring into the paper. Accounts of Iraqi higher standards for dealing with the defectors were not always weighed issue of WMD, “the failure to address against their strong desire to have the larger issue of pro-conservative tilt Saddam Hussein ousted. Articles based will almost surely mean a continuation on dire claims about Iraq tended to get of the imbalance when other stories prominent display, while follow-up arise in the future. In the real-life world articles that called the original one into of professional journalism, reporters question were sometimes buried. In and editors will continue to know some cases there was no follow-up at intuitively which standards – lax or all.” strict – are most likely to protect their pay-checks.” Welcoming the The Times’s admission that when it finally gave “full voice” to That, I believe, is the nub of the issue the sceptics, the challenge was only for journalism in Britain as well as reported on page A 10 when “it might America: how can we overcome the well have belonged on page A1”, Mitchell inbuilt bias? tartly remarks “that the same could be said of their [article] today, which also
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NEW CODE FOR adults must bear some responsibility for what they and their family choose to BROADCASTERS watch and listen to. Broadcasters want the Code to explicitly acknowledge that. Fran O’Brien The broadcasters are concerned too that the more prescriptive Ofcom is in the Manager, Programmes policy, Content Code the less room there is for and Standards, Ofcom; Former NUJ broadcasters to differentiate their Mother of Chapel services.
In setting the Code the Act requires AS I write this article I am breaking off Ofcom to consider - if we think it’s from reading some 900 replies to our relevant - that standards for harm and public consultation on Ofcom’s pro- offence and fairness and privacy are set posed Broadcasting Code – the new and enforced in a way which “best Code that will be published next year. guarantees an appropriate level of It will set standards for programmes on freedom of expression.” radio and television services licensed by Ofcom as well as S4C and the BBC Freedom of expression is particularly (with some exceptions). important in journalism (but also applies to many other areas of We have proposed merging six legacy broadcasting) and so we have put it in codes into one, which will be some 32 the proposed Introduction. pages long. There are ten sections based largely on ‘standards objectives’ set out The opening paragraphs read: in the 2003 Communication Act (the Act) - everything from a section on harm 1. Freedom of expression is an essential and offence to due accuracy in news human right. It is the right to hold and due impartiality in programmes. opinions, to receive information and ideas and to impart them. Every section contains principles which 2. Broadcasting and freedom of express high level aims, followed by expression are intrinsically linked. rules. We have also put in some The one is the life blood of the other. meanings of words to aid under- Nowhere can that tension between standing. the right to freedom of expression and its restriction be more acute than Break the rules and a broadcaster risks in drawing up a Code which seeks to a viewer or listener complaint to Ofcom regulate broadcasting. which, if upheld, can lead to publication 3. All regulation in the proposed Code in the Ofcom complaints bulletin and, must be prescribed by law and in the most serious of cases, fines, necessary in a democratic society. and/or (with the exception of the BBC Unnecessary regulation should not and S4C) the revocation of licenses. be in this Code. Rules cannot be made at the whim of a regulator. Almost all of the responses support our 4. Regulation should be transparent, decision to create one code which is accountable, proportionate, simpler and easy to read. Similarly the consistent and targeted only at cases majority understand the importance of where action is needed. That is a protecting children and ensuring harm requirement of the Act but it is also doesn’t occur. However, where they part of the test Ofcom has to apply in differ is how to achieve these goals while restricting freedom of expression. ensuring that programmes and programming are as challenging an But Ofcom must balance this essential innovative as possible. As you would right with what the law also says about guess there’s a very wide range of views. ‘protecting’ the public (particularly children). On this, the responses are Broadcasters – as a group – are con- split. Broadcasters are concerned that cerned to protect their right to freedom Ofcom may have gone too far in of expression. In general they argue that protecting the audience and, despite the
57 Journalism and Public Trust code’s intention outlined in the • who decides what generally accepted Introduction, it hasn’t put enough standards are; emphasis on freedom of expression. • if people want to see explicit sex This could result, broadcasters argue, they can go to licensed sex shops; in self-censorship or a ‘chilling effect’ on • and – (and to a journalist this is the cutting edge and challenging pro- rub) – there is too much freedom of grammes. Meanwhile many other expression already. respondents say we have not been restrictive enough. What these individuals cannot know, without reading the full consultation There are a multitude of individual document, is that the proposed Code is points but, in terms of journalism, rooted in the Act and the 1996 broadcasters’ concerns centre around: Broadcasting Act. ‘Taste and decency’ • whether we are going too far in as a concept has been consigned to trying to protect the under eighteens media history. Parliament has decided involved in court cases; that the test must be one of ‘adequate • how far an under eighteen has the protection’ provided against the right to give consent for their own inclusion of ‘offensive and harmful participation in a programme if the material’ judged by ‘generally accepted consent runs counter to the wishes standards’. of the adult who has care of them; • whether broadcasters should be As to what ‘generally accepted transparent with viewers and standards’ are (GAS as one viewer listeners about payments made to decided to abbreviate them) – well, we criminals or their families or have started research, which we will associates (when justified by the publish, about such issues as the use of public interest); sexual imagery on screen, and offensive • whether there should be any rule in language on radio and television, but the code requiring broadcasters not importantly this research is looking at to put a victim’s life’s in danger; the impact of material according to the • how the complex rules regarding context in which it is transmitted. due impartiality should be framed to protect the broadcasters right to We have also commissioned further freedom of expression whilst research into what is acceptable in the fulfilling the legislative requirements soaps pre-Watershed in terms of sex, of the due impartiality; violence and language. This will all help • how should a person’s right to us inform our Code as well as our privacy be balanced against the decisions. right to gather (let alone broadcast) sounds and images? Web based guidance which can be regularly updated will support the Code Contrasted with the broadcasters’ and will utilise this research and more detailed responses are replies from the still to come. We will not build specific large numbers of private individuals guidance into the Code because who have written in having heard about society’s views change and can change the proposed Code from viewer and very quickly. listener groups. Many of them may not have read the full consultation For instance, following the Morecambe document but they have a short list of Bay tragedy sensitivity towards the way things that they feel passionately about the British Chinese community were and which have impelled them to write: described was very high and will now probably remain so. That is a generally • fundamentally there is too much accepted standard that has emerged sex, violence and bad language on fully-fledged as a result of one high television; profile tragedy. • the watershed does not work; • why replace the concept of taste and Then, of course, there is the deeply felt decency with harm and offence; concern about the broadcasting of explicit sexual material – R18s as they
58 Journalism and Public Trust are classified by the British Board of taken by news and current affairs Film Classification (BBFC). Had Ofcom editors and the journalists who work to chosen to ignore this subject in the them are amongst the most consultation it would have come up in professionally and morally difficult that any event - there are broadcasters who any broadcaster faces. The day-to-day want to supply it and viewers who want weighing up of the public’s right to to receive it. know against the risk of infringing privacy or causing harm and offence are In the consultation document Ofcom judged in the context of stories like the recommended that the prohibition on kidnap and murder of Ken Bigley and transmitting explicit sex should remain the mass murders at Beslan. unless it could be established that there are sufficient safeguards to protect News events like these are a salutary person under the age of eighteen and to reminder to those who are drafting the ensure that adults who do not wish to Code that the Code should assist see such material are adequately broadcast journalists make those protected from harm and offence. decisions and never hinder them.
Some viewers’ believe when it comes to
The next letter on my pile, from someone who has read the consultation document, expresses this: “you do not mention the reference in paragraph 2 of article 10 [freedom of expression] the conditions [that mean freedom of expression can be restricted] ‘for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals.’ The code should recognise the fact that television is essential a home entertainment system and information service and should not be used for purposes inappropriate to the home and family environment.”
Sex, violence, bad language and the possible effects on society and the young are the high profile areas that concern viewers and listeners. It is obvious to them that the broadcasters’ freedom of expression must be curtailed in these areas.
There are very few comments, except from professionals, on journalism and the Code. Yet, when the redrafting prompted by the many responses ends, it must be the case that supporting broadcast journalism through a firm expression of the importance of freedom of expression will still be one of the pillars of the new Code. Ofcom will endeavour to keep restrictions on journalists to a necessary minimum. The decisions
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TRUST AND LIBEL LAW At first the broadsheets were very interested. A Sunday paper wanted more details, so I got them. Names, Bruce Whitehead dates, an internal BAT email asking a London-based journalist; writing and member of staff - whose previous job broadcasting about corporate and was Director-General of the DTI’s Export Promotion Department - to find government malpractice out how the DTI’s investigation of the tobacco giant would proceed.
READERS and listeners trust The piece was ready to go when the journalists according to the truth of news editor got cold feet. How could we their stories. Despite the frequent listing prove any wrong doing? If we made of journalists at the bottom of the table these claims, might BAT sue us for of professional esteem, they are hugely libel? The paper chickened out and I effective in bringing wrongdoing to went to The Guardian’s special public attention. That they have been investigations department, whose own able to do so, and win public trust is no work had led to the DTI investigation thanks to our draconian and ill-drafted into BAT. libel law - one of the most restrictive in the world. At first the section was excited. In The Guardian’s canteen, a journalist sifted Although libel is a civil offence, the through my evidence and was burden of proof is that of criminal incredulous at the detail and quality of courts – ie ‘beyond all reasonable the material I’d gathered: internal BAT doubt’, compared with the much less and DTI emails; revelations about ex- onerous ‘on the balance of probability’ DTI staff exchanging their inside required in the civil courts. knowledge for the tobacco shilling; names of ex-BAT staff and advisers This litigious climate led Amazon working for the DTI or government- recently to remove a book about George funded trade organisations. The Bush from sale here, because its reporter excitedly gathered my evidence lawyers saw a potential complaint being and promised to post it back to me. brought by the Bush family in Britain. The volume is still on sale in the US. A week later The Guardian announced they wouldn’t be running the story The other problem is that the libel because there wasn’t enough evidence plaintiff (usually some dodgy business of wrongdoing. The fact was, none of person or politician) can demand that this deplorable unethical conduct was the defendant (usually a journalist or actually illegal, despite it flying in the newspaper) prove that the allegation is face of civil service rules on conflicts of true. There’s no such obligation on the interest. But surely that was the whole plaintiff to show that the allegation is point? The fact that it WASN’T illegal? NOT true. The chairman of the Commons Health Last year I discovered how difficult it is Select Committee, David Hinchliffe, said to convince newspaper editors and their any connection between serving and lawyers to challenge the libel laws in the former civil servants working on the DTI public interest. I had uncovered a story investigation into BAT was very that former Department of Trade and worrying. Deborah Arnott, director of Industry (DTI) export department Action on Smoking and Health, said officials were now working for BAT, there was a clear conflict of interest advising them how to defend against the when DTI staff were employed DTI’s smuggling investigation. Also, specifically to help BAT defend itself senior executives from BAT had been against a smuggling investigation. seconded to work at the DTI, even whilst the investigation was underway. None of this seemed to make any difference to the cowed broadsheet press. In turn, news editors each took a
60 Journalism and Public Trust keen interest in the story, only to turn it I later discovered ITN had dropped a down, unable to explain why a ‘great similar previous report by a colleague story’ had suddenly become ‘not for us minutes before it was due on air, for no I’m afraid.’ apparent reason. Then George Monbiot reported in The Journalist that ITN had I can only assume that the papers’ a contract to make corporate videos for lawyers had vetoed the article out of a Shell, and it all began to make sense. fear that they would be unable to prove Just over a year later Ken Saro Wiwa any wrongdoing. Libel damages are still was executed, resulting in Nigeria’s extortionate, and newspapers were expulsion from the Commonwealth. unable to take such a financial gamble. (Marcel Berlins’ ideas for reforming libel Against this background of repressive law and damages by establishing a and stifling regulation, I believe libel law Defamation Authority are sensible.) should be amended to lower the standard of required proof. The onus But there have been many stories which could be shared between the two sides were run by editors even though they to prove their respective cases, without might not have been true, because it reducing the necessary protection was overwhelmingly in the public available to the wrongly accused. Only interest that the information be aired. then will journalism be able to build on One example is the Albert Reynolds vs. the public’s fragile trust. The public Sunday Times case, where an appeal interest is not served by sewing up the judge said that a newspaper could lips of the media and burdening them publish an allegation which it couldn’t with unreasonable and restrictive laws prove if there was a public interest better suited to a police state. defence. Unfortunately the courts are not always consistent and media As it turned out, The Guardian was able lawyers are often too lazy to keep up to run the story this autumn, but only with the intricacies of such legal rules. after the DTI investigation into BAT had run into the buffers. Luckily Paul Foot ran my story in Private Eye. He correctly saw that the But there is still a chance that BAT legality of what they were doing was could sue, and the information – that irrelevant; it was deplorable and BAT had persuaded the government to dishonest for businesses and water-down the investigation into government departments to act in such smuggling – might not have reached the corrupt manner, and showed clear public. What price trust then? evidence of a conflict of interest. If there was a chance that the people involved
This wasn’t the first time I’d seen a large media organisation cowed by libel law. At ITN, I obtained exclusive footage of burned murder victims in Nigeria’s Ogoni tribal region, along with testimony that Shell had ordered the killings as a reprisal for peaceful demonstrations which had disrupted oil production. I obtained the last TV interview Ken Saro Wiwa, the Nigerian human rights activist, who confirmed the allegations. I submitted a script but this was rejected on the grounds that ‘Shell might sue us’. British libel law was again stifling journalism.
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A QUESTION OF IDENTITY? the public, over an above healthy scepticism. Should we be looking at strengthening standards by lobbying Patrick Trollope government to give clear guidelines as to Southport Reporter & Mersey Reporter who can and who can’t carry press cards? There could be big drawbacks if these were introduced.
In this country we have always prided There may be stultification of new ourselves on our world-leading reporting developments within the media, styles and the lack of government including the emergence of Internet regulation, with ourselves setting the based coverage. rules. Over the years however the media has become far more complex and the Legal controls are invariable inflexible public is becoming increasing and slow to respond to innovative bewildered and uncertain about whom moves. Also, there is the danger of it can rely upon. increased political interference. Already
this can be seen within the BBC. To I carry an NUJ press card, but what enforce one national card, I feel, could does it signify? The public does not endanger press freedom. seem to understand what it represents and unfortunately neither do some Is there a place for some sort of truly councils or other official bodies! independent regulatory body, to oversee
standards and to accredit genuine Sadly, anyone can make a press card journalists or are there pitfalls along and claim to be press, so the trust in this route too? our identity is lacking. If members of the public does not recognise the Could the NUJ perhaps team up with authenticity of our NUJ card, why other reputable organisations to should they trust what we say? promote legitimate press cards, and to
regulate behaviour of the holders in We are expected to reflect the views of order to restore the public’s trust, all parties, no matter how small or how without the necessity of outside big, impartially. It is one of the hardest intervention? things to do, but at least we should try.
It is exceedingly difficult when people In any case this seems to be an don’t trust you enough to give you all appropriate time to raise the profile of the information you need. Or if people the NUJ, outside the media - what it go out their way to prevent you stands for and evidence of its role in obtaining information. promoting and upholding professional
standards. The problem lies with the image of the media held by many of the general public, and lack of understanding about
Until we can show that we are impartial, we are unlikely to get comprehensive background to a story.
Here lies Catch 22. If we have more regulation imposed on us we might lose our ability to stay impartial. On the other hand, some of the other problems that we face might be resolved, but at what cost?
Who should control the press? As the media becomes ever more influential, it is frequently regarded with suspicion by
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CLEANING UP THE ACT started under the guidance of Stephen Dando, a member of the executive committee who has just been given the Bill Hagerty title of Director, BBC People. It is much Editor, British Journalism Review the same job as he had before when he was Director of Human Resources and Internal Communications, one of those
grand quasi-military BBC titles, like the IN THE interval between Lord Hutton’s legendary CPCOH (Controller of Paper report and Lord Butler’s, the BBC is Clips, Outer Hebrides). going to be put under heavy pressure from inside and out over its coverage of The BBC says of Mr Dando that “his news and its editorial procedures. With career has focused on change a charter renewal looming, it is vital management and people development that the corporation treads carefully: within large organisations”. So it is clear the dangers were given voice in the that, at this early stage at least, the Commons by such diverse persons as BBC takes the view that the task is one the Conservative leader, Michael which must be entrusted to a person Howard, who wanted it to be regulated with managerial, rather than editorial, by Ofcom, and the Labour backbencher experience. Sion Simon, who seemed to want the corporation to be privatised. Nevertheless, if Mr Dando’s inquiry ends
by proposing changes in working It may be too much to hope that the practice, the people who will have to put BBC will survive intact under the new them into operation are journalists. The charter, with its self-government, scope burden of day-to-day application of and licence fee all uncompromised. whatever new procedures are Politicians of many kinds are envious of introduced post-Hutton will fall on its special place in British society and researchers, reporters and editors. One its international status as a trustworthy aspect of the new BBC news approach broadcaster – particularly of news – and is described in this issue of the BJR by some of them see it in crass commercial Roger Harrabin, a Today programme terms as a world ‘brand’ that could be correspondent and an architect of converted into a source of vast private guidance drawn up to determine how profit. the BBC should report stories which
involve projections of risk to life and The price of a new charter which limb. maintains most, if not all, of the qualities that set the BBC apart from Work on the preparation of Harrabin’s other broadcasters, at home or abroad, document began before Hutton, but its is certain to be a strenuous effort from contents will certainly form part of the inside the corporation not only to clean corporation’s armoury of responses to up its act – especially where news is the criticisms of its news selection and concerned – but to be seen to be projection that have arisen in and cleaning it up. Whatever injustices the around Hutton’s report. The guidelines BBC’s governors, managers and offer journalists a series of suggestions journalists see in Hutton’s conclusions, by which they can judge how to handle they are in no shape to quibble with the stories such as an outbreak of disease report. The impossibility of resisting without exaggerating the dangers, Hutton was made obvious by the skating over scientific differences of resignations, whether willed or opinion, or unnecessarily alarming the involuntary, of Gavyn Davies, Greg public. They tackle the kind of news Dyke and Andrew Gilligan. The BBC is reporting and presentation problems going to have to take Hutton on the that many journalists lack the scientific chin, pick itself up, dust itself off, and education or knowledge to cope with by start, if not quite all over again, then at themselves. They may well discourage least from the position of admitting that irresponsible sensationalism. They are it has lessons to learn. eminently sensible.
Some kind of internal inquiry has been
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One of the motives for constructing them seems to have been to save the embarrassment of having to call in scientists and other experts to go on TV or radio to set straight an inaccurate record. So it would not be surprising if similar sets of guidelines were to appear, designed to keep reporters from misunderstanding other aspects of life and thus avoiding unwelcome complaints and denials from business men, football managers, theatrical impresarios, show-business celebrities – from real stars to 15-minute famers – and even politicians.
The danger here is that however valuable and enlightening these guidelines proved, their effect would often be to overburden busy journalists to the extent that their work would slow down to a stop. Stories which failed immediately to satisfy some aspect of the ‘code’ would never be broadcast because time would simply run out.
So the challenges facing the BBC at this most testing time are to repair the demoralisation of its journalists caused by the Dr David Kelly affair; to set sane new or revised working methods obvious to the viewer and listener as well as to staff; and to achieve that without making it impossible for stories, even potentially embarrassing ones, to be given an airing. If the BBC can succeed in this, it will have earned the right to get on with its job of being the greatest public service broadcaster in the world.
That’s how most members of the public still see it. Their general contempt, in varying degrees, for the press remains. Restoring credibility and respect is by no means the BBC’s problem alone. The entire news media are suspect. The drinks in the Last Chance Saloon have long since been swigged. The glasses are empty. It is closing time and the bill has to be paid.
This editorial first appeared in British Journalism Review, Vol. 15, No.1, 2004.
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