British British Journalism Journalism British

@TheBJReview 2016 September

Review 3 www.bjr.org.uk @TheBJReview Review Journalism Review www.bjr.org.uk Volume 27 Number Volume 27 Number 27 Number Volume The factor 3

x September 2016

Reporting politics

■ Julia Langdon ■ James Hanning ■ Jemima Kiss http://bjr.sagepub.com British Journalism Review www.bjr.org.uk @TheBJReview VOL. 27 NO. 3 SEPTEMBER 2016

Editor Kim Fletcher

editorial board The views expressed are those of Chairman Bill Hagerty (Editorial board) the author(s) concerned and do not Chairman Stephen Claypole (Management) necessarily reflect those of the editor or Steven Barnett the editorial board. Sir Geoffrey Bindman Jessica Carsen The British Journalism Review is published four times a year in Chris Elliott March, June, September and Ivor Gaber December for bjr Publishing Ltd Margaret Hill by sage Publications Ltd (, Joy Johnson Thousand Oaks, CA, New Delhi, Julia Langdon Singapore, Washington, DC and Michael Leapman Melbourne). Robin Lustig Brenda Maddox subscriptions (4 issues) Sue Matthias Combined institution rate Julian Petley (print + electronic) Sarah Whitehead uk: £440; us: $814 Brian Winston Anthony Delano (France) Electronic-only and print-only subscriptions (Ireland) are available for institutions at a discounted rate. Note: VAT may be applicable at the Jemima Kiss (California) appropriate local rate. Treasurer Carolyn Cluskey Visit sagepublishing.com for more details Design consultant Brian Bass including individual rates, single-copy rates and pay per view. Abstracts, tables of contents and contents alerts are available online free Production Ranjika De Silva, of charge for all. Further details are available Tara Srinivasan, Liz Vercoe from SAGE Publications Ltd, 1 Oliver’s Yard, 55 City Road, London EC1Y 1SP, UK, tel. +44 (0)20 7324 8500, email subscriptions@ sagepub.co.uk, and in North America, SAGE Printer Page Bros Publications Inc, PO Box 5096, Thousand Oaks, Norwich uk CA 91320, USA. ©bjr publishing ltd 2016 ISSN (printed version) 0956-4748 ISSN (online version) 1741-2668 @TheBJReview Contents

Editorial A question of trust 3 Not finally Julia Langdon dissects referendum coverage 5 Paul Donovan examines migrants and refugees 9 Michael White asks for an apology 11 James Hanning looks at the May way 14 Tom Leonard watches a US media love in 16

What the papers said: a referendum special 19 Jemima Kiss Facebook plans world domination 24 Matt Rogerson The threat to our liberties 29 Steven Barnett Why the BBC is still in danger 37 Colin Freeman The death of the foreign correspondent 43 Henry Sands A dirty election in Africa 48 Paul Lashmar Why it is good to hoard 53 Tim Luckhurst When mighty Yorkshire roared 59 book reviews: Jon Swain explains why journalists seek danger 67 Maggie Brown seeks protection for 69 Paul Routledge admires a king of spin 71 Isabella Cipirska hones her research skills 73 Cal McCrystal pays tribute to a great story-teller 75 Michael Leapman recalls an early John Osborne 78

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The Drum Award 35 Ten years ago The way we were 36 Quotes of the Quarter 47 Twitterwatch 66 The Wheeler Award 80 editorial British Journalism Review Te l l t h e t r ut h

Newspaper editors tend to campaign only on issues they believe they can win, so let us admire the boldness of those who came out so eagerly for . They were clearly as surprised as the government by the result – and just as clueless about next steps. But in an age when social media dominate, we should not begrudge old hands an opportunity to claim they’ve still got it: “So much for the waning power of the print media,” said editor, Tony Gallagher. Was this really a newsprint triumph? Not if we examine the figures. Britain’s daily that claim that their hard copies are seen by some 19 million readers each day. The titles that campaigned to leave reach 10 million of those, not many more than the rivals that took a neutral or remain position. Some 33.5 million UK citizens turned out, 17.4 million of whom voted to leave, 16.1 million to remain. So newspapers almost balanced each other out and each side reached, at best, less than a third of those who voted. On that basis, we do not even have to address that endlessly debated question: do papers lead or follow their readers? Are all those elderly voters, accused by remainers of destroying the future for the young, reading their papers to be told what to think, or to find support for their views? What is not in doubt is that newspapers influenced the tone of the debate, spurring politicians to an increasingly toxic battle. In that environment, broadcasters worked hard to demonstrate “balance”. Several commentators observed that they gave equal airtime to economists from each side, though in the world outside the studio, economic “experts” and institutions that favoured remain far outnumbered leavers. So the papers stirred things up? Isn’t that a good thing these days, when we are told there is not enough interest in politics? They can hardly be accused of self-interest, for the received wisdom – if any of that remains in politics or economics – is that the UK advertising market will plunge 3

©Fletcher; DOI: 10.1177/0956474816668787; [2016/9] 27:3; 3-4; http://bjr.sagepub.com 4 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 took different sides, as did Lord Rothermere’s workmalign wasRupertproprietors:by this idea Murdoch’s further, hastening the demise the of industry. Nor do we buy the without the weapons that might save them. save might that war weapons a the fighting are without they trust, abandon facts, with loose and fast play objectivity, subjectedtochecking, by sources we cantrust. withwrittenmaterialis that to weturn internet,aroundthe flying stuff in the tradejournalism of have clung to a reassuring thought: with so much sources information of rising to challenge our publishers, those who believe ultimatelyfactauthority. itsloses decade,manypastwithnewsothe In reported the implications for terrorism open borders).of (though it rejected the InFact claim that Ipso said Middlefromwerefactthein”East;inpressregulatorusthe let Europe – “migrants” The it pictured InFact. across its front group page under the headline pro-Europe “We’re from the from titles corrected headlines to do with immigration and crime after complaints for some time largely disappeared in the build-up to the referendum. SeveralTraditional distinctions between news and comment that havethissummer, beensubverting campaignblurring intothelanguagecrude propaganda. of ordinary, theUnitedKingdom. forgottenfolkof the for speakchauffeurs, by capital the around ferried and readers their of those than greater times many salaries by supported editors, our that proposition hilarious a is it and too, comedy Welike sales? for good is it country,the for if good is whetherthis cares Who destruction. own their story.journalists News exciting are more conditioned a to for wish make wouldfor it the basisextraordinary, the on even Brexit, it for if threatens Our newspapers need to remember they that.lose thoseIf boundaries, of foundations on build to fails that paper any for matters, really This But there is a more serious charge, which is that our papers crossed a line Rather,we mightadmit that every truejournalistic heartbeatlittle a The Sun’s headline “Queen backs Brexit” was significantly misleading al Mail Daily

Daily Mail and and ditd ht the that admitted had inaccurately Mail on Sunday @ Sun TheBJReview and Times KF .

@TheBJReview Not finally… Subjective views on matters journalistic

It’s the media, stupid

It should have been obvious to What he got so tragically wrong, everyone, not least the last prime however, not least in terms of his own minister, that the influence of the future, was his apparent belief that media was going to be crucial to the the power of the press in its widest outcome of his reckless decision to sense would operate for his benefit and promise a referendum on Europe. It in the interest of the official case to was always clear that the press was maintain the status quo, and thus the going to have a big part to play and, UK’s continuing role in Europe. He indeed, only gave the just didn’t see how the world in which undertaking to offer a vote because he we work has changed. Nor did he was driven to it by the public fuss appreciate how the concerted personal about Europe, which has itself been commitment of Messrs Barclay, widely exacerbated by the press for Murdoch, Desmond and Dacre to years. frustrate his primary purpose would The antipathy to the EU within rebound upon him. Well, as they say in his own party and an understandable , “he kens noo”. anxiety about the impact of Ukip on Nobody saw, or could have the Conservative vote has been a story predicted, the extraordinary sequence for sections of the media for years, not of political events that were to follow least because of those influential Cameron’s resignation as prime proprietors and editors – you know minister: the ferment in the who they are – who share the doubts Conservative Party, the suicidal chaos about the supposed advantages of of the Labour Party and the apparent membership and simultaneously implosion of Ukip. There was no recognise the populist appeal of government, there was no meaningful publicising such views. By opposition, the economy was acknowledging that problem so threatened with freefall and there was publicly in holding out the prospect a full-scale constitutional crisis. One of a plebiscite, Cameron was cynically minister observed that it would take hoping that the attendant publicity Hilary Mantel to do literary justice to would greatly enhance his chances of the madness of midsummer. It was winning the upcoming election. As so certainly a heady time for journalism, it proved. like no other any of us have known in 5

©Langdon; DOI: 10.1177/0956474816668794; [2016/9] 27:3; 5-9; http://bjr.sagepub.com 6 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 did new media. the developments.in some of So too broadcasters played a significant part our lifetime, and both newspapers and respecting journalist to be in the right that itwas impossible forany self- Competing press conferences meant quite soon was beyond bizarre. history somethe time party out of of fratricide thatkind seems likely to writethe in engaged Labour while wasthe stage strewnwith bodies. emerged in Wagnerian triumph and Conservative opera set before May was just the scenery on the even a candidate. course, And that, of next prime minister, the next he is not minute is the inevitable The Johnson and Gove Show: one “sext”, were published in the papers; not his wife, what we now call a amorous ambitions towards a woman from his thecontestjustbefore Crabb, who managed to stand down Conservative leadership, Stephen Christian candidate for the difficult woman” ; the “thatnot bloody least those of about all his colleagues shortcomings, studio with the microphone still live Ken Clarke gossiping in a television committed political suicide in print; as prime minister had she not incredible – the runner-up to succeed experience who was – it still seems politician with five minutes’ interview with , a Sylvester’s Rachel it; leaked who sent in error to an unnamed stranger to so mysteriously was whose personal “Lady Macbeth” email the The cabinet minister’s wife (aka (aka wife minister’s cabinet The That these events should occur occur should events these That columnist Sarah Vine) Times

hog idwhr,tetoln fthrough a window here, the trolling of the Conservatives.that of A brick uglycontest, asbrutalbutmore than set in train another leadership to mock her irrelevance. Yet she had the camera waswas there as merely if testimonial to her political courage. It rated attraction, will serve as a tragic press having fled to a more highly to thea solitary camera, the rest of leadership bid against Jeremy Corbyn Angela Eagle launching her ill-fated place at therighttime. of The image than the thetotal membership of the Labour Party, a greater number supporters of signed upasregistered two days in July, 140,000 people the Forum. the occupation In of of streets – a contemporary equivalent populism. Power is moving on to the social media is fuelling a resurgent observed by previous generations and bow akneetothepoliticalloyalties breaking up, the electorate refuses to once did, the political party system is no longer commands the respect it and the last Rome. days of Parliament parallel here between the UK and turbulent summer that there is a with pertinently observed in an interview Rome, ancient of fall the on expert three books about Cicero and an in most people’s minds. funeral cortege was still a live image young woman MP, Jo Cox, whose a fine andtragic admirable murder of still unimaginable, the the memory of restlessness on the streets and always, politicians set against a public about our the personal safety of against the orthodoxy, a new anxiety those MPs who dared to speak out oetHri,teato fof author the Harris, Robert during this troubled the country’s leading psephologists the apologetic explanations from all entertainment value was provided by called Europe House. The office and, ironically enough, is now headquarters Conservative of central atSquare what was oncethe general election. It was held in Smith shortly after his triumph at the 2015 staged by Nuffield College, Oxford, present at an entertaining evening hehadbeen the trouble aheadif referendum card three years ago. casually and carelessly played that clearly did not consider when he so terrifying implications that Cameron democracy. This is a concept with that provide the bulwark to our losing the safeguardsis in danger of Commons – thethe country House of contest that will be decided outside an oppositionre-election leader in of a as seems likely with the probable endorsed by a parliamentary vote, and referendum result that has not been has been by granting authority to a is moved outside parliament – as it alarmingly, hearguedthat oncepower politicians,” Harris said. Even more slipped beyond thecontrol of Corbyn. populist appealof Labour, against the progressive of left,theremains the traditional who came from nowhere to represent the unknown Owenof Smith, the man them the expectedchallenge to see off Conservative Party, amajorityof media. The most tellingsession, were,course, ablyof assisted by the the election so wrong – in which they of theresult toget they hadmanaged about how, severally and collectively, But he would perhaps have seen “You sense the modern world has society, that parliament and have-nots in an increasingly divided been betrayed, that they were the their having the electorateswath of of that was there asenseamonghuge had already built up a year ago meant mood. The political disaffection that significantly, the public a reflection of his eurosceptic critics but, much more “bastards”, as once called was not now just some hard-line politicians a number on the of part of to identify was that this intransigence per cent correct but what they failed Party. specifically within the Conservative sufficient to placate its opponents, EU was possible that would be the UK’sterms of membership the of doubt that no renegotiation the of Kellner Peter there: David Butler, Vernon Bogdanor, academics present – and they were all single the distinguished one of Cameron was then committed. Not a referendum on Europe to which Conservatives’ overall majority for the about the implications the of however, was the analysis that followed having defiantly struck out from and GeordieGreig’s sole exception in the Murdoch camp relished the task – populist case in its support. They all agenda for Brexit to publish the newspapers whose proprietors had an date was settled, was for those was needed then, once the referendum labelledpackage “Europe”. Allthat bundled up and explained in one cross resentment and anger could all be not hear them and that all their politicians didnotlistenandcould The pollsters were, for once, 100 et al – had the slightest The Times Mail on Sunday Mail on being the

7 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 8 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 opinion successfully was through the DMGMedia. of editor-in-chief Paul Dacreunder as the tutelage of warning of thewarning implications Brexit, of of the assembled international luminaries fear: the repercussions an out vote, of certainly spelledoutall thepoliticsof the written press was recording and circumspect but still reported what broadcasters were perhaps more escalated by the press. The immigration, let alone a problem. reportedly a location without any cited as the reason and yet is leave vote in Wales,with immigration Britain, which thehighest recorded EU development aid than any other in Wales, a town that has received more somewhere like Merthyr Tydfil in Grimesthorpe in Yorkshire, and population scorns, for example, in low-paid jobs that the indigenous workers have been recruited for was true both in areas where foreign indicated only too potently. And this crime after the Brexit vote result reported hateescalation in cases of impact was considerable as the make lovely jam”. The negative boy from killer shark” or “Foreigners headlines such as “Immigrant saves subsequently lamentedinapiece six months and, as Nish Kumar newspaper every five days for nearly subject. That is one story in each 34 front-page articles each on this Mai onJunethe referendum 23the that from January1untiltheday of immigration. One analysis revealed scare storiespublication about of l andthe An obvious way to whip up public This was clearly an issue that was was that issue an clearly was This : “There were no published Daily patterns in a way that the press has kaleidoscope thrown into jagged new weeks saw all the pieces in the Republican challenger. The ensuing DonaldTrump asthe implications of Brexit, but in the US with the Europe with theimplications of unthinkable occurred: not just in by June 24, at home and abroad. The phrase. The world had changed already perhaps, is not an inappropriate world as we knew it. And that, what amounted to the the end of the Queen’s private commentsabout journalist, was responsible for leaking heart that clearly still beats as a the Lord Chancellorrobes over of a man who once wore the distinguished lose, reveals that Michael Gove, the correctly that he has nothing left to (remember him?) recognising Honour.Companion of and making a cronies, honouring his wife’s stylist, mocked for packing the Lords with record when he resigns and then happened. Cameron is lauded for his so muchunlikelihood that has of the laughablesurprising because of firmament. And it is scarcely our spinningthe political reporting of isarisiblethere qualitytomuch of portrayed asajoke secretary. asforeign anticipated as prime minister is now Foreign Office. Thus the man they all doubting his diplomatic skills at the commentators fall over themselves in his unexpected resurrection, Yet when within the week he secures man, his political prospects in ruins. front andthenheisyesterday’s page, as PM” is a certainty one day on every struggled to record accurately. “Boris Events have moved so fast that h rtri omrpltcleio fthe politicaleditorof The writerisaformer to leave the EU, perhaps primarily on educate andinform? the those media other – to roles of of to rebut in economic terms, but what Theincreased. argumentwas difficult time an asylum front page ran, sales every dispiriting: was response The scare stories as it could get away with. running as many front page asylum a newspaper that seemed to be desk, when asked how he could join had justjoinedthe papers,” said a fellow journalist who “Lurid immigration front pages sell finger the Pointing and author of the mass media’sof growing Trump,of this “is actually a symptom Zeynep Tufekci in an essay on the rise was argued by the American academic Strictly ComeDancing chancellor, , is to compete on the tape. And another shadow the Left – although we have all heard of integrity political the versus Party takes”, the about Labour the death of to deny, saying, that’s “If what it chancellor, John McDonnell, continues Europe to shortages in vital areas and a rapidly be dire for a country with skill it has sown. The consequences could immigration, Britain has reaped what the need to reducethe premise of As a country that has just voted You couldn’t make it up. But as The Sun Mo Mowlam: The Biography . One shadow Daily Express . ©Donovan; DOI:10.1177/0956474816668794a; [2016/9]27:3;9-11;http://bjr.sagepub.com city h iso h dtra or fthe the. Shesitson editorialboard of h ulccncosesa euto the publicof consciousnessasaresult immigration has failed to register in living. Butthispositive sideof of every year to retain current standards migrantsignificant labour inflow of ageing population. It needs a with figures from the Office for for Office the from figures with migrants, by done been have years the jobs createdMany over of recent and hospitals and a lower deficit. revenues, more funding for schools growth means more jobs, higher tax annual GDP by 0.5 per cent. This 250,000 a yearnet migration of boosts government’s own figures show that story about the benefits. The the blame for failing to tell a positive covered inthemedia. the way in which the subject has been question. Itsays littleforourhistory. becoming the answer to a pub quiz themexpressedthehopeof of unambitious about their legacy. One have just left and they are anything goes. The lasttwo reporters longer remains the case. Now, or report, she suggested, but that no about what was acceptable to discuss organisations were the gatekeepers the past, journalists in mass media what islimits acceptable of to say”. In weakness, especially in controlling the oiiin hudtk oeo of some take should Politicians and The Sunday Telegraph Sunday The Julia Langdon Julia BJR.

9 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 10 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 accounted for by non-UK citizens. So for the year to August 2015 was employmentthree-quarters growth of National Statistics showing that housing provision. used for public services, including migrant workforce should have been country. Revenues from generated the resentment the in many areas of policy to keep wages down. This bred that migration effectively became a enforce minimum standards meant workforce. The failure to set and come inandundercut theindigenous work, so migrantof workers could pay,standards of terms or conditions control. There were no minimum early this century years with of little accession countriesintotheUKin allowed from theEU migrants positive. Successive governments than £14billion to the economy. 2011, students had contributed more Innovation andSkills foundthat since the Department for Business, students coming to study. A study for recent yearspopulation has of been finances between 2000and2011. £20billioncontribution to UK of found that EU migrants made a net study by University College London than they take out in benefits. A contribute 64 per cent more in taxes the Immigrants, Welfare migrants of reliant. more become would they when the majority leave before they get older, they consume in public services, and contributing more tax revenue than driven. migrant largely was vote, the economic boom, before the Brexit And a large part of the migrant And a large part of According to the Joint Council for Migrants tend to be younger, Let’s not claim that everything is our health, education and social revenues, diversity, contributions to balancing good news about net tax equals criminal.Thereislittle subliminal message that migrant on the front page, sending a that a migrant had committed a crime So many tabloid papers put the fact present a migration.negative image of media, determined as it seems to won’t have our found in much of has surely been positive, a view you on how many can be stopped. migrants migration is apparently to be judged numbers.reduction of Success on public discussion has been the public well. The starting point for any to sell copies has been to poison the drivenimmigration by amediatrying sentimentislower.anti-migrant come to the UK to live and work, the migrant workersmany of who low. Comparatively, in London, where migrant workersof in that town are party’s anti-migrant ticket, yet levels Ukip MP Douglas Carswell on his few actually live. Clacton elected the hostility to migrants in areas where were propped up by migrant labour. homes, hospitals and social services they lived in a town where the care the oldergroupwas yet migration, Eastbourne. many Thein concern of old and younggroup votersof in affairs editor, Mark Easton, spoke to a campaign, when the BBC’s home illustrated during the EU referendum immigrants.have anegative view of services. As a result, many readers Nevertheless, the overall effect The Conservative government has The a public result of debate on of reports seen also We’ve The disconnect was well water pistol when doing the absolute gun orthelatestcouncil” “press don’t a lawyer’smean at the point of apologise for misleading its readers? I When is it right for a newspaper to word hardest The The writercontributes to particularly at the the tabloid end of picture on migration. Newspapers, represent a balanced and informative media have to question our failure to thepress. to thesatisfactionof will be fewer migrants – presumably the Britisheconomy hasbombed there isnowork there because to work. If benefits. The reality is most come here toget camehere that migrants question led to a public perception theimmigration of misrepresentation our other media myths kicked in. The migrants to come to. be the jobs available in the UK for into recession, for then there will not will the economy decline plunges is if that target. The only way migration palpably anywhere toget failing near migration to the 10,000s, then unachievable cutting targets of not helped matters, setting recall a correction spectacularly Only once waiting in 50 years can I of equal prominence is cheerfully defied. Street’s sport andthedoctrineof minimum Fleet required is part of Those of us who Thosework of in the of one where is course, of That, and Tablet ©White; DOI:10.1177/0956474816668794b;[2016/9] 27:3;11-13;http://bjr.sagepub.com The Guardian, Independent, Tribune, Morning Star, on social justice issues. mere factual error, factual mere butwhen apaper lasted long. page one lead. I don’t think the editor same spot. It just happened to be the arms affair, it admitted as much in the North’s antics in the Iran-Contra mistake in reporting Colonel Oliver Reagan-era fitting that description. When the particularly unpleasantabyss. otherwise we will all be staring into a bottle, but a start has to be made, the racistthe genie already out of late tobemaking thesemoves, with but has pernicious consequences. It is hysterical view that may sell papers migrants, not the simple, lopsided positivetelling amore about story migrant racism. One way is to start resides in editors’ offices. racist incidents seen on our streets society. Some responsibility for the revealing a particularly ugly side of racism over recent years has blown off, lid that has been kept on anti-migrant lexicon foritscoverage. The wobbling part, adopting the anti-migrant Broadcast media have also played their following theEUvote toleave. migrant atmosphere that exploded market, have helpedbuildtheanti- Now we must that repel anti- What I mean here is not so much

New YorkNew Times Paul Donovan made a bad @Donno28 11 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 12 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 Don’t laugh, it does happen and intellectual or simply a political sense. persistently wrong in a moral, has got something badly, usually Even so, I was surprised that a paper the of been anadmirer sceptic for almost as long as I have selection, I have been a pro-remain Gove), you can already see from my time to real experts and to Michael requires broadcasters to give equal balancepernicious (which doctrine of nauseam). Not bound as I am by the ( Wednesday through the Channel tunnel next Times plans tocreateanEUarmy( theirnarratives own about “secret”of rival narratives florid as well as of in theirselectionandpresentationof and that newspapers were often biased months before the June 23 referendum questionable assertions during the remain and leave camps made some can probably all agree that both the now is the obvious one: Brexit. We stain persists. publish their smears. In Liverpool the Yorkshire police for forcing him to apologised while blaming South MacKenzie, editorin1989,sortof April this year. Even Kelvin blame for thevictims tragedy inof inquest jury officially cleared the 96 page one) in 2012, and after the for its sins in 2004, again (this time on this day. The paper finally apologised boycott on Merseyside, which lasts to stadium disaster in 1989 led to that theTruth”) Hillsborough football of the memory most recentobvious example of readers do remember. To take the The reason I pose the question question the pose I reason The ) or allowing 75 million Turks Sun’s Mail, Express reporting (“The Daily Mail , etc ad The . scared themselvesscared witless by actually skin was already boundhandandfoot. a theBrexit riceskin pudding off if brand. Remain couldn’t knock the obviously inferior to the paper’s own Remain’s “project fear” when it was so should complain so loudly about cancer, snooper’s charters) every day NHS mistakes, Europe, Corbyn and something (immigrants, terrorists, part on terrifying its readers about whose conspicuous success rests in Organs of opinion that haveOrgans of grown course we won’t expect apologies. poorer. they’re notright? Butwhat if It’s poorenough without voting itself has its EU grants made up somewhere. native Cornwall, which voted to leave, triumphantly proved right, that my happens and that they’re leave we must allhopeitnever wrong”? Now that we’ve voted to editorials admitting: “We were Express can we expect the wealth, security and influence? When slow, butunmistakable decay of tease) are forced to acknowledge a Dan (“Peruvian-born Dan”asIlike to sovereignty fetishists like Desperate even out tobewrong? What if EU membershipconstraints turns of Britain will thrive without the the Butwhole what conceit if that may take some time, others admitted. fall that much. Implementing Brexit admitted that immigration might not and the journalist Dan Hannam, MEP, “£350m a week for the NHS” slogan Ukip’s Nigel Farage disowned the was clearly Borisloser Johnson’s strategy) gallant the (being winning In thedays aftertheBrexiteers Dnthl orbet.O Don’t holdyour breath.Of , Sun and co to compose Telegraph , Mail , Fleet Street’s culture wars. When sideof isontheliberal here precedent blamedDacre ahyped release. press the Leveson, to evidence subsequent measles outbreak. Giving Wales the paper at the centre of Paxman apologised, so did a South vaccination controversy. Jeremy mechanism at work over the MMR its own role.of We saw the same officialdom with no acknowledgement leads the charge against incompetent it neatly its own anddoes a U-turn of cot death casesdiscovers itwas wrong against wicked women convicted in When a paper that leads the charge announcement” or even a “U-turn”. actually happens “a surprise dud prediction it prefers to call what a newspaper or broadcaster makes a wrong. Actually we have many. When responsibility for what our trade gets baleful reluctance to accept any it isnotyou orme. position to sue, as usual. Let us hope column, 22 May, 2013), ones in a weak admitted inhispro EU gratification” as Boris Johnson sloth, low skills easy and a culture of termism, inadequate management, collective failures (“Chronic short to find other scapegoats for our scapegoat brand leader, they will have and habit. Without the EU as a are unlikely to have heart a change of their own and wider society’s failures accustomed toscapegoatingothersfor The writerisabout toretire from Brexit campaigners dismissed Remain’s But the relevant apology-ducking Alas, we have a precedent for this Telegraph Mail’s The Guardian Paul

own readers. own many who were certainly not their sorry for ignoring its downside for the liberal press might also care to say immigration to their resentful readers, thebenefitsof ignored oligarch press the eurozone’s agony. the And if and we’re stillinbusiness. we’reanother nottime, all cookingif role in militant climate change denial sense.moral We’ll discussthemedia’s might also make commercial as well as everything else, a little humility dwindling trust in journalism, like The Guardian been keeping an eye open for them in in any article I have read – and I’ve events have proved them wrong; not be just fine, have would never admitted that mark and franc the as well embraced the drachma and the lira as and that a single currency zone that London wouldCity be of doomed, being aconspicuousexample. 2016, free zone too) were pro-Remain in the impractical Schengen of passport- single currency project in 1999 (and many did, the though other critics of to join the eurozone in 1999? Yes, sterlingutter similar failed threats if same establishment and elitist types to point to the euro. Didn’t the very voted to leave the EU, they were able (let us pray Britain they are wrong) if economic damage dire warnings of , where hehas worked since1971. But the euro-zealots who said the hm,bcuei naeo of A shame, becauseinanage ’s , Observer

Michael White Michael William Keegan and @MichaelWhite FT during 13 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 14 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 The new deal new The working for the paper being sent to the World of the earlier from theeditorship of who had stood down three months enacted, the Andy hiring Coulson, of different unthinkable sort of was had output onhimself a limb. So a frightened the Tory heartlands and he tendency tothinktheunthinkable had and calling a snap election. Cameron’s Downing Street in the 2007 summer of rolling into 10 Cameron panicked at theprospect of lasted 18monthsandendedwhen one sort or another).screen (of voters the through the medium of and would appeal directly to the the rest. He would be his own man Rupertapprobation Murdoch of and he wasn’t going to chase after the a result, Cameron let it be known that delivered from the pulpit was gone. As influenced by, newspaper editorials anyone reading, let alone being print mediadidn’t matter. of The age David Cameronthe ear of that the old breathed the heretical thought into far, no. Street fan base be an impediment? So she is there, will a Fleet that lack of thought was a sine qua non. But now senior newspaper executives that we has risenwithout theendorsementof a newspaper.backing of Theresa May can win power only with the sustained a little-noticed one: that politicians lifethe that window has gone out of is the political many truthsOne of of It was who, in 2005, The plan to defy the press barons as two a result people of ©Hanning; DOI:10.1177/0956474816668794c; [2016/9]27:3;14-16; http://bjr.sagepub.com News observe that with the closest of links observe to that with the closest of subsequent misfortunes, but merely had beenestablished. a signin itself that a powerful nexus admiration for Cameron’s choice) was the media(the Coulson’s hiring caused so little fuss in prison for . The that fact almost thinkshedidn’t want thejob. thelatter’sbefore resignation.You’d with Brooks in June 2011, not long Lebedev, although she did have a lunch with Murdoch, Rothermere or May did not have a single meeting website reported that in those years minister. By contrast, the Politico not available as he was not then a hundred. Figures for Boris Johnson are comparative slacker on just over a to office, with Michael Gove a yearsand a half after the Tories came with media organisations in the five than280meetings hadmore Osborne was based on that assumption. GeorgeCameron succeeding fancied who behaviour up until late those June of or break careers. Certainly the that the printed press could still make in the Tory election campaign 2010. of and instilled what discipline there was Cameron as a decent, free-thinking guy minimised theposh-boysold gaffes, Tories’ return to Downing Street. He person bar Cameron to secure the probably did more than any single figures inside the Murdoch fold, he and other senior We need not dwell on Coulson’s In launching her campaign for the The that message epoch of was Mail expressed its expressedits media,” remembers one lobby just didn’t botherwith courtingthe support for her leadership bid. “She play, however important the eventual to overlapping views as to any power notice, but this is often down as much the usefullyare cordial,andthepower of relations with the relevant reporters bread and water.stoical life of Her This is not to say that she lives a her special advisers to return a call. theyone couldanother get prizes if Lobby reporters would jokingly award withingratiating the press.herself Office, she was famous for not coming. In her six years at the Home andJohnsonOsborne ascheap. media cavortings Cameron, of studios” suggests she regards the contempt in“tourthetelevision that she disdains such fakery. The gawky one at the school disco, but far is not so much that she is the had no power base. But the evidence so time intheCommonstearoom, she chances because, as she didn’t spend organisations. media with Osborne’sthan a quarter number, of she had had just 67 meetings, fewer In that year same five period, and half parliament’s bars.” Indeed she doesn’t. lunch. I don’t go drinking in said. “I don’t gossip about people over don’t tour the television studios,” she from the inky types a selling point. “I leadership, May made detachment substance, but alsowith the jejune appearance takes a back seat to only with a post-Cameron age where done approach chimes entirely not reporter. This frill-free, get-the-job- Daily Mail Journalists might have seen this “The experts” dismissedher has not escaped her Mail

Secretary. Cameroons believed she insist how happy she was to be Home ridiculous, course would and she of aspirations to be prime minister as then riding high, regarded her rival camp, claimed that Cameron, once. One briefing, presumably from a Cameroon gossipingend more of than era, on May the wrong found herself the lastthe Cameronthree years of minister entirely by accident, and in anyone else’s. the newspaper’s interest more than petty squabble that ultimately served the reporter, why would they? It was a didn’t return fire.simply In hindsight, says They version. own their with expecting May’s people to reciprocate didn’t reflect well on the Home Office, briefing by another department that paper recalls being given an extensive One reporter on a middle-ranking that she has not thought it necessary. more than held its own. It is simply In Whitehall’s wars, her office turf has soft presentation. touch in the art of frippery. editor ’s mistrustof 10 in another act of off-the-ball10 in another act of Tory candidates’ list by Cameron’s No policy specialist, was blocked from the faith schools. , her briefing against Gove in a row about Hill had to leave her job in 2014 after odds and, to May’s great reluctance, and No 10’s Craig Oliver were often at upon. Fiona Hill, her , her press team could not of be relied Osborne were to learn, the passivity team player. As Messrs Gove and much. not She being was a accused of played to the right-wing gallery too But nobody becomes prime It does not mean she has been a 15 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 16 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 retain an independence from No 10,” while at the Home Office was keen to always been close to Theresa, and unpleasantness. “Those two have scene, this time involving the CNN convention a similar - saw footage of the Democratlast national night of with everyone watching CNN on the conference? Donald Trump – along delegates at a post-Labour Party bopping along to loud music with Kuennsberg, wine glassesin hand, of and you saw Evan Davis and Laura the Conservativemember of Party So how would you you were feel if a colours True DavidCameron. biography of The writerwas the editorof deputy were left scratching their heads: no Chancellor. After the event, journalists have come as a shock to even her own media in advance, when it seems to cannot be preparing accused theof reactor, offers few clues. Her office theHinkley Point nuclear building of decision nottorubberstamp the May’s biggest non-Brexit call, the Home Office days that will soon lift? presentationof a hangover from the peril. your at you crossed the May press operation When itsubstance, came to matters of things may become a bit bunkerish.” may lead to trouble in the future and that Fiona can bear grudges, which says one lobby voice. “There’s a sense So is the day-to-day downplaying ©Leonard; DOI:10.1177/0956474816668794d; [2016/9]27:3;16-18; http://bjr.sagepub.com on Sunday on Independent The previous regime, will come to look like territory andof difference from the early exchanges, intended as a marking offer, and it seems likely that these is too canny to overlook what they can much time honing spin techniques, she China. mistrustof spook-inspired while other stories suggested a accepting the deal she had inherited, not wanting tobe“bounced”into thePrimeMinister of toemerge began spoon-feeding there. Eventually stories Matt Drudge called the “media and what the conservative clickbait king complained the incident summed up earlier and Team Trump inevitably in hoursPhiladelphia a couple of the stage to thunderous off applause party. Hillary Clinton had just come moves at a post-Democrat convention Gloria Borger, showing their best network’s political analyst, chief anchorman Blitzer Wolf and the another way. as a short-cut to high office. There is men in a hurry using media magnates have youngseen the the age endof of But bethankfulforthis. We may just between the Tory-supporting papers. minimise outburstsjealousy of will have to play onlythe game, to if teething troubles. She and her team While she is too serious to spend James Hanning James adi oato fa and is co-author of into theWhite House. as a dangerous moron from getting stoppingamanthey regard service of than performing the crucial public journalism – are rather less pressing US fairness – those pillars of Obsessive impartialityandruthless determination that he doesn’t win. contempt for Trump and their bothering to try to disguise their broadcasters alike aren’t even in the opposite direction, press and analysis. her of depth the for chosen Trumpite who certainly hadn’t been Republican, invariably a blonde only to pull apart the token gush over what they’d seen, pausing to Democrat commentators gathered every day, pro- end of anarray of attempt at objectivity it made. At the the Democrats every night, for all the have thrown acelebration partyfor with Fox and MSNBC – might as well impartial news network compared and CNN – traditionally the more reacted by wildly over-compensating. mainstream US media have inevitably for thatflagellating sin, the itself discussed inthelastissueof lamentably easy ride and then (as I givingAfter Trump months of a forgiven for being a little cynical. nomination, but you might be season and not Clinton’s official theconvention celebrating theendof guests insisted the party was Democratic cabal”. Other party they have a duty to bring him down highlighting Trump’s shortcomings, that, for all their earlier feebleness in the election is too close to call and Much of the US media clearlyMuch of feel With the pendulum swinging back I covered both party conventions BJR ) standing upto senator Joe McCarthy. – butit’s apparently anodtohis impartiality over Churchill v Hitler Blitz – not for him any attempt at in reporting from London during the Murrow’s memorable pro-British bias iconic American broadcaster Edward assumed this was a reference to the has called this a Murrow Moment. I respectedmost voice in press criticism”, “the as itself bills which local landowner who wants to drive tried the ways peace. Megalomaniac of unwraps and oils it one more time. He turned toand farming, reluctantly six-shooter his away locked who’d westerns when the old gunslinger anything inyour career.” in a way you’ve never approached century, not longer, if and approach it thepasthalf for thebetterpartof of American journalism has been using textbook the out throw to have you you believe“Because if these things, media correspondent, Jim Rutenberg. to cover him?” wrote the Grey Lady’s codes, how the heck are you supposed the United Statescontrol nuclear of and that he would be dangerous with cosies up to anti-American dictators and nationalistic tendencies, that he playing to the nation’s worst racist that Donald J Trump is a demagogue working journalist and you believe inimitably sonorous way. you’re a “If has tackled the dilemma in its American journalistic navel-gazing, Times York be dismissedasabadjoke. now that his candidacy can no longer watch out! watch theirthe poor land Mexicanos – off It’s war – that moment in the The The Columbia Journalism Review Columbia Journalism h ihtml f, thehightempleof The New , 17 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 18 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 silent”, he told viewers in 1954. his witch-hunting methods to “keep This is no time for people to oppose The writer is US correspondent atThe writerisUS correspondent the supporters. Besides, we all know by needed toreachhislessdogged unrelenting attacks that would be him savagerywith the and sort of it’s but not in their journalistic DNA to go for Americans, many as Trump media are genuinely as alarmed about much. too other each need They much on conventional advertising. far without having to spend anything coverage that has allowed him to get so the odd rally but it is obsessive media the feed it’s published on. He might ban offended him isn’t worth the Twitter “banned” media outlets that have catastrophic tocontemplate. the blow to ratings would be too to stop covering him, full stop, but would really damage Trump would be the next controversial outburst. What his supporters have long moved on to traditional later day when and a half during speeches – rather than the corrections to his factual howlers “in real time”, putting up captioned CNN’s fact-checking habit Trumpof most effective measure I’ve seen is weakpretty stuff, tobehonest.The standing up to The Donald? It’s Ed “This Is London” Murrow been ashington Post s o P n o t g n i h s Wa Similarly, Trump’s growing listof And how have these brave heirs to Of course, I don’tOf doubt the or Buzzfeed from Daily Mail. will vote for, and it will come down to has made up their minds who they suggests pretty much that everyone Trump: movement lack of in the polls even more outrageous truth about liesabout me”. telling outrageous that “the liberal media can’t stop bad people” and reminds his faithful him. Heregularly “very callsreporters “‘lamestream media” tell them about simply don’t believe anything the now thatTrump hardcore supporters paying. They may decide that’s a price worth and sentiment hurled back at them. expect to have every partisan remark the Murrow Moment brigade can and whenelection. he does If lose, hostile US media may cost him the for Trump, he’s been warning that a media can expect to get blamed. As the closet, fallonly out of then the as I suspect she will – and skeletons fibbing when she wins she does). – If conferences and is almost as prone to as he is (she hardly ever gives press own way, she is as hostile to the media set them up for trouble ahead. In her but waving the flag for Clinton may take Trump seriously was a slip-up, the foot – for a second time. Failing to journalists have shot themselves in day. the on out them get can who

Perhaps it’s all too late to tell the In themeantime,US Ialsofear

om Leonard r a n o e L m To @tomleonard78 WHAT THE PAPERS SAID THE REFERENDUM

❛Brexit is our chance to escape a burning building, we should flee before the EU drags us down. Outside the EU we can become richer, safer and free at long last to forge our own destiny – as America, Canada, , New Zealand and many other great democracies already do. And as we were the first to do centuries ago. To remain means being powerless to cut mass immigration which keeps wages low and puts catastrophic pressure on our schools, hospitals, roads and housing stock. In every way, it is a bigger risk … … Remain has conducted a deceitful campaign. It has been nasty, cynical, personally abusive and beneath the dignity of Britain. Our country has a glorious history. This is our chance to make Britain even greater, to recapture our democracy, to preserve the values and culture we are rightly proud of. A VOTE FOR LEAVE IS A VOTE FOR A BETTER BRITAIN.❜ The Sun, June 14

❛We hope it has now been proven that Brits will ignore political lectures from rich celebs – and opponents calling them morons. Remainers may feel like no one listened to them. Now they know how the working class have felt for years. Finally, we urge everyone to calm down. The world hasn’t ended. Britain has changed a little, that’s all. It will prove a great decision for our country. And 17,410,742 people backed it. Onward and upward … it’s a new day for our nation.❜ The Sun, June 25

❛Who do we think we are, and who do we want to be? Are we so different from others that we cannot play by shared rules? Are we one member in a family of nations, or a country that prefers to keep itself to itself and bolt the door?

… The EU is not just the least bad of the available options. It ▲ is

19 WHAT THE PAPERS SAID also the one that embodies the best of us as a free people in a peaceful Europe. Vote this week. Vote for a united country that reaches out to the world, and vote against a divided nation that turns inwards. Vote to remain.❜ The Guardian, June 21

❛The British people have spoken. The prime minister has resigned. Already, the consequences of what the voters said and why they said it have begun to reshape Britain’s future in profound and potentially dangerous ways. The country has embarked on a perilous journey in which our politics and our economy must be transformed. The vote to leave the EU will challenge not only the government and politicians but all of us whose opinions have been rejected.❜ The Guardian, June 25 September 2016 September ❛Why … would a country with our history and economic strength want to continue its membership of such a dysfunctional outfit? Ask ourselves this question: if we weren’t in it would we be agitating to join now? vol.27 no.3 vol.27 … In supporting a vote to leave, we are not harking back to a Britannic golden age lost in the mists of time but looking forward to a new beginning for our country. We are told it is a choice between fear and hope. If that is the case, then we choose hope.❜ The Daily Telegraph, June 21

❛Above all, the referendum outcome confirmed the deep divide that has British Journalism Review riven the nation, not just over its attitude to Europe but on pretty much everything. … The Leave side secured the highest popular vote in British history, an unprecedented rejection of the views and threats of an entire class of politicians, business leaders, opinion formers, foreign governments, the Church, the CBI, and the IMF. The EU referendum became the vehicle for venting their rage against the refusal of politicians to listen to them while deriding their genuine worries over immigration as bigotry and racism. … History will judge the referendum of June 23, 2016 to have been a transformative event for this country – not the culmination of , but its beginning.❜ The Daily Telegraph, June 25

20 ❛We may be lured by the notion of being marginally freer, but we will be significantly poorer. For modern to thrive and prosper we must work with, not against, our European partners; we must keep our seat at Europe’s top table and help shape its destiny; our strong, clear voice must be heard inside Europe, not be shouted from the sidelines. This newspaper believes in a safe, free, and prosperous future for this proud country. And so we urge you, our readers, not to take a leap into the dark. Vote to remain in the European Union – for an even greater Britain.❜ Mail on Sunday, June 19

❛Above all things, is a patriotic newspaper which loves this unique, free, fair country and the great things it stands for. This is a moment in our history which is very exciting and exhilarating for many, and very perplexing and worrying for others. It is entirely in our traditions that at such a moment we should all – especially our political leaders – stand and work together for the common good, regardless of our disagreements.❜ Mail on Sunday, June 26

❛The positive case for Britain in the EU is easily made. To abandon the cause of constructive reform of an admittedly imperfect EU would be more than defeatist. It would be a gratuitous act of self- harm. Business leaders have a duty to spell out the cost of leaving before it is too late.❜ , June 15

❛Neither side doubts that Britain is a resilient, resourceful country that has weathered many storms before. Over time, the economy will readjust and Britain will find a new, if diminished, place in the world. The best hope, which this newspaper fervently shares, is that the UK remains engaged, open and, in the best spirit, pro- ❜

European. That way lies the future. Financial Times, June 25▲ WHAT THE PAPERS SAID ❛Mr Cameron … could go down in history as both an effective campaigner and the leader of a reform movement in Europe that would prevent it sliding into a disharmonious federal state that would ultimately rip it apart. No one should underestimate how tough a task that would be. It may not sound as exhilarating or romantic as a defiant march to Brexit, but it is the better choice for Britain and Europe.❜ The Times, June 18

❛The union itself is now shaken to the . Other states may demand referendums of their own and Brussels cannot quash these yearnings. They are appeals for more accountability and less interference which the EU must heed for its own sake. Britain should find a way to help this process from the outside, because whatever else will change in the coming months and years, geography will not. We must strive for new trade deals with emerging September 2016 September

economies and the anchor nations of the Commonwealth, but Europe will remain our closest neighbour. Its stability will always be in Britain’s strategic national interest.❜ The Times, June 25 vol.27 no.3 vol.27

❛Our ancestors shed oceans of blood to uphold and defend this country’s right to govern itself, pass its own laws, raise its own taxes and – most pertinently – get rid of politicians when they abuse our trust. Why on earth should we now want to belong to a dysfunctional club that denies us these rights – a club with an imploding economy, pursuing a frankly mad policy

British Journalism Review of open borders which, if not checked, will lead to violence between the ugly Left and ugly Right across Europe? … If you believe in the sovereignty of this country, its monarchy, its unwritten constitution and its judicial system; if you believe in the will of the people and don’t want to be ruled by faceless bureaucrats; if you are concerned about uncontrolled immigration; if you wish to control the destiny of the UK; if you want a government you can vote for and in turn vote out of office if it breaks its promises; and if you believe in Britain, its culture, history and freedoms, there is only one way to vote. Brexit. This is our one chance. We must seize it.❜ Daily Mail, June 22

❛What an awesome tribute to the British people. Day after day, month after 22 month, voters were bombarded with hysterical threats and terrifying scares – everything the Government machine, the mainstream party leaders and the global political and financial elites could throw at them. They endured insults and abuse. Those who believed Britain could prosper as an independent nation, both in Europe and the world beyond, were attacked as “Little Englanders”. Those who were concerned about the effects of uncontrolled immigration on jobs, wages, housing, public services and the welfare of their children were smeared as “racists”. … But outside the echo-chamber that is the metropolitan liberal class, the real people of Britain saw things differently. They held their nerve, saw through the lies and trusted their instincts.❜ Daily Mail, June 25

❛Remaining in the EU will not magically eliminate the challenges Britain faces in the years to come. But if we choose to do so, it will keep Britain at the heart of reforming the European project so that the nations of Europe are together better equipped to face them. At its core, the European Union remains a practical expression of the belief that liberal democracies can achieve more acting in concert than they can alone. We must not turn our backs on that.❜ The Observer, June 19

❛For 30 years, the “left-behind” (the working poor, the “strivers”, the zero-hours workers) have waited for a new economic reality based on fairness and equality to rebalance the effects of late capitalism as it advantaged a smaller and smaller number of people with grotesque income inequalities. This time, they were led to believe that a correction was at hand. Not from these Leavers it isn’t. And no one should be surprised if they next vent their anger when it turns out that Leave’s cure-all turned out to be a mendacious chimera. “Take back control”? They just might.❜ The Observer, June 26 @TheBJReview A giant that may eat us Jemima Kiss

The commercial success of Facebook is admirable, but what it means for journalism should worry us all, says a close observer

Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters in Silicon Valley is designed to feel like a technological Disneyland that its engineers will never want to leave. On the campus, between the warehouses of productivity, there’s a kind of pixel-perfect strip mall of a candy store, burger bar and “analogue research lab”. The lab is actually a screen-printing room filled with an array of benches, drying racks and hundreds of hand-printed posters, churning out motivational propaganda for the whole campus with a kind of hipster craftsman aesthetic. “Done is better than perfect”, one says. “Stay focused and keep shipping”. And “Carthago delenda est”. Carthage must be destroyed. When the Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg used this quote in a rousing speech to staff in 2013, the subject of his ire was Google Plus, though Google’s attempt at a social network never presented a serious threat. And so who, or what, in Facebook’s west coast capitalist, techno-libertarian view of the world, is the Carthaginian empire it is bent on destroying today? Facebook would never say it set out to deliberately undermine the media industry. Yet it is, both through increasing domination of internet advertising revenue and control of a significant part of a critical distribution platform. It has created and defined an entirely new industry between media, communications and entertainment that we call “social media”, taking full advantage of the vast opportunity of unregulated business with a global audience. 24 It has built on previous internet successes. Anyone who has found

©Kiss; DOI: 10.1177/0956474816668797; [2016/9] 27:3; 24-28; http://bjr.sagepub.com as a platform for students in 2003 and opened to the public in 2006, 2006, in public the to opened and 2003 encouragingsharethemthoughts,to opinions, in photoslinks.and nowisIt students for platform a as done” cent per 1 “only Facebook something that actually makes areally bigchangeintheworld.” one of itsone 1.71billion of active monthly users makes around $15.83 for the site. scale at which it operates but the value it extracts fromFacebookFacebook’s Google.each or itsPart of of ownsuccess justtheusers;beennothas each spent on online advertising in the US in the first quarter 2016 of would go to to totaladrevenue tomobilead revenue”. Facebook is “still on an upward trajectory in nearly every area, from usage WilliamsonsaysAhoeMarketeranalyst Debra TheGoogle. of exception the withworld, the in destination other any advertsthan more publish eMarketer.will firm It research the to revenues,according$23.31billion Facebook’s predictedwillhave 2016,contributed$22.37billion of of end themtoworkto get inordertoachieve themission.” drones.“These things can’t solar-powered fail,” he told things, other among using, world developing the developing is and Oculus,ambitiousbillion-dollar cheapschemes companyinternetrolloutconnectionsto to hardware reality WhatsApp virtual app the messaging the and Instagram, app photo the owns $125bn, worth not ecosystem,” Zuckerberg told the author David Kirkpatrick in 2012. “What companies and advertisers and other partners to exist, and bethis a part of speak his language. who wealthy, men white, well-educated around built system a through increasinglyvacuum-sucked being from and benefited has who one leader, talentedalbeit confident smart, a is he accounts all by megalomania; malevolenceor of hint no there’sZuckerberg in And one. next the find to us compellingdiscovery and digitalminiature every rewarding brain, our in response dopamine primal the triggers It success. will its understand newsfeed infinite its scrolling compulsively vacantly, themselves being just a companya just being being me,not to just means is eas ues r lge i ad ilnl pu edes personal endless pour willingly and in logged are users Because dollareverynew of centsStanleyrecentlyMorganestimated85 that this is supportedAnd all by of a vast advertising business that, by the In his mind, Facebook’s mission is still “only 1 per cent done”. It started “Building a good economic engine is what allows all these other platform Fast Company Fast in November 2015. “We need just that – building 25 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 26 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 fsophisticated of targeting, so combined with a continued fall in newspaper advertising around them. News targeted sites aren’t sell able to compete can with this site level the Facebook, into themselves about information news product, Apple News. It aggregates multiplepublications newsinto Appleproduct,News.news aggregates It along with Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter, controlling its own aggregated able theto world’sdemand of richest company? Apple is another company, show the maturity kind and of corporate social responsibility we should be that Does events. key to journalists favourable, preferred only access, inviting press selective for bearer standard the is Apple press. industry anxietyrightnow.”culture journalistic profession. That phenomenon is at the the heart thisof identityof core journalisticthe of bastionlast that been had thatroleseditorial the Facebook are playing froma key role in distribution, integrated, and now even vertically creeping distribution.Increasinglyintolike itscompanies to knowledge more productionof once were Publishers of control. idea the over anxiety new a by research. replaced been have anxieties of “Those director associate Pew’s Holcomb, Jesse said media,” the of ownership about anxiety of degree a was there ago “Tenyears found. news,itsharing for sitepopularaway mostand Facebook the24. far was news “helpful” mostsource cableafter TV, second18- aged sourcewasthose it for though primary the the was media social felt Americans that its through passes that network. content the for liable not is it that so publisher a thanrather platform a as itself define to requiredlegally is itcontent, host that companies tech all with As building. empire of undercurrent an with philoso-babble Valley Silicon aspirational and vague typically – dotcom boom. Silicon Valley dominates first the world. the during even unprecedented, was That Facebook. and Amazon capitalisation were Apple, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Microsoft, totalled only £356million. at £1.7billion for 2015 – down from £4.2billion 10 years before. Digital ads ZenithOptimediaestimated the print advertising UKnewspapers sales of technologydigital ad companies revenue. for a share of The media agency salesprintandadvertising revenue, nowtheyarehaving competetowith ehooy opne aray xr sgicn pesr oe the over pressure significant exert already companies Technology the Inmediaits June report, Pew 2016 state Research of Centre found Facebook’s stated mission is to make the world more open and connected market by companies biggest five world’s the 2016, 3, August On and then impossible, that we see a different perspective or a view with view a orperspective different a see we that impossible, then and reinforcing bubblethemore newsof of we want to see. It becomes unlikely, request to shut down her account, blocking young access a betweento videos she woman, standoff was Korryn a posting. Gaines, and in police later, in Baltimore, month Facebook granted one Yet a police site. the on shared widelysobeen notsupportnotorietygained andpublicit amongthehad havenevercould thatshooting a 2016, July6, on car their in her beside Castile Philando fiance her killing policeman Minnesota a of the aftermath livestreamed Reynolds Diamond example; for murder, and violence extreme of videos pre-recorded and live Moderating unprecedented. are theyorganisation. confidentnewsestablishedAnd challenge andevenan Ethical editorialproblems itsdesigner. built intheshapeof is algorithm an Even neutral. be can humans by managed and designed anyservice without or productsensibility,editorial no platform thatdemonstrating alsowhile neutral a is it that Facebook’s – of position key news figures it invited to its impressive headquarters. But it undermined a frustration for Facebook, which was forced to try and placate conservative major a was story The algorithm. by entirely determined solely not and individual editors.bias of In other words, Facebook’s news is editorialised the reflected stories conservativeof sources.suppress selection newsThe news stories you’d be forgiven for Facebook’s missing on the side of site. popular current Trendingof runTopics,list smallto basiscontractuala journalists brieflyemployed opened Mayin 2016by a onsmall a group of waskimono The rare. is companiesthese into insightunofficial any that their cool employers and committed to so many non-disclosure agreements to own appsorsites. one place, much like Facebook. Both negate the need for those publications companies, people who already know that this is a problem more clearlymore problem a is this mediathat know alreadywho companies,people social in people key “The leave. voted had who network his on wrote Steinberg Tom this “filter bubble”of co-founder just after the Brexit vote, whenMySociety he could findThe no one disagree. might we which hs mlydi h ehooyidsr r elpi,i w fof awe in paid, well are industry technology the in employed Those n t crto o te es o, t s o eog t peet self- a present to enough not is it too, news the of curation its In Somethe emergingof ethical editorial problems faced by the site would site news tech the told The journalists Gizmodo they were instructed to 27 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 28 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 wrote, afewdays afterthevote. us do,than those any people have of to step up and be brave and lead,” he reporting team, and is a member of the of member a is and team, reporting Jemima Kissisbased inSanFrancisco, where sheleads of era importantthanever.more this in that purpose instability,isolationist social politics and barely scrutinised power and wealth under-acknowledgedis and crucial mightycompetitor.a has itbusiness – a justthan more journalismisBut constantly iterating and exploring new products and improvements. It is a createdalean, focused and efficient machine for productivity and growth, employees15,000has just companyentirelyfair.of modestmarket is Its scenes, but in public too. questions,andneedsnotonly work to with newsorganisations behind the editorial complex these to approach its articulate to pressure underincreasing come will company the technology. Yet through soughtalways nearlyissolution the powerand theFacebook, engineersholdwherefor curatesits newsfeed. Itis likely that protecting journalism isnot prioritya it stillhasalongway togo. written headlines on low quality stories surrounded ads. by But dozens of cleaningup,thistweaking clickbait poorlyonback cut–algorithm toits and actual journalism. On August 3, 2016 it made a small gesture towards fact-checking,or withpicturesspuriousmixingstoriesandfamily photos newsaread thestoryend.to The newsfeed clutteredis andlacks context because the newsfeed offers no incentive to wait, click through and actually engagement – a like or a share that endorses the only headline, the idea of the Brexit vote? national And is it possibleinterest? that Facebook of influenced the result immense of issuesmeaningfuldiscussionabout a reallybe there canhow Facebook’s newsfeed. Without debate and healthy alternative perspectives, and Trump supporters would have entirely polarised different, versions of the Atlantic in its “Blue feed, red feed” graphic, which showed how Clinton Facebook’sestablished businessescompetitive a in disruption of open it howFacebookeditorialpubliclypolicies andspeakslittleits about superficial but voluminous fast, encourages newsfeed Facebook’s The all Street Journal a n r u o J t e e r t S l l Wa epoe hsfitrbbl rmteohrsd f of side other the from bubble filter this explored BJR editorial board. The Guardian’s

@jemimakiss technology @TheBJReview A new threat to journalism Matt Rogerson

A bill going through parliament compromises journalists and their sources, says a campaigner trying to stop it

As we go about our lives in the physical world, our digital selves create a vapour trail of where we’ve been and what we’ve seen, with whom and when. Every text, call, photo and video we make has a second life. The text you sent and the call you made are all recorded on a server somewhere in a desert, or Ireland, providing evidential proof of your activity. This data that you created isn’t yours: it’s owned by your mobile phone provider, or your social media platform of choice. Every interaction we have in our business and private lives remains dormant in the digital mind of service providers until we, or someone we’ve spoken to or interacted with, becomes a person of interest to the police or intelligence agencies. Access to these communications is granted without the user’s permission or knowledge. For journalists, the idea that the how, where, when and what of communications with colleagues, friends, and potential sources – let alone the content of those messages, our search histories and the contents of our phone – could be accessed and used by the police and intelligence agencies without knowledge or permission drives a stake through the heart of journalism. If journalists cannot provide sources with confidence that their communications are not susceptible to interrogation by the authorities, Matt they are less likely to come forward. If whistleblowers cannot come to the media with their concerns about misconduct in public office, or systemic issues within public or private institutions, how will journalists be able to hold the powerful to account? 29

©Rogerson; DOI: 10.1177/0956474816668798; [2016/9] 27:3; 29-35; http://bjr.sagepub.com 30 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 through parliament legitimises many of the powers that we learned about learned wepowersthat the of many legitimises parliament through security and privacy, the investigatory powers bill currently making its way the had seized the telephone records of the Metropolitan Police of hadseizedthetelephone records communications. tojournalists’ codes containednoreferences recently,Untilthe practice. of codes in out set are used be can powers RIPA how governing rules The (RIPA). 2000 Act PowersInvestigatory of Regulation the of framework separate a by governed is databases and computerslaptops, phones, mobile of worldThe papers. andnotebooks danger. in was informationthatneverandhave family known her of holdgot policehad accessed,theneverhave howbeenknown had data herhave thatknown was a potential threat toBreen the and lives her family”. of an to “therematerial, overthe hand to relating Breen forced PSNI the Hadpolice. the information journalistic other to handedwere Real IRA the and of memberswithconducted sheinterview notes the if risk at would have faced up to five years in prison. gamefor Breen. Breen had If lost and refused to give zero-sum a up the not material,was This (PSNI). Ireland she Northern of ServicePolice the withholdRealtoright winthefrommaterial therelating toIRAto 2009 exemplifies how these laws have worked in practice. Breen went to court in disclosing the evidence might affect the journalists and sources in that case. whyoutlineandhow tojudge.mediaallows This thea frontof testedin journalistic applymaterial,disclosurefor enabling of those requestsbe to policewhennotifiedthe beorganisations mediaenabletojournalistsand journalistic material from disproportionate police access. providesclear,protectitlegislation, proportionate to principles of piece a as But CERN. bowelsof the in experiment an webwasworldwide the done? be must what and here get we did how So protect. to and win to undermine protections in law that the media has fought long and hard to through the revelations Edward of Snowden. In doing so, the bill threatens Britishjournalists woke with 2014,joltinwhena wasit revealed that of world the in protections provide Act Terrorism the and PACE however,neverinvestigatorypowersbill, would new Breen the Under facts,the ruled thatBreen’s wouldlifeThejudge,fullreceipt of in be Belfast-based the of case The Crucially,PACEusually Terrorism – the recently2000 more Act and – The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) was written when of limits the about Europe and US the in debate vigorous Following Sunday TribuneSunday journalist SuzanneBreenjournalist The Sun’s

Tom f IA n cle fr hne Te necpin f Communications of Interception The change. for called and RIPA of Javid and George Osborne were vocal in their the condemnationmisuse of in a Chinese restaurant near the MoS offices”. own name on a confidential document being read by one Huhne’sof lawyers the the Met’sreportintoPlebgate, in while Kent police’s revealed actionsbecame clear mistakenly when apparently were Dunn Newton to relating oversight worked. We know about them because the system failed. Details powers were usedby theforce asaconvenient workaround. information that identified thesourcedisclosureto was if redacted. RIPA accessjournalist’stheto gain emailsusing PACE, to with applied courttheonly agreeing already had police Kent case”. Huhne the to unrelated the busy newsdesk going back an entire year, covering stories hundreds of confidential numbers thousandscalled byof journalists from landlinea at committed by Chris offences Huhne justiceand Vicky Pryce. of Kent course police the “trawled perverting through into investigation police’s the a to access the telephone records of RIPA powers used police Kent public interest, meaning that they could not be charged with any offence. Service ruled that police officers who had leaked to the press subjecthad actedto in anthe internal disciplinestaff their hearing”.of member or officer an makeIn merely then to Plebgate,evidence obtain to the Crown Prosecution should not “usepolice theirthe revelations, powersthe withinof wake thethe actin to producedacquire report communicationsa in clear datamade surveillancethewatchdog Asoccurred. activitycriminalhasclearwhere to relation“Plebgate”theto affair. noticeNowas given NewtontoDunnor in sourceconfidentialcommunications awith his trace to Dunn Newton between public officials (sources) and journalists ... 608 applications … applications 608 ... journalists and (sources) officials publicbetween relationshipsillicitsuspected to relation in communicationsdatasought three years, “19 police forces reported undertaking 34 investigations whichin that, investigation,foundwhich an launched (IoCCO) Commissioner The Sun Mail on Sunday’s olwn te eeain, oiiin icuig oi Jhsn Sajid Johnson, Boris including politicians revelations, Following the of system the because cases these of either about know don’t We It was revealed in October 2014 that Kent police had used RIPA powers communicationstoAccessRIPA usingdatapowers occur onlyshould , and the seizure was, andtheseizure notjudicially authorised. newsdesk editor, David Dillon, “happened to notice his Mail on SundayMail on journalist in relation to 31 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 32 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 draft code of practice.draft code The of amended code still allowed the police to sign off were authorised to seek this communications data”. the justicelord chief and ratified by the prime minister. body. same TheseCommissionersjudges,courtrecommendedhighformer willby be the within sitting functions Distinct warrants. surveillance of auditing and off sign the both oversee to is role whose commissioners and enforcement law of activities intelligence agencies surveillance in the UK. the of oversight and opportunity for the government to create a clear accountability system of expression.The free interimcodeiscompletely flawed. of the interests inrepresentations make to position no in themselves.are requestsThey concerned with a therequest, legality notof the substantive the nature of understandably,are, they and publishers not are companies telecoms only before a judge and argue against disclosure on public interest grounds. Yet go whichcan company– telecoms the – data that of owner the givento is it Ratherorganisations. media and journalists to given right a not is acquired havetheir sources intwo investigations without obtainingjudicialapproval” forces . police “two place, in communicationsdataidentifyto interactionsthe between journalistsand code new the with even ajudge. We were infrontand representation of wrong. by the media. We hoped that the interim code would mean communicationsprior data on the samenotification footing as PACE was initially welcomed this data”. The government’s decision to put requests to access journalists’ the PACEprocedures of to apply to a court for a production order to obtain “use to police the forcing byprotections enhancedapparently that code when intrusion dealing with data relatingtocommunications with journalists”. collateral and proportionality necessity, of principles the applyactually should personsdesignated how on guidanceclear any to consideration necessity and proportionality”. “special journalists, including professions, sensitive theirown warrants, subject themtogiving theapplications thatrelate to t h hat f h bl i te rain f nw ir f judicial of tier new a of creation the is bill the of heart the At the provides bill powers investigatory new a of introduction The opportunityan createddisclosure,makeiscasetoagainst a it Evenif half-yearlyitsIn reportpublished Julyin 2015,IoCCOthefound that MayIn 2015,theHome Office moved publishingagain, newinterima In its report, the IoCCO was clear that the draft codes did “not provide meantime,theIn governmentthe respondedhadby publishing newa orait ad hi lgl ersnaie t se mr dti before detail more seek to representatives legal their and journalists told that judicial commissioners will have the power to make contact with they do not know? That is almost Kafkaesque.” whatknowpossiblycommissioner judicial a can how all, After decision. relevant the all has information application before applying his or her judgement and making the an informed assessing commissioner the unless workjudicial not will they but place, in safeguards judicial having request against the public interest. processplaytheinpart whereby no judicialthecommissioners weigh the or after the request has been made. Journalists and accessing the journalisttheir or the media organisation for or legal which theyrepresentatives work hacking either before to relation in communications Whetherdata, thebill story.” has nothing sayto about theneed notifyto a of course the also could Itinclude looking bug. at a journalist’s a electronic notebook as and at footage shot microphone in phone’s mobile a use to ability the intrusive powers such as targeted equipment interference, which “includes More intrusive powers objective. same the achieve to data communications of pieces multiple analysisof and aggregation of use the directly,enabling source instead a raises the risk that warrants will be framed in a data way that avoids communications identifying journalists’ without seeking access the prior theauthorisation judicial commissioner.of to This agencies intelligence and public toauthorisethewarrant. interest” granted also has commissioner judicialpermission. The commissioner must conclude thethat there is an “overriding once effect take only can forceas the requestor will warrants, policecontinue but that to warrantsign off same the within officers Senior sources”. journalistic confirm or judicial commissioner not to act “contrary to the publicjudicialtheinterest”;tocommissioner“contrary to notact to not appears it yet warmwords thebill.More really aren’tnowhere enough. welcome, of ontheface be would power This warrant. a authorising Clause 73 of the bill relates specificallyrelatesbill“authorisations theidentifyto to of 73Clause What there is in the bill is a clause – 206 – that applies pressure on the were we bill, the lawyersworkingon Office Home withmeetings In As Lord Black said in Lordsthe Houseon Julyof 11, “It is all very well more tocommunications data,to beyond access far extend Concerns journalists’onbillthesources enables policethe Thenarrow focusof 33 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 34 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 fetvns o a itliec srie a oie oc, government a force, police a service, operational intelligence the an impede of “unduly effectiveness to not and operation”; enforcement law a or operation security or intelligence an of success the “jeopardise what we want to see in the bill – namely PACE and the Terrorism Act – has andtheirfamilies. oureditorialcolleagues sources andtothelives of of the from media, poses input a risk anyto the rolethe mediaof of as a watchdog, absence to the the protection in activity, authorised surveillance unknownthat and society; our foressential is account to peopleholding investigative that of important;vitally is workaccount to power thein those holding journalists that is however, suggesting, are we What legitimate investigation their simply chosen becauseprofession”. of from protection blanketreceive should journalist a that mean not does and journalists’ the interaction with their stating sources must be protected, bill, but that the material journalistic confidential of “that advocates forcefullygovernment reform further for calls rejected Howe, Lord is a commitment to the overarching expression. principles freedom of of trade abovebut organisations and businesses different underlyingthe differences media, news local and associations, the NUJ nationaland organisations such Editors.as the Society Veryof together brought has sources contact the person toto discuss the matter”.permitted are neither if concerned person the to harm’ or prejudice watchdogs relevant would be able the othererrorto “determinehas causedif ‘significant or commissioner judicial the whether questions further reinforces … our concerns that the rights convention person’s threshold is being set artificially a high”. It of breach a simply than more be must personany of ‘relevant error’ is a extremely informing high”. The for fact thresholdthat the “the “breach that said watchdog surveillance current population – ever know that a warrant existed. ill-defined an “significant causedconcept prejudice of or harm” will has journalists – requestand the wider a such where Only granted. or made been has request a thatknowing everjournalists prevent to way a such department orHerMajesty’s forces.” Todate, legislation that provides the equivalent protection level to of law.theabove are journalists suggested has industry the in one No minister,Office Home then the bill, the on debateLords recent a In journalists’ of protection the and bill the of reform for campaign The committeejointthescrutinisedthatbill, thesubmission the its to In in up set oversightis systemof the stands, bill What’sthe worse,as ign de it te t ucvr h whole the uncover to them into deep and digging miss rivals many stories revealing while small team, which had continued to be innovative a revamped, supercharged website. providing total to digital service coverage radio-based for Radio a 1 and from 1Xtra’s transition on-air the news while made also offering team skilled multi- this audience, young a Targeting Newsbeat. BBC by won been has Awardsby Media organised Online 2016 the of part as Outstanding Digital Team the Year of in online news journalism, presented annual The Award Digital BJR wins Newsbeat BBC 2004. since Parliament around and in issues policy public on worked public policy at Matt Rogerson has beenheadof PACE –thecontinuation ajudge of principlesforthedigitalage. front of in disclosure against case the make to opportunity prior the bothand notification organisations media giving by supplemented be now must judicialacommissioner. journalists’sourcesfrontthese inof changesBut disclosure inways that have against prevented justicefrom beingserved. appeal of right their used not have organisations Media police. otherwise disclosable material preventfrom finding totheir wayprotections intothese thethe hands useof to organisations news joined not have Terroristsoff. fall to system order and law the of wheels the caused not platforms andinteractiveplatforms storytelling. all using direction, visual novel, a approached from news which Visual Jazeera, Al was – commended Storytelling highly And truth. unru ws hne 4 es online’s News 4 Channel was Runner-up to relate that cases put to welcomesteps takengovernment has The rts Junls Review Journalism British iia Junls Aad o the for Award Journalism Digital The Guardian The The The Drum The since 2013 and has BJR’s @MattRogerson

Newsbeat magazine, winners 35 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 The way we were From the British Journalism Review of 10 years ago (vol.17, issue no 3, 2006)

Doubts about the commitment of the government to its own Freedom of ❛Information Act have again been raised by the leaking of a cabinet memo from Lord Falconer, aimed at reducing the number of requests made under it … the act has been in operation only since January of last year. Yet already the people have discomfited Lord Falconer, the secretary of state for constitutional affairs and , for actually having the temerity to exercise their rights.’ ❜ – BJR editorial

…most of the English fans are great, absolutely normal, absolutely fine ❛and absolutely embarrassed by the significant minority who bring shame on us all. Needless to say, empty vessels made the loudest and most offensive noise. Extravagantly decorated vessels most of them are too, which all goes to reinforce their collective tribal psychology. Some of them had so much sub-dermal ink, I thought they were wearing Hawaiian shirts… ❜ – Nicky Campbell of BBC Radio Five Live on English supporters at the World Cup in Germany

Television and corporate money have created a generation of sporting ❛millionaires, often in their early 20s, so the informal social contact between sports people and journalists, much beloved of the previous generation of journalists, has ended. Want an interview with a top, London- based French footballer? The club may be happy to allow you access, but you will need to clear it with the player’s agent as well as those representing his core sponsors. You can speak to him, but he may want copy, picture and even headline approval, and also a hefty fee. ❜ – Professor Raymond Boyle, of the Stirling Media Research Institute at Stirling University

36 @TheBJReview Not as nice as it looks Steven Barnett

If you believe the white paper on the BBC to be good news, you should read it more closely, says an academic who has

Given the political turmoil of the past few months, it is tempting to see the future of the BBC as a sideshow while the full economic consequences of the Brexit vote unfold. It is therefore worth reminding ourselves that the new BBC charter – due to start on January 1, 2017 but still in the process of being resolved – will see the BBC through a centenary that many assumed it would never achieve. Having survived the depression, a world war, the rise and fall of several political parties, our accession to the EU and innumerable political crises over the past 90 years, this great British icon will at least endure a little longer. The question is, in what form? Before the post-referendum game of cabinet musical chairs, David Cameron’s government published a white paper on the future of the BBC, which bore the clear imprint of his culture secretary , a committed free marketeer who has never liked the size or scale of the BBC. In the run-up to its publication, there were carefully orchestrated leaks that suggested a brutal approach to the new charter. Could Strictly Come Dancing be justified as properly distinctive? Wasn’t the licence fee doomed? Perhaps the scale of technological change demanded only a five-year charter? Should the BBC be forced to move its 10 o’clock news to avoid clashing with ITV? Perhaps there should be a much broader instruction not to schedule competitively against commercial channels in peak time. And so on. So when the white paper emerged in May 2016, there were sighs of relief. The licence fee was safe. The charter would be extended to 11 years to take it out of the electoral cycle. Such outlandish ideas as banning 37

©Barnett; DOI: 10.1177/0956474816668800; [2016/9] 27:3; 37-42; http://bjr.sagepub.com 38 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 the BBC had emerged unscathed from the warmongering rhetoric that had spin,were never seriously considered). There was widespreada view that the believeyou if (or,ditched quietly been had schedulingcompetitive requirement to provide distinctive content and services at thethe a heart place“Wewill of explicit:position that made Commons of House the in offendrival broadcasters andpublishers, andhisaccompanying statement grievouslyso that BBC the of elementspopulist the intoinroads serious make to Whittingdale’s opportunity was This pages. 100 paper’swhite the throughout times 80 than more form some in pervasive,appearing is major steptowards adiminished,lesspopularandrelevant BBC. any a be bycould implemented,actually is it how on adopted depending and,adaptable be realistically not could government. and However, “distinctiveness” thenotion isof almost infinitely far too jump policy solutiongap” favoured by Whittingdale andthe private sector would bea as it has done almost from the beginning, across the board. So the “market parked on “their” lawn. national and local press, which consistently argue that the BBC’s tanks are wouldITV,benefit– BBC theby Sky, TalkRadioand LBC,thewell asas commercial broadcasters and news publishers avoid and which adopted– if American PBS approach, largely a low-rating,diet of worthy material the that to closer much is model preferred broadcaster. His funded publicly a bymarket the of crowdedout being about complaints their andrivals BBC’scommercialthe forsympathy his of secret no Whittingdalemade the chairmanshipCommons of culture, media and sport select committee, inMayIs theBBCsafe andBradley’s hands? unknown largely and culture secretary new the react to willher predecessor’s How policy BBC?thinking? the about feel minister some interesting questions about the new regime: how does the new prime impact on its independence, its popularity and its journalism. And it raises the BBC’s creative freedoms, which carried through, will, have if a serious answers to select committee questions suggest some serious constraints on Whittingdale’sand whitepaper the of inspection closer A assault. frontal full- a for us preparing in been has press national and department culture accompanied Whittingdale’s appointment. Itshould therefore come as no surprise that the distinctiveness theme But consumers are clear that they want the BBC to continue to operate, 10-year his particularlyduring career,and parliamentary his During howsuccessful the dangerouslyThisis reminderof complacenta and TalkSportbyMurdoch’s NewsCorporation, which over yearspast20the of acquisition £220m recent the to reference withmayhem potential the new proposed service a or a for “significant onlychange” to intervention an existing requires service. which It regime,is easy to current illustrate BBC services’ impact on commercial services”. of aspect “investigateanyhavepowers to also will objectives,it inspired government- against performance taskedwithBBC be quantifying clear policy setparameters for thisthe creationnew to regime”.of Not only metrics will performance and requirements content on regulator the objectives,55page tells us that “the government will provide guidance to BBC content guidanceon Government radio and online”. everyeachand overall,service,andprimetime in both television, onand providersacross other to substantiallydifferent be should BBC the that any ambiguity, the white paper describes this new services plus online)purpose has carefullyas delineated aims“a and objectives.requirement To avoid service licences, whereby each BBC service (individual radio and television involvesystem“distinctiveness”.willalso of This current the rethinking derivednewcharterfromespeciallythatthepurposeswillin – out set be BBC the objectivesfor set to required being is OfcomThus, sanctions”. to “establish a new operating licence regime for the BBC, backed with clear new the of charter rubric – passes to Ofcom. the follows it that ensuring – functions regulatory will be responsible for setting the BBC’s overall direction and strategy, the an independentwithnon-executive board” chairbelow(see details). for “unitary While boardthis a by run be will itself BBC the and abolished Trustis BBC the regime, opportunity.new perfectthe theUnder offers BBC’s overall mission.” core op il e okn t ad xlsv rdo ihs o k’ prflo f of portfolio Sky’s to rights radio exclusive add to looking be will Corp arguenotthat thisrepresented significant a change. Now, however, News TalkSportmight have complained about Live’s5 sports coverage, itcould has lost few opportunities to attack the BBC. Under the old regime, though How? The white paper’s overhaul theof BBC’s governance arrangements Itisdifficult toexaggerate the profound change this involves from the Just to make absolutely sure that Ofcom understands the government’s Whittingdale made it clear in the Commons that Ofcom will be required 39 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 40 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 distinctiveness” when itstartscompetingforthosevaluable sportsrights. is complaint a before long BBC’sregisteredwiththeregulator,new beLive’s 5aboutOfcom, of “lack not surely will It rights. TV exclusive appointees.Some(who really knowoughtto better) defended theon him government be would board nationalBBC’s the four half words,other the in – andmembers vice-chairman chairman, the appoint to power four furthernon-executives. nations,and UK the chair,of eachrepresentmembers designated fourto deputy chair, the including non-executives, be would 10 another least 12-14 members withof just four a maximumto come from of the BBC. At consistshouldboard new proposesthe politicalthatpressure.paper The from BBC the protecting in also but decisions, budgetary and strategic keydetermining onlyin notcrucial will be BBC’sboardunitary the new sovereignbody,its independence. As BBC’scovetedformuch reputation lesssignificantBritishinstitution. and therefore in 2028, we can expect the BBC to be a significantly smaller, less patronised being relevant and popular on as well as dependstrustworthy. survival BBC’s But the this by charter the end of that understand who those from resistancewillbe process,there slow and a willgradually becurtailed. It be willpopular be to BBC’screativefreedom the that possibleperfectly thinkingis it – willchangesecretaryof culturenewperhapsthea herald And right. was He therein lies the problem. operated. While the details BBC are still to be worked the out – how and to difference major a make widespread reaction, the changes were “radical and substantial” and to wouldcontrary that, respondedWhittingdale tame, rather really was paper togive Ofcomfails BBCcompetitorsthevictoriesthey crave.if those course, debates of will be And, conducted distinctiveness. in the contextunbridled of Fleet of Street hostility definitions and programmes new about debates regulatory defensive into dragged be will Ofcom and new structure being implemented, the BBC will be challenged and both it Mirror the inevitableis It on.aboutnews,thatwithinlocal so Trinity monthsof and 12 online, BBC about about Newspapers) Associated (formerly complaining ITV 1, Radio BBC on Saturday night BBC1 attack scheduling, an Telegraph Media Group mount and DMG to Media wanting eoe i dprue Witndl ws nitn o rtiig the retaining on insisting was Whittingdale departure, his Before the on time this front, second a opened paperwhite Meanwhile, the When challenged by the culture select committee on whether the white And it’s unlikely to be alone: waiting in the wings will be Global Radio campaigning for Brexit argued vociferously that, once liberated from the fromliberatedvociferously arguedonce that,Brexit forcampaigning powerful barons, press will have enlightenedapproach. amore to ties few with minister prime new a by emboldenedBradley, perhaps whether or successor, his by continued be will – proposals keypaper’s white the in reflected – rivals sectorprivate BBC’s the of interests the withalignmentclose whether his is nowquestion The campaigned. long in his swift departure in the wakea Brexit of vote for which had he himself by his enthusiasm for the eurosceptic cause, and there is certainly an irony antagonism Whittingdale’s politicalleaders. state broadcaster subjecttothewhim of difference the understandsa and interferencepolitical fromprotected broadcasterpublic Britain abetween that audiences international and it and understandsif the vital importancesending aof message to national thenew government therefore,enough precedents hasthe political if will anygovernmentfromentirelyinfluencebyfree parliament. are,or There compositionwas its thatguarantee self-regulation) to press on structure post-Levesonthe of part (as up setRecognition wasPressPanel the and wholly A influence. judges, politicalsenior appoints Commission any Appointments Judicial independent from removed entirely not is that hiswillingness tobecomedirectly involved.of a newprocess trustee of for the National Portrait Gallery, a clear indicator rebuke to Whittingdale’s be attempt to not interfere with should the board public the selection appointmentsrelevant informed of minister’s independent preferred candidates. an This was a – direct crucially – that and Conservativethere should be a a smaller board with (with a higher proportion committee BBC of executives, selectmajority) concluded itsinfinalreport theonBBC’s futureAugustin that culture the Even strategic decisions. and editorial day-to-day for responsible never was it though governmentappointments,wereevenTrustmembers BBC that grounds oe fr ulc racses n hs cutis eprtl tyn to trying desperately countries those in broadcasters public for model role a BBC, independenttruly and resourcedwell vibrant, a thanworld the throughout better UK the represents that nothing is There nation. EU straitjacket, Britain could embrace the world as a truly internationalist hr i a ute ioy n h rfrnu rsl i ta those that in result referendum the in irony further a is There Whittingdale’s antagonism towards the BBC was perhaps just exceeded In fact, there is no conceivable justification for an appointments system 41 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 42 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 oenet nefrne bt lo n h hg pbi afcin ht it that affection public huge the on also but interference, government extricate themselves politically from the motivated grip of state censors. to the House of Lords select committee on communications. Lords on selectcommittee to the Houseof the a memberof Steven Barnett communications is professor at the Westminster of University of and have beensettled. but his the new government’s, that andprevails once the the details new of charter Whittingdale that ideological BBCallies always evisceratedenvisaged. Let worthier,us hope that it will the not be his legacy,precisely in result will constraints of more yet impose plenty To “expansionism”. further are There profits.prevent to place in already their BBC the oneffectivechecks and transparent on impinges that Service National a Health accept must specialists Street way, Harley same the In principles.much interest public on operating economy mixed a of nature the is that but sector,market same the in operating corporations those less are that programming of intrinsically kinds popular. the and documentaries current programmes, affairs, arts journalism, domestic and foreign as well as comedy, , sport, pop music and entertainmentthe highestof quality, culture.popular ThatBritish affection has been hard earned through of its ability to heartprovide the at place its cements which and commands Certainly, the BBC’s continued popularity will dent the profitability of from freedom on only not founded is reputation international Its BJR editorial board. He served for several years as specialist adviser

@stevenjbarnett @TheBJReview Job wanted, will travel Colin Freeman

Who will pay foreign correspondents now papers are so short of money – and do we actually need them?

Deep in the bowels of The Daily Telegraph’s offices there is a large, walk-in storage room known as “the foreign desk cupboard”. It’s full of frontline clobber such as first aid kits and gas masks, but like any office cupboard, it’s also a dumping ground for old junk, and therefore a mini museum to the ever-changing craft of the foreign correspondent. There are bulky flak jackets that look like they date back to the Bosnian war, early satellite phones that are only slightly smaller and a stash of ring- binder files on subjects such as Saddam Hussein and his oil-for-food scam. What really showed me how our world has changed, though, was a wooden box of correspondents’ contact details, which had somehow found its way there from our old offices in Fleet Street. Printed on brown and cream paper like old-fashioned library cards, they were a window into a bygone era of foreign correspondence. Next to one reporter’s card, for example, was a note saying he was travelling by ocean liner to cover Churchill’s speech at the 1943 Cairo conference. Any messages could be left at his club, the Garrick. For me, the one that stood out was a chap who sounded like the title of a Graham Greene novel. He was the “deputy Montevideo correspondent”. What? We had a stringer in Montevideo? (it’s in Uruguay, in case, like me, you’d forgotten). Not only that, we had a deputy? I Googled Uruguay to see what big events had taken place there in modern times, only to discover a tiny, well-ordered Latin American nation of 3million. Even in the bad old days of the Dirty Wars, it was relatively unscarred compared with its 43

©Freeman; DOI: 10.1177/0956474816668801; [2016/9] 27:3; 43-46; http://bjr.sagepub.com 44 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 the romantic in me, I can’t see the democracy,of peace,corruption lackand otherof dull stuff. Sad as it is for neighbours, and today it is ranked first in Latin America in various indexes reasonable one. Why, in the globalised 21st century, should someone like me like anthropologists studying somenear-extinct tribeintheAmazon. oneday have hardly any full-time foreign correspondents left tointerview, with the military. The way things are going across the industry, they mightthe role reportersof in conflict zones, or the journalistic ethics fromembedding of some post-grad wanting to interview me for an earnest dissertation on correspondence than there are actually doing it. foreign aboutwriting people more far days,are thesethere that is trend judging by the medianumber studies of experts it quotes, another gloomy specialists. outside the mediawestern decentworld and forjournalism the citizenreduced need for old-schoolof foreigngrowth news the and war cold the of titled prescientlyreport, “Are rather foreign correspondents a redundant?” It cites variously compiled the end 2010 in which University Oxford Reutersat Institutethe least not question,this haveasked alreadymine at correspondents based foreign too. In the week redundancy,that I was warned of so too were two London- expensivean business. Up-and-comingpinch, digitalthefeelingrivals are always possible – especially on the foreign desk, which by natureweb turningaudiencesreliabletends intoadvertising to revenues,be arestaffing cuts facingtough times inthe digital age. Until someone cracks the alchemy of the Ebola crisis. springArabprotestsCairo,sturdy the in or wellies woreI while covering more barging into the foreign desk cupboard to pick up a teargas mask for over.countries,are 60 from reported which duringINo life, my yearsof best the the of Ten Johannesburg. of in correspondent Africa four our and editor, of one was I July, journaliststo be made redundant, along with the Middle East editor, of Asia As too. over anycorrespondent timesoon. Indeed, in my more recent years at the yearsat recent more my in Indeed, More depressingly, it also blames the therise beanof counter, although thanFiner mindstrade? my of future the for mean thiswhat doesSo well,newspapersare too all knows mediaanyone followsthewhoAs Then again, my days of rummaging in the foreign desk cupboard are cupboarddesk foreign the in rummaging daysmyof again, Then Yet, to be fair,Yet,questiona academicsbewasoftenthemost thetoasked me Vice Telegraph , along with several other staff. hiring a new deputy Montevideo Telegraph Telegraph’s , I’d regularly get calls calls I’dget regularly, eir foreign senior ih i on aea ad ih ite ie o liuey &s n the in G&Ts leisurely for time little with and camera, own his with possiblyworkingbasis,freelancequitebe a he’ll thaton that chancesare the but yes– Whickeris Alanlike?Willhopeeven lookMyexist? age he his viewers back home. becausehe scripts his material beautifully, with pithy insights tailored for It’sthat. superb of enough proof is tie and immaculatesuit his atglance It isn’t superb because he’s hip to the Haight-Ashbury happenings, man. A his not, isatasksometimesbettersuitedtotheoutsiderwith eyes. thefresh betweenon-the-ground close-ups and the bigger picture. switchingbrushstrokes,Which, like deftit or broad, is wanted is What detail. of points finer and sub-plots for space limited withprecis, in exercise an is read” “long a evennewspapers, most for But Sure. story? the of grasp better A task bestsuitedtothe outsider asdeputyMontevideomade thegrade correspondent. yetevenhasn’t who someone mindnever us, of best the for challenge a that seemed a bit shaky, but which the editor mentioned in conference? It’s days, and adding in wit and colour? Not to mention that line from simultaneously pushing the story forward, taking in the “devs”last fewof style,house inwords 1,500 write to them expectreallymatter. differentyou Can a it’s together, all it putting to comes it when but gatherers, that Uruguay is a big story. Those local citizen-journos may be fine as news daythe newsroomon themselvesa imagine in to them editor, ask to was my tribelike toputit,“bearwitness”? pompousof as themore throwbacks to the colonial era, pitching upjustinstead? Werenot jobhacks the melikefor Englishdo fluentcould who a few days and then presuming, withiPhones,andarmedUruguayinternetaccesslocalswere whenthere despatchedbecoverexpensegreat say,Londonfromtoin,atdramasome redundant elsewhere to see if they are still in the game. A few are, but are, few A game. the in still are they if see toelsewhere redundant a living – I tracked downfellow aforeign number correspondents of made clubhouse afterwards. Whicker’s World spr fAs mypart researchof for this article – and also to I seecan if still earn the the globetrottingdays big shot are over, of If what will the digital- Whicker,Alanherooldmy doing example,of filmsforthoseLook,at Ah yes, the post-grads would argue, but don’t the local guys have a far foreign as deputising experiences bitter of partly answer, born My piece on the flower power scene in 1960s San Francisco. The Times

45 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 46 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 outlets, supplemented by video work and perhaps some corporate corporate some perhaps and work consultancy. video Books, bywhich were once supplemented a common outletoutlets, for former journalists, various for reporting of bitcareer. portfolioA of kindincreasinglyit’s a Baghdad). Baghdad). the Al-DulaimiThe Hotel Curse (and of Other Half-truths From Colin Freeman isauthor of I wonder justhow many will keep going. nothing now on offer beyond the rank deputyof there’s job. MontevideoIf oneday landing staff a likedid,stickI theouthopeinitof correspondent, coveringfreelancersdo Syriajustthem,today. of suspectmostthat I But of newgeneration a as just ago, decade a rookieIraq a in as risk freelancer that ran I Sure,out?employers different me help obliged to feelmight of did.it happensIf again though – God forbid – whoany if among a portfolio the knew I 2008, one Whatis kidnapped, if for example? When I was abducted in Somalia in like.wouldI braverthanrather be havetomay I correspondent,foreign certain extent. a to owners of indulgencehavedesksusuallyenjoyed theforeign funded places seldom help sell newspapersinstinct. Stories and aboutwell- far-off sentby Fleet Street. £275 if £300a day working in Africa for a well-known charity, compared to about for NGOs is also a useful sideline. One photographer told me he could earn long-termprojects suchinvestigations,filmsandas while public other relations and books for bursaries provide bodies grant-making and Trusts private.the as days these sector public the from backing seek to likely or SASman. non- for fiction work, contract let alone a a decent even advance, find unless it’s to thea memoirs“sleb” lucky of are you days These newspapers. as doldrumsdigital same the in is trade his me, tells reportage of twobooks own my of publisher the As were. they bolthole the longer no are Nonetheless, if Nonetheless,I am to if succeed in the brave new worldthe freelance of True,foreigncorrespondencealways has certaincharitablea on relied as are idea book a with ahead press to want still who those Indeed, He isavailable for work. Telegraph Kidnapped: Life as a Somali Pirate Hostage asaSomaliPirateHostage Kidnapped:Life would do its best to get me out, and indeed it indeedand out, me get to best its woulddo

@colinfreeman99 and

QUOTES OF THE QUARTER

❛We are in the midst of a fundamental change in the values of journalism – a consumerist shift. Instead of strengthening social bonds, or creating an informed public, or the idea of news as a civic good, a democratic necessity, it creates gangs, which spread instant falsehoods that fit their views, reinforcing each other’s beliefs, driving each other deeper into shared opinions, rather than established facts.❜ – , editor, The Guardian

❛I try to be a voice to those people who have been denied a voice, who cannot find their voice, for those people who feel that the world is too complicated to have a voice. I try to do that with every report that I have been involved with.❜ – George Alagiah, BBC journalist, receiving the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcast Journalism

❛We were a small group trying to help members of the public while upholding the principle of freedom of expression. But the PCC’s phone- hacking report was wrong. And we were widely criticised for being insufficiently interested in hacking, which has a certain amount of truth to it. We were overwhelmed, and I spent two years trying to keep the PCC relevant as the scandal grew worse. Let’s be honest: it was an issue that bamboozled institutions a lot more powerful than the PCC.❜ – Stig Abell, editor of the Times Literary Supplement, on his time as director of the Press Complaints Commission

❛I don’t think people should punch their colleagues. It’s hard to keep them if they do. But I would say his pungent, transgressive, slightly out-of-control talent was something the BBC could ill afford to lose. He spoke to people who didn’t find much else in the BBC.❜ Mark Thompson, chief executive of The New York Times and former director-general of the BBC, on

47 @TheBJReview And you think UK papers are biased? Henry Sands

When a government shuts down the country’s only objective newspaper, there are highly original ways to speak out

On all major crossroads across the Zambian capital of Lusaka you find people selling the three main newspapers: the Zambia Daily Mail, the Times of Zambia and the Daily Nation. It does not really matter which one you buy, each is unashamedly pro-government and produces a daily litany of abusive headlines on the main opposition party, the United Party for National Development (UPND). There is a larger, fourth newspaper, but its distribution is less reliable. The Post is owned and edited by a colourful individual named Fred M’membe. For many years it managed to remain largely independent of political parties, a thorn in the side of corrupt officials and underhand businessmen. Its tagline was “without fear or favour”. Previous governments and opposition parties regularly took a bashing from The Post, widely admired across Zambian society as representing the democratic values and accountability the country traded on. But those values have eroded since Edgar Lungu became president in January 2015 in a disputed presidential by-election following the death of his predecessor, Michael Sata. With less than six weeks before a new election this August, the offices and printers of The Post newspaper shut down following a string of headlines criticising the brutality of Lungu’s regime and alleging corruption in his government. M’membe, his deputy and his wife were arrested and beaten by armed police officers. The official reason for the raid was unpaid tax bills. Nobody disputes 48 that money is owed, but M’membe says his business is more up to date

©Sands; DOI: 10.1177/0956474816668802; [2016/9] 27:3; 48-52; http://bjr.sagepub.com community stations radio andphysical campaigning. particularlylocal means, other by out messages our get to workedhard Lusaka and the Copperbelt, their impact in areas beyond is limited. So we andtelevision have tractionthe country, inthe two largest urban areas of Fortunately,channels.workingotheralreadymedia were print we while and onlything the longer no arecourse, frustrating.was Newspapers,of channelschallenging;wasfew having key,the objective downshutoutlet wereelectoratesowhen therethe to message a Zambia.Tryingget in to HakaindeHichilema, I’ve had particulara interest inwhat was happening elections. to build-up the in case each in – year past the in Djibouti and Congo Republicof the Uganda, in declined has focused on defending press the around freedom the of world, press freedom NGO Paris-based a Borders, Without Reporters to According disabled. or anything else that could influence the outcome, should be supportive or tendersandother business opportunities. Thereviewais that of themedia, awarding the on resting dollars of millions with high, are supporters their and incumbents for stakes The time. election aroundparticularly Be supportive orbedisabled to criticise the government closure. for fear of PatrioticFrontstationsthedared radioforgovernment,popular few and national broadcaster, ZNBC, became little more than a private mouthpiece political reasons, for raising election concerns over the the democracy. state of of ahead silenced been had it suggested They allow in to authorities met Zambian Initiative on called Media and Lusaka African the and Institute Press International than any sums it owed the Zambian revenue authority. Delegates from the advertisingin from incurred had government thethat billsunpaidclearthat became alsodebts off.written taxIt their hadhave newspapers other that and Zambia in organisations most than content may not be the most in-depth or sophisticated,in-depthnationmostorruralthecontent may bea notfor 1,000 around are audience.their ThereWhile local specific available.awith eachZambia, across operating are grants international of plenty It does not take too many resources to launch a community station and leader,opposition the of campaign election the to adviser paid a As Africa, of much in new nothing is freedom press on Restrictions Thecrackdown pressonfreedom was notlimited printto media. The The Post The h Post The amounted to more toamounted o reopen. to 49 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 50 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 get some sense of news.get some sense of that lives largely off-grid, these stations represent the only opportunity to voters to vote. and raising awareness the of candidate, as well as mobilising disenfranchised they had seen any sort film, of and it time went first some the many,Forwaswayunprecedented. itwas in impact changingthe butperceptions UK, the film onto a bedsheet tied between two trees. projectand running peopletrucks’ bring loudspeakersthe tofrommusic some play village, a in up turn just wouldwe times other at members; schoolcommunityhallaor centrewas preparedadvancein by localparty local screenings.a Sometimesholding and deprivedareas and rural most more urban areas, the team criss-crossed the country, the visiting some of the for double-deckerbus branded a andtrucks pick-up of fleet a hiring grounds that they the were government. critical of course, ZNBCrefusedshow to thedocumentary theadvertsor Of theon short of series forand what hewould a arounddototurn the country’s fledgling economy. and documentary a opposition’sthe advertisements life,leaderwhatthebasedof on stood madehe we activity, for desire killing two the crowd members of in the unrest that followed. and shooting policewith arriving,were supporters overturned once was minute.lastJuly,in case one In oppositionanfor rallyLusakapermit in a opposition instancesapplications of for rally permits being rejected at the political leaders to talk to the people. week and an opposition rally the next, but they did provide a platform for was common to see the same crowds turning up at a government rally one it unclear,for was support popular reflected country.they Whetherthe governmentmonths,acrosstheralliesboth oppositionhuge theheld and movementacross. view oppositionof point their get to any attempting for crucial becoming broadcasting, fair for structureand modest funding, they created areliable and strong platform them largely beyond the grasp state of infiltration. With a strong provincial t s lo h cmag msc s oua i mn Arcn election African many in popular is music campaign why also is It This was a long way from the organised press conferences we see in the people.After the directlytodocumentary the tookwe point that At electorate’sthe on building environment,and restrictive this Given many were Thereintervention. government of signs were too Here blunterPoliticalcampaigningtwoaOverpast tool.offered the rallies put stations these of size small the and number sheer Happily, the elections, shortly before before shortly elections, not if exist, still flourish, in a dictatorship. could We presswere pleased to see, in these free latest Zambian how demonstrated site Jukwa Baba identity.Thehis for sum six-figure a offered himself Mugabe President endeavour.puerileIndeed, and motivesmalicious mole’s the denounced officials in question.” withrepletetheprivate allharass numbers citizenstophone– gossipfor embarrassing and fraud voter of allegations meetings, party high-level report: “Mr Jukwa traffics in political napalm, spilling damaging details of acartoonoldman. profileof picture bearing adisarming Jukwa,Baba called page Facebook a launched party Zanu-PF ruling the horror in government circles when a self-proclaimed, insider disaffected of the imagine Youcan media. balanced a have to pretended even not has highlighted in the Zimbabwe 2013.elections Forof some years, Zimbabwe horror atGovernment cartoon country, it is not easy to close these down. withincreasingly sophisticated server protection, oftenbasedoutsidethe attacks,digitaldown individualwebsite,bringandblogsdesigned to but have been launched by independent organisations. We saw Zambia. someFor that coordinatedreason, several more balanced and reliable news websitesin restrictions such no seenhave we Turkey– recentlyin notably most policy graphics and live-streamed events on Facebook. rates still high, the impact visual of tools was key. We usedinternet clever has but takensimple off, we ran targeted social publicmediamini-buses operations.andlocalin markets. theInmore urbanWith areas, where the illiteracy locala Zambian chorusor beatof can have majora impact, particularly on more than 10 campaign songs for different parts the of country.campaigns. A good jingleIn Zambia, the government and the opposition each commissioned Once they are on the scent of a story, nothing spurs them on as muchas story,as a on them spursnothing of scent the on are theyOnce secrets and lifted the lid on chronic corruption in public services. Kashikulu (a local term for a wise old man), emerge. He spilled government All the good journalists I have worked with want to get to the truth. truth. the to get haveto workedI wantwith journalists good the All state-controlled the Inevitably, then the Smith, David The impact that digital media can have on an African election was first governmentsWhilesome– havemediaworkingsocial beencensor to h Post The Guardian a coe, nw cinl character, fictional new a closed, was fia orsodn, a fis to first was correspondent, Africa Herald esae immediately newspaper 51 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 52 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 ciit wrig n at o Arc wee hr i n pes freedom, press no is restrictions thereseem only to drive wherethem to find more creative waysgetting Africa of of parts in working activists pleasedjournaliststhatamongandtrack.I’m the off themlead effortsto consultancy. theHenry Sabi Sands is the Strategy founder of Group, an international campaigns fairly conducted, yes. votetheis bows.otherIf electoralvictory?bringWill to enough be they andaudience.strings waysnewtargetWe needcommunicatea just toto alternativeare there but media, overpowertraditional holds that party gettingthemessageacross. hardcircumventistoIt findothermeans of a put themselves in harm’s way in the process. seen have I months, six resilience among many past other local the journalists and Overtheir sources, others. who often will Nor cards. Zambian voting with provided being were nationals Malawian that evidence offices his seeing despite up, barricaded after publishing givean undercover the account of activist not who had did M’membe there. is speech Yes:free? not are mediaeventuallytruth the willfreewillthe for forout, those media outlets that were prepared to listen. to and courtsZambian the to evidenceWe’ve ourfraud. takenon based and helpfully, oftenspoke andthefacts forthemselves. access.journalistswithand quicklyfactsrequestsWe to respond international to tried provide to hard worked We report. they what to weight greatergives that caution, of side the on err to sometimes seem they If particularlygiven the reach they have with international pressure groups. realise, they perhaps powerthan and influencewhich haveoutlets,more or fictional social media character. the truth out, evenit is if from behind the an curtain anonymousof website But faced with a government prepared to stifle free speech, we mustwe speech, free stifle to governmentprepared a with faced But So is it possible to get an opposition voice heard in a country where the was victory Lungu’snarrow thatbelieve we but lost, we end the In media international respected for too role important an is There

@HSands99 @TheBJReview Just move to a bigger flat Paul Lashmar

There’s more than a sentimental reason to keep those journalism files. Some day they could be useful

On May 16 I was to give evidence in the high court for 156 tradesmen who had been blacklisted by employers in the construction industry for political or trade union activity. Just a few days before I was due in the witness box the defendant companies opted to settle, issuing an apology and paying damages. It was the last in a series of successful cases involving hundreds of workers. Back in 1988, David Leigh and I, then at The Observer, exposed the infamous blacklisting organisation the Economic League, working with our television counterparts from Wo rl d i n A c t i o n . In January, I was approached by Julie Carlisle, a lawyer from OH Parsons acting for the UCATT union on behalf of the claimants who had been subject to blacklisting. She had heard I had kept the leaked documents from the Economic League story and drove over to my house one Saturday morning to spend some hours reading through a pile of dusty lever-arch files. Obviously delighted and describing it as “the best morning of my life”, Julie told me that the archive could play an important part of the claimant’s case linking the defendants more closely to the blacklisting system. Apparently among the papers were memos on “Services Group” headed notepaper – this was an employers’ group not the Economic League, which the lawyers argued showed that it was an entity separate to the league. I had lists of meetings and attendees that the lawyers believe showed the extent of various companies’ involvement and that suggested they were not, as they had claimed, just consumers of a service. I was able to find a note of a 1988 conversation with the Economic 53

©Lashmar; DOI: 10.1177/0956474816668803; [2016/9] 27:3; 53-58; http://bjr.sagepub.com 54 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 to thenew it home in hours.a matter I of had also started to transfer some active files Panorama win I was delighted, as blacklisting is an insidious practice. It made all made It practice. insidious an isblacklisting as delighted, was I win handed and over documents, thecourt buthadsince beans died. When wasI toldof the spilled defected, had who manager north-west League’s tf a hm, h sy. Bt hn hd o pig from spring to had I when “But says. he home,” at stuff wanted – paper, tapes the lot “Atin big cupboards behind discovered. my desk Meirionand Jones producersensitive BBC former the as media news the of worldvolatile ) and-journalism-media-guidance.pdf ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1552/data-protection- journalists be the awareICO’s of guidance to the media,” he says (https:// that it’sessential concerned, is Act Protection Data the keep.“Asas far to reason havegood longer no wethat stories our from people of details anypersonal of disposeprotectiontojournalists legislationrequiresthat data to conform andyear a £35individually forregistered be mustthey organisation withregistered the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) I gothrough thepaperfilesandwork outwhat I’llnever needagain.” thekeys goodtorecord-keepingyears Oneof disposal. is Every couple of the at held some them sorted into Gmail folders. format, some of But I also have paper files, digitised in files my of mostkeep “I practice:good of model a is Cobain they also theneed archivist the skills andof librarian.” writer, and traveller professional salesman, researcher, the of skills the overthe years, and realisedI some time thatago journalists not only need my storiesof have concerned matters that I’ve returned to again and again have thespace tokeep them.” from latter. retired the I Whenin divideinto two groups, those who keep archives andthose who don’t. I’m the archives their of “greatest hits”. Most do not. As Leigh says: “Journalists seem worthwhile. place to place from archiveboxes large of dozens of cartingyears those Keeping documents in the workplace can have its own problems in the an workingfor not if that are, journalists most as aware, is Cobain Theidealsolutionarchives for work.have to is spaceone’sat placeof from Cobain Ian I offer this story as an examplethe advantages of journalists keepingof to make the Savile film Ihad to grab everything Icould and take Guardian officeinNew Broadcasting House. The Guardian The Newsnight archive and some in a small cupboard at home.atcupboardsmall a archivein some and ws be o ep lot vrtig I everything almost keep to able was I keeps an archivekeepsan says: andfew a “Quite The Guardian The I weeded out a lot. I don’tI lot.weeded a Iout Newsnight to Diamond Wheezer” of HattonDiamond GardenWheezer” robbery of fame, another. Reader“the Brian one, wasThatcher Markgaps. more or decade a with sometimesover andover up come people same the howremarkable also War.Cold theis duringhaveIt interviewwithhim.anotherneverI seen interview with the Soviet the equivalentheadRAF of Strike of Command and much historical more interest.of I was reading a note recently from an stories that are now dead. They include spies, military, years criminals,I havepoliticians done a huge number interviewsof with people with remarkable material sitting boxesin wealththeseinjournalists’ a archives.of is Over the there But psyche. our up prop that books cuttings and collections our documents are another narrative in our the lives,story of like large LP ought tobepreserved. From timetotime,outbeuseful.” they turn in the background stories of I’ve written. They might contain things which onekind anotheror which importantmore documents– wereof involved filesthat may beimportant Hundreds of trouble.” no cause they where house the of parts dark awayin stashed are Theythings.away personal I keep them because – for some psychological reason – I don’t like throwing use. They shorthandare full and of scribble on stories which are long past. 40 years ago,” he says. “That is not because I think they have any practical self-confessed, a is obsessive archiver. Davies, Nick scandal, hacking who phone journalist The the paper. revealed on copies hard of age pre-electronic the in actively working stillon in Sept-Decwas 2012.” I stuff some missing I’m but etc detectors bomb bogusSavile, funds, vulture weapons, nuclear metre), cubic a (probably Trafigura – filesmymain 20-plusafterhouse years. I’veisresult netThe of mostgot of the contract for the coup and we ran that story and got pick-up for it.pick-up forgot and story that we andran coup the contractfor the of brokestory(, holdEquatorial Mann,gotSimon Guinea) I Wongacoup the when this: is files keeping of use “Aof example simple “Since then I’ve been squeezed out of the BBC altogether and movedandaltogether BBC the I’veof thenout“Sincesqueezed been Jones points to advantage of keeping rather than binning documents.binningkeepingthanrather advantagetoJonespoints of andus– this may suspectbeImainly that forblokea some of thing – be may that information of files of hundreds have also “I adds: He papershavelocal “I on kepteveryoutstarted singlenotebook I since Thearchive spaceproblem seriousmostjournalistsisfor who worked 55 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 56 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 got coverage allover again.” Years later, when Mann was released, I was able to fish out the files and we photographs that were given to me in 1982 when I was investigating police when I wrote Blacklist.” by me to givenpaper A3 workersonconstruction of Blacklistactual an in 1988. “Some documents are almost impossible to digitalise – for book his for example,used archiveshe the keptthat he because lost therushes.” Russian spy – the only one in existence – for which the BBC has brilliantlyIvanovichwiththeinterview filmed long a did I because Affair Profumo abuse investigations, an inquiry now led by Alexis Jay) and a return to the Goddardthetoduring up runtheinquiry (my children’sold homeschild and says: “I have boxes in my attic old of files, notebooks, cuttings and thiscouldbedone.”to othersbefore journalists’archive,centralthroughothersa would Ithoughhave talk to traceable non-easily hopefullyplaces. This is in the material elsewhere,I think would storedbe good to havedigitise and share with I documents sensitivehouse.Other the of side thedown waterruns blocked and gets and key in a stone cellar. It’s usually dry, exceptlock under whenhome atboxes thein storedlocal filesassortedstorm notebooks drain and yearsof self- possibly is and uses she explanatory. phrase the exactly that’s – boxes’ of thinks ‘those half other my what of question the “On me: told years, many my partner’s appreciation. facility,storage secure rentedto rarely recentlya more garage, the shed, partners. At various points my archives havewithwell takendown overgo the basement,not the do obsessions consuming space Such on. goings Strangelovian war cold on another and spies on archive an have I man. about the Baker Street, Brinks Mat or Security Express robberies? I’m your still have a lot. I have a large repository on major UK crime – want to know shredded all those that I just could not see being useful in the future but I epn rhvsde aeisohrmr sa eet.Ihv e fof set a have I benefits. fiscal more other its have does archives Keeping the on help to able also was Hollingsworth Mark Sue Bishop, the former Mirror Group, Channel 4 and BBC investigator, “The old files are certainly useful,” he hastens to add. “I have about 30 Fowler,Andrew whoworked has ABC’sfor Although I don’t really have space I have paid to keep it securely. I have atchdog o d h c t Wa films. The main times they have come in to use havebeen use to in havecome they times main Thefilms. Four Corners Four Blacklist Blacklist programme for , published, campaign Newsnight

ubr f orait wo ae ie st o ter ouet to documents their of sets given have who journalists of number of editor deputy former Bell, Andy discovered. have I expensive,as is that but warehouses storage in them keep Some keeping together. the rest got binned.” Most of related to crime and the extreme right. Thatpapers was myI the thoughtstuff allworth taken has Northampton of Universityuniversities.“The “The number of occasions I was referring back to the material was tiny.wasmaterial the to back referring was I occasions of number“The havefurthera 150-200 go.to What madeCampbell handhisarchive over? they estimate but Edinburgh to boxesarchive 40 some dispatchedhave cabinetfilingdrawers.60 collections they far archive So equivalentthe the as sizeof special documents the story to library.estimatesEdinburgh Campbell going of Universityof the at department are archive They his 1970s. box the and since log collectedto partner his with working who first revealed GCHQ the in existence1976, takes of the biscuit. He is asbestos industry to the Strathclyde. University of the documentsonhis handed has he seeyousearch canandengine a into universities to have documents given Journalists and Ifinditsomuch easiertopulloutthefilingcabinet draw.” with scanning and digital archiving is that it is incredibly time-consuming drive.Hollingsworthproblemhardsays: “The large a to reduced be can 1990s and I find something.” and 1980s thepoliticiananything fromknowbusinessman or I a about if have provided some useful extra income. You also do get I’m known robberies. to variousbe regularlya resource.contacted for of interviews for real-life-crime him documentaries. suspected These which Yard, Scotland of families taken in exotic locations and abroadcrime whenin comrades he his waswith Reader avoiding Brian include Theythe corruption.attention several days going through the material. “They thought it was valuablewas it thought “Theymaterial. the through daysgoingseveral wanting material was several or so times a year.”researchersby blue the of out contactedwas I times of numberthe But The university sent archivists on a scoping exercise and they spent they and exercise scoping a on archivists sentuniversity The Inarchive terms of size, Duncan Campbell, the investigative journalist Tap Laurie Flynn, in the name the of former So how to get “those boxes” theout houseof when it all gets too much? documents of full house a materialso the all scan to approachis One Hollingsworth says: “I have thelost timescount newspapersof ask me or n o i t c A n i d rl Wo Panorama i oe f a of one is , producer, 57 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 58 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 good home. “It is nice to be memorialised in this way.”a is to going what isarchive the that pleased of is He knowledgeCampbell.says important,” special own their have archivists and material those with archive, to contact him at [email protected] at him contact to archive, with those Dr Paul journalism Lashmar at is the headSussex of University and would of like history. in place their await yesteryear will storiesof country,great the hard-wononce documents of job.” big a be would which suing somebody. So I’d have to read every document before handing it over,start to buggerevil someallow off-the-recordorsource disclosean could that somethingover handing about worried be I’d but historian, future these files in an archive. I can see that that could possibly be useful for some withjournalists thiswould provide archive. forausefullong-term And scanning can be expensive. So setting up a funded organisation to help unproven information from inquiries is or not sourcesreleased from intoinformation personalthe that public sure domain.make and materialweed to time-consumingbe He can electronic.it that or archivingis withproblem believestape,the or paper on is it whether of regardless material for project archive central investigative a journalists scope and he has been to looking at options him for a year inspired or so. This decades. five libraryaand files collected itiscreaking over under thestrain of thepast InvestigativeTheforCentre of Journalism (TCIJ), Gavin director McFadyen, the knows of home the visited has whoAnyone researchers. future organisation that would archive professionally so they could be available to go, incasethey leave.” systema upset duplicateto emails allintotheirpersonal accounttheyas to organisation large anyoneworkingfor recommend would I hours. plus try to had I and email on workwasintensivefromlabouracross It 100- them copypersonal. – lot to a of hell a keep also “I advice. some has Jones manage. to hard be can they space less up take they though and scans, enhl i bsmns lfs ad trg fclte aon the around facilities storage and lofts, basements, in Meanwhile Davies fears this might have its problems. “I don’t know about storing this archive to interest national the in be would it saysMcFadyen not-for-profit a for useful be would felt to spoke I people Several Increasingly,emailsand archive materialof form thecomesin of lot a

@plashmar @TheBJReview When Yorkshire ruled the world Tim Luckhurst

How a great provincial editor defied his own proprietor to challenge the British prime minister at a time of European crisis

Newspapers rarely flatter their rivals. So when, in November 1939, The Manchester Guardian praised The Yorkshire Post, it was not entirely sincere. The praise marked the Post’s merger with The Leeds Mercury. This, the Guardian declared, spelled death for a distinctive voice. Only then did it praise the corpse for “soundness in judgement, tenacity of purpose, loyalty to principle and the courage to be unpopular … throughout the long controversy about British foreign policy which began with Mr Chamberlain’s Premiership”. Responsible for these qualities was Arthur Mann, editor of the Yorkshire Post between 1919 and 1939. An austere individual with “penetrating observation” and “shrewd judgement”, Mann is a woefully neglected example of an editor who understood the power and importance of dissident journalism and who, in the most difficult of circumstances, did his duty brilliantly. As the internet disrupts such journalism, challenging the economic base on which it depends, such heroes serve to remind us just how much newspapers matter. Mann was the first of 13 children. He attended Warwick School before joining the We s t e r n M a i l as an apprentice. His first editorship was of Birmingham’s Despatch between 1905 and 1912. In 1915, he was appointed editor of The . His appointment at The Yorkshire Post came after the death of John Phillips, editor from 1903-1919. Phillips relished leader writing. Mann delegated the work, but he gave meticulous instructions to his leader writers. Mann was appointed a Companion of Honour for his opposition to 59

©Luckhurst; DOI: 10.1177/0956474816668804; [2016/9] 27:3; 59-65; http://bjr.sagepub.com 60 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 small band of historians. So I set out to study his journalism and his his and journalism his study to out set I So historians. of band small the what about nothing actually said about appeasement, us and Mann is little remembered beyond tell a accolades such but appeasement, in a state of uncertainty and terror as to what act of tyranny is to come totyranny is of whatact to as terror anduncertainty of state a in “Noappeasement the whole is worth continent the name is toif continue any otherConservative title. the government, wentit partyof further itshostilityin to appeasementto than link umbilical this Despite Company. Newspaper Conservative The policy. So Mann faced oppositionstiff and his not only a of from criticism Chamberlain,newspaper the prevent prime whento determinedminister. appeaser,was time zealous a was It 1939. March in Czechoslovakia of built up to the Munich Crisis in September and ended with Nazi occupationpolicy’s most intense phase. This began with the Anschluss in March 1938, about any alternative. and at a when time the stuff was This uncompromising them”.with deal to men, firmly qualified less still and problem, containedinternational the or national cabinet the the of realities the said grasp to It unfitted “temperamentally Austria”. in arriving then even were Germany in Jew-baitersworst the of “some while reassurance, of on March 16, 1938, the theBritishgovernment. Initsleader Mann madehisnewspaper acriticof my and war of risk the run opponents to are not.’” ready am I because way my get shall ‘I shouted: and table the banged “Hitler Hitler.Mann: toldmet Murray interviewed the Austrian chancellor, Kurt the Schuschnigg, by after the latter and had writer, leader Tower,Charles by reinforced chief wasantipathy his His 1936. March in Rhineland aboutGermanyfromthe sceptical moment this the reoccupied been had whichMann security,appeasement. collective of favour in abandon of wouldChamberlain policy Nation’s of League the supported newspapers to challenge appeasement contest its value and purpose? few the of one editor’sof editorduty.an the did How understanding of

On March 21, 1938, immediately after the Anschluss, the I have studied 1938, March in Austria into troops German of entry Followingthe Before Neville Chamberlain became prime minister in May 1937, Mann Yorkshire Post Yorkshire The Times championed appeasement and the Left press had grave doubts was a Conservative newspaper published by the Yorkshire Yorkshire the by published newspaper Conservative a was The Yorkshire Post’s Post accused ministersuttering of unrealistic words Post’s a i Ven, R ury wo had who Murray, LR Vienna, in man opposition to appeasement during the Daily Express Post , Daily Mail warned: Post

affairs. ExpressDaily Times The intolerable threat to peace. But Conservative titles found little to criticise. Guardian Herald Liberal The appeasement. circles.” In a fog it is so much better to go straight in any direction than to grope in “Mr Churchill makes it perfectly clear where he stands and what he wants. newspaper. a Conservative for choice a reviewed second The opposition”. of speeches collectionby Churchill. of The league rebellious Churchill was a telling “real a for called and for long. Two articles in June 1938 made it plain. One condemned aggression The road toMunich “benefited the theatres hadquite considerably”. Nazis, the by organised “working-class audiences”, for seats price the cut- under systema that noted Berlin”.of It Nazi appeared of side lighter “The headline: example to such One attempts Germany. new with the criticism understand temper would he Occasionally risks. the newspaper, and especially British newspaper, criticism.” Mann understood criticism press took Hitler thatseriously. extremely warned who Berlin, to ambassador Britain’sHenderson,NevileSir of support the had he and Führer the of an intellectuallyopinions of great people are completely silenced?” free whichtheunder regime adictator. isno whatelseGermanyhas But that says “He himself: Hitler on fire turned Mann 11, April On next.” h cara o te okhr Cnevtv Nwppr Company MarchonMann1938.ThemetPrimeeditor 21,Ministertheencouraged Newspaper newspaper.Chamberlainhis Conservative of Yorkshireout opinion his keep to thehim encouraged of chairman the andMinister Prime the scepticismthanAnschluss reinforcedhis the had Mann stood alone as the editor of a Conservativea soonerno title, but of editorthe asalone stoodMann crisis, Munich the Before But Mann’s determination to fight appeasement never remained hidden to sensitive “unreasonably was Hitler that explained Henderson Mann was playing with fire. Chamberlain favoured emollient treatment advertised the need to oppose German ambitions. The eonsd ht h fl o Cehsoai wud rae an create would Czechoslovakia of fall the that recognised believed Chamberlain could do no wrong and the

Daily Telegraph believedavoid shouldBritain anyEuropeanentanglement in did not question Hitler’s good faith. es Chronicle News The

okhr Post Yorkshire The Yorkshire Post’s and Labour-supporting was not a lone critic of reviewer observed: The Manchester The DailyMail Daily and 61 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 62 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 11.15 and it is now 11.14.” The chairman, Rupert Beckett, wrote to his to RupertwroteBeckett,chairman, The 11.14.” now is it and 11.15 newspapers”and exited announcing: “I’m afraid haveI anappointment at provincialthe read to busy “too was he Chamberlainsaid robust. be to indebted to the Prime Minister for his unsparingindebtedMinistersuccessfulPrimehisandthefor efforts to to personalise the issue. mindedwill really prove peace-mindednotdid stillMannfuture?” But in his to bowed had had Britainso man aconfident thatpossibledemands.wethatfeelshould it “How is and Hitler wanted he unconscionable”. what get and to war “harsh threatened were terms The scathing. was he Now 1938. 3, October on Munich Chamberlain’sof explanation policy and cease personal criticisms which alienate Conservative opinion”. on September 30 insisting that recognise Munich as a success for Chamberlain. Beckett wrote to his editor to Germany. Now Mann came under intense pressure from his chairman to Czech consent, the without prime Here, Berchtesgaden.minister at conceded Führer the the transfer meetthe of Sudetenland to flew Chamberlain authority national at peril”. this time of he worse, be believed, could “than Nothing for dissent Chamberlain. at home with to undermine the break British Government’s final a resisted Mann Yet trouble”. avoid to necessary was price whatever paying into declared appeasement was likely “to suggest that we could be blackmailedanother later week A Europe”. Central of domination for Hitler’splans forwardto usedfatally bewoundedthe thatthen couldhope state the in disintegratingCzechoslovakia of meansa asSudeten “using Germansthe government policy. of wereNazisAugustthethatwarnedonleader 29 A stumbledtowards failuredidMannmove towards outright condemnation an irrevocable break with government, party and prime minister. between became these intense,interpretations but tension summer, the into turned 1938 spring justice. As anddemocracy conflict while adhering to principles of Mann it meant eliminating causes of anypeaceprice.at maintenance littleFormean thethanmoretocome of appeasementdistinct from the Prime Minister’s. Chamberlain’s version had by-day the YP leaders devoted to foreign policy”. editor on March 23, warning that “withhe had read growing day- concern n etme 1, ih h cii apocig oln point, boiling approaching crisis the with 15, September On crisis Czechoslovakia the resolve to efforts Chamberlain’s as Only of definition a deploying by reconciliation attempted Mann Now Mann postponed comment until the House of Commons had heard had Commons of House the until comment postponed Mann The

Yorkshire Post Yorkshire The Yorkshire Post observed “the nation remains deeply must “loyally support this The

Yorkshire Post Yorkshire resisted ih “o uls tee xrm cmet aant h P” Directors PM”. the against comments extreme these publish “to right immediately. He wrote to his editor on December 8, insisting Mann had no to apolicy which issogravely national asawhole”. endangering interests it should, for thea partysake advantage,of continue to give blind support Conservativethe thatthan Party more of prestigethefinally could harm “Nothing that: warned and opinion its express to newspaper’sduty the graver, that we are stating in some detail our case against it”. the realm, of and is likely in the near future to threaten it with danger still we believe that Mr Chamberlain’s policy is even now threatening the safety unfitted to deal with dictators”, invitedcontempt. Describing Chamberlain had prime“aasminister who byisnature approach His aggression”. encouraged “repeatedly had he force”,Chamberlainattackedpersonally. to “repeatedlysurrendering whenBy 8 December until endured truce a and declined Mannsuggested that Beckett should back him or sack him. The chairman freedom, editorial on Insisting leadership”. and “statesmanship needed his told country the Mann and politician”“commonplace a nation.Chamberlainwas chairman the endangering of Chamberlain accusing was Proprietorial bullying Conservativebest of values. advancingthe was he insisted Mannloyalty”. party of “lack of a accused demanded Mann 16, November On nationalgovernment unity. of 1918.” in won we things the for enoughdeeplyconcluded:conviction”. “Wecared haveIt not of lack Minister. It condemned appeasement and accused its architects a “tragic of the first world war,of he published a leader calculated the Prime to offend soon recovered his independence. On the twentieth anniversary the end of preserve thepeace”. honest expression of opinion by editors and experts should be stifled by stifled be should experts and editors by opinion of expression honest Company, “whether it is in the truea democraticinterests of country Yorkshirethat ConservativeNewspaperthe asked He buckle. not did Mann were “fed up with this steady spate personalof criticism and recrimination”. If such praise If was the proprietorialconsequence of interference, Mann an a a wr ih i poreos ad ekt responded Beckett and proprietors, his with war at was Mann On the same page Mann published a second editorial. This insisted on editor believedhis Beckettpressure. ferocious under now was Mann The The Yorkshire Post

Yorkshire Post Yorkshire acknowledged that it stood explained: “It is because The

Yorkshire Post 63 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 64 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 a newspapermustaalways responsiblewhoreside,its“with manforis the relatives”.or of Responsibilitycontent agents editorial their the from for newspaper proprietors who take their inspiration from interested ministers, surrender to pressure, though it made him ill, instead he challenged challenged he instead ill, him individual conscience. consensus through theexercise of made it though pressure, to surrender The Estate Fourth in theory. faith To his him demonstratedthis was he no myth authority invented editorial to retainglamorise a debased profession. of withto liaise proprietors. determination to his his had In alone Mann But copy unexpurgated German” and believed “Hitler was a reckless “an megalomaniac bent on war”. possessed who was supported by loyal colleagues, prominent among them Charles Tower, appeasement readershelphisholdtheirtogovernment account.to He of politicians and policy, so he committed to extended reporting and analysis office to serve his readers and the body politic. It was his duty to scrutinise his used He watchdogwithjournalism.public thesupply to determined public notmerely interest, acommercial enterprise. the of servant a as newspaper his regarded He ideals.FourthEstate by the cause he has at heart.” suggested as a politicalrecognition services,of maybe titlelessen histhat power to aidparticularly if title, a receiveswho journalist a that feel “I appearindebted. Rejecting Baldwin’sknighthood, withexplained:a he of offer friendships personal the eschewedpoliticians and declined political honours lest by accepting them he might of Mann chairmen successive But Party. had Conservative as premiership his during occasions several on Mann consulted had Baldwin Stanley leaders.Conservative Post expectation. Conservative Yorkshire of pressure the felt Mann proprietors, were Crown promoting self-censorship. the of ministers and proprietors between contacts Social depended. expression of freedom which upon publications the of diversity reducing the was help ownership to newspaper not public, of the Concentration help statesman”. to “is journalist a of duty The 1939. daily conduct”.

n poig pesmn, an efre a a oeeg editor sovereign a as performed Mann appeasement, opposing In Conservative,awas Mann inspiredjournalistabove abut,was he all, his from appeasement support to imprecations persistent Beyond Mann further explained his principles in a leader column on January 3, okhr Post Yorkshire a acsoe t ejyn eclet otcs with contacts excellent enjoying to accustomed was a a oe o ly n oiia scey Mn dd not did society. Mann political in play to role a had en Kampf Mein n h original the in The crucible of war.crucible of theeditorialindependence in wouldof idealneverhe his 1972, untiltest lived he Though stablemate. prestigious less a with merger by implied status of diminution the accept not could Mann backing.But his offer to languageincompellingso that even hischairman was obliged, theend,in his title with merger of the Post Yorkshire reality. economic overcome not could he newspapers but too, other vivid remained of criticism His government. broader a for call and Chamberlainat snipe toopportunity everytook approved,he Mannbut the delusion that Germany might be bought withoff territorial concessions. determination to resist Nazism. Deterrence through rearmament replaced declaredBritain’sand pledges ChamberlainHitler’sdenouncedof breach consent to that”. Mann had won his political battle. views on policy which may be vital to this country, I and shall not sit here its expressionof honestand givingpreventfreenewspaper anditthis of Company: “In so far as you ask me to say anything which will tie the hands January 1939, the he Yorkshire told the AGM of Conservative Newspaper public the principleeditorial of independence he had worked to restrict. In Munichwas likely tofail, itbecame convenient for Beckett tocelebrate in Journal of Communication Ethics, Vol 13, No 4. 4. No Vol13, Ethics, Communication of Journal on which this article is based, will appear TimKent. journalism Luckhurst at His theresearch, isUniversity professor in of of As it grew clear that the agreement Chamberlain had negotiated at negotiated had Chamberlain agreement the that clear grew it As an eind n oebr 99 eas h cud o acp the accept not could he because 1939 November in resigned Mann Czechoslovakia. Now of whole the seized Germany 1939, March In was haemorrhaging money. Leeds Mercury Ethical Space, the International . He had denounced appeasement

@TCHL The 65 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 twitter watch

Lionel Barber @lionelbarber Aug 8 Morning LW I wanted to share this with you – confidentially because not good publicity uk right now !

Guido Fawkes @GuidoFawkes Aug 8 FT Editor Awarded Légion d’Honneur For Pro-EU PR http://order-order. com/2016/08/08/epic/ …

Harry Maxwell @HarryMaxwell Aug 8 FT editor @lionelbarber awarded French honour for pumping out pro-EU press. And accidentally publicly tweets it..

Joe Rich @joerichlaw Aug 8 FT Editor Lionel Barber boasts he was secretly given France’s top honour for his anti-Brexit work as a “journalist”

Gobanian @Gobanian Aug 8 #FT editor Lionel Barber accepts French honour. The Times once sacked someone for that. Journalists should not take honours from governments

Press Gazette@pressgazette Aug 8 FT editor Lionel Barber awarded France’s highest honour as thanks for ‘positive role in European debate’ http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/ ft-editor-lionel-barber-awarded-frances-highest-honour-as-thanks-for- positive-role-in-european-debate/ …

PoliticsSense @PoliticsSensePoliticsSense Aug 8 Pro EU PR award FT editor wanted to keep private as it’s bad PR You know exactly what to do to keep it quiet :)

Nigel Farage @Nigel_Farage Aug 9 Editor of pro-EU @FT, @lionelbarber, offered Legion d’Honneur by the French. More reward for failure!

Matt H @herbiemcw Aug 11 @sunny_hundal if I was Lionel Barber I’d have that article framed and hung over every desk in the FT newsroom. What a badge of honour

66 book reviews @TheBJReview The worst and best of times Jon Swain

Hunting Season, by James Harkin (Abacus, pp246, £9.99)

In the historic town of Bayeux in to kill you. Luck can run out even for Normandy, a memorial park honouring the most battle experienced. But the every journalist killed since 1944 has atrocious kidnappings and beheadings more than 2,100 names engraved on of foreign journalists and aid workers tall pillars of stone. Every year the list in by Islamic State have grows longer – a reminder of the price introduced new dangers to the trade, journalists have paid and continue to which have to be taken into account pay for doing their job. This year will when assessing an assignment. It has be no exception. certainly taken some of the fun out of The journalists hail from across war reporting. Responsible news the world – young, old, men and organisations are no longer prepared to women – and although the majority cover the conflict from the rebel side. were murdered in their own countries Not since 1970 in Cambodia, when to silence their reporting, many were 25 journalists out of a press corps of killed in war zones. about 60 were ambushed, kidnapped, Being killed or wounded while shot and bludgeoned to death in the covering conflict should be a self- rice fields by the murderous Khmer evident risk of the trade. One Rouge because they were identified particularly scary day in Vietnam a with the invading Americans or as distinguished spies, has there been such a dangerous mischievously told me: “If you can’t country to report from. take a joke, you shouldn’t sign on.” There is no uniform or simple So it is foolish for a journalist to explanation as to why journalists risk enter a war zone assuming they are their lives covering wars. The reasons going to emerge unscathed. But are generally noble, although to inevitably some do, swept up by the suggest that they are there solely to excitement and adventure of it all and bear witness, as we hear every time a believing in their own immortality journalist is killed, is overdone. Each even as others around them are dying. and every one of them, as well as The grim truth is that there is wanting to tell the story in the best always someone out there who wants way they know, probably has a more 67

©Swain; DOI: 10.1177/0956474816668805; [2016/9] 27:3; 67-69; http://bjr.sagepub.com 68 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 know or can explain. they do which perhaps only they complex inner compulsion to do what love evolving from thetimehehimself Syria. Hisbook,hesays, isalabour of foreign journalists and aid workers in kidnapping 24 and disappearance of three years investigating the the journalist James Harkin. He spent dark andsinisterwas afoot. and offices back home that something gradually dawned on their colleagues work. As they disappeared it to. It did nottheir reduce the value of organisations they were contributing no backing from the big news were often out on a limb with little or knowledge, and as freelancers they relatively little experience and Inevitably, them had some of report first-hand on the conflict. reasons for wanting to be there and conflict. They all had particular intrepid freelancers keen to cover the sucked young in a number and of Turkey began to go missing. journalists crossing into Syria from spring. Not for long, however, as the heady first the days Arab of It may well have started that way in generation used to say about Vietnam. playground”, to repeat the phrase my has never leftthem. it was so precarious. The experience seldom has life felt so precious because they are honest they will admit that lives. If their of time exhilarating both the most agonising and war will talk candidly about it being asked what they saw and felt covering Like so many wars, Syria had But Syria is no “adventure Many journalist friends when One of those to realise thisOne was of foreseen. He reasons that Islamic State have been not better understood, if the danger to foreign journalists could hostages were inseparable. He believes campaign tokidnap andsellforeign Islamicpower State and its of descended into chaos, the rise to this tragedy to date. meticulously researched accountof the journalists involved; it is the most spent inSyria andknowing someof government would not countenance surrendered” to his torturers. never gave up, who never totally becausethose “who he was one of perhaps, his fellow prisoners surmise, Foley was particularly badly treated, hostages were abused and tortured. had already beenmoved. was acting on stale intelligence. Foley finally operationit mountedarescue the Assad of regime and when the US while it was assumed he was a prisoner being held was fatally flawed; for a Foley never had a chance. was trying to sell its other hostages, Harkin explains why, while the group America” showing his beheading. uploaded a video titled a “Message to August 19, 2014, when Islamic State murder was revealed to the world on whom he admired enormously. Foley’s American freelancer James Foley, the kidnapping the and murder of countries as the journalists. fighting there were from the same thebecause masked many jihadis of from Syria as a security risk, partly saw reporting journalists theforeign Harkin exploreshow, asSyria Most importantly, the US It is a terrifying story. All the The intelligence where heof was Harkin has woven his book around Leave italone Middle East. wars and disasters in Asia, Africa – where he was kidnapped for three months – and the of and Cambodia. Hewas the on staff Foreign Legion and became celebrated as a foreign correspondent for his work in Vietnam Jon Swain started in journalism in the English provinces, stint in the had French a brief achievements, including news, lobbying classes, with facts about the intellectual supportamongthe to rally or stiffen emotional and disaster, an opportunityorarebirth? question: would privatisation be a secretary. It attempts to pose the Whittingdale to the cabinet as culture 2015 election, and elevated John Channel 4, which stems back to the debate aboutownership thefuture of This book was sparked by the ongoing paperback) Reeves and Richard Tait (Abramis Academic Publishing, pp276, £19.95 e 4?, Channel WhatPrice Maggie Brown lack of communicationlack and of theirhostages.free families euros had topaid millions of European governments, NGOs and disposal to save him, whereas they used every means at their and put barriers in his family’s way as paying tohiskidnappers aransom It also doubles up as an attempt Foley’s parents blame a disastrous

©Brown; DOI:10.1177/0956474816668805a; [2016/9]27:3;69-71; http://bjr.sagepub.com dited by John Mair, Fiona Chesterton,David Lloyd, Ian Times Sunday The Roger Graef, but they include those Anthony Smith, Jeremy Isaacs and after obligatory turns by founders or critical views are in fact ventilated, goes amiss. do. show A sprinkle business never of something impossible for the BBC to tax, political campaignforasugar initiatives, including overtly themore it has bolstered his healthy food foreword by Jamie Oliver explains how affairscurrent and Film 4, while a not take away their pain. their murdered son is held. But it will the universal admiration in which he did not die in vain. Bayeux memorial, saying they hoped emotional tribute to their son at the Diane and John Foley paid an coordination for their son’s death. They can draw some comfort from Only a few dissenting alternative for 35 years, travelling to @jayavarnam 69 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 70 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 with slashed overheads, achieved most most achieved overheads, slashed with Elstein, who repeats the view that the long-time tormenter Davidof on unpaid contributions, the format world without Channel 4. Dependent Now?; And Imagine, which posits a Street Years; Where’s the Remit What Future for 4?; The Charlotte organised as it is around four sections: index is easy to dip into, loosely Future Uncertain asthe2015 organisers status and remit. fought topreserve itsindependent bits are to be found, but when there broadcaster, know where profitable Johnson; both held high office at the grandees Lord Grade and Luke theprivatising cause of Channel 4 are underscores how two new converts to it being unsustainable. It also to undermine a false economic case for Channel 4 guardian angel, intervened Enders Analysis, a self-appointed Enders, the founder research of group howlegislation. Itrecounts Claire Channel 4’s status through secondary attempt to bounce a change in incoming Theresa May, and a failed removed from his post by the manoeuvresWhittingdale, of since Snoddy. He charts the dodgy by veteran media writer Raymond chapter, Through Political Channels, the best contribution is a scene-setting the pastof year’s ownership debate, his chapter. energy intopoured a huge amount of service television programmes. He as another £200m a year into public conglomerate, it could funnel as much probably a by being part of For those seeking an inside account The book comes from the same , and thanks to a useful The BBC Today: evidence to state that its editorial Westminster, who builds on research theUniversity of Steven of Barnett, Endangered Species) from Professor is a key contribution (Chapter 17, An covered by advertising revenue. There making programme,costsonly half on day one,now, stillthere aloss- achievement is its 7 pm news, there Georgian/Victorian times. seems to hail back to more leisurely threaded through the book is whether ownership. campaign to prevent a change in its makes it a key bargaining chip in the pressure, but subsidy the degree of commercially funded channel” from regulatory structures can protect a “these figures tell a clear how story of any programme. Barnett says that social policy at 20%isthehighestof BBC main the with par a on output, cent per 30 about maintained. Political news represents and the serious questioning tone is general anecdotal consensus is correct current regime, but he believes the the of short stops evidence The orlighter, tabloid the storiesto fluffy of variety.ceded cent per 10 only with news” and 40 per cent to foreign news, devoted to “broadsheet domestic thetime of moved, with around half confirms that the agenda has barely British TV news from 1975 to 2009 concludes. Hiscontentanalysis of distinctive broadsheet approach”, he both a stable audience and a highly the channel’s DNA. Able to maintain remarkably stable. agenda and audience has remained For journalists, the standout An area of less satisfactory debateAn area of “anestablishedIt remains partof News atNews Ten , while Maggie volume andiswritingasecond of Brown isamediajournalist elling it how it isn t n’ s i t i Before Spin, w o h Routledge t Paul i g n i l l Te between a Conservative Ulster that long-denied, underhand talks parliamentary lobby into believing how he talked the Commons and thus titledwith avivid accountof journalist to begin an autobiography It takes a certain chutzpah for a Channel42007-2016. Theof Story Different: been engulfed by formatted commitment to documentary has getting faces a onrange screen. of been replaced by diluted diversity, that changed it.” He asserts it has parliament of act the missed have must concludes: “The remitoutput doesn’t exist. I current its assessing with multicultural programmes, tasked commissioning editor for survives. Farrukh Dhondy, former serve minority tastes and interests the channel’s distinctive remit to confessedly “neverviews, short of Mail statesmanship. Butex- act of Provisional IRA were an honourable secretary, Willie Whitelaw, and the Another charge is that the manKeith McDowall, self- by Keith McDowall (Melrose Books, pp384, £16.99) pp384, Books, (Melrose McDowall Keith by ©Routledge; DOI:10.1177/0956474816668805b; [2016/9]27:3;71-73;http://bjr.sagepub.com Daily Channel 4,take note. Channel 4 was supposed not to be.” what’s so sad this as precisely what made by people, this is product and same, these are not documentaries concluded: “Every single show is the Up with the Khan in A&E assess and watch set distinguished film-makers to authentic behaviour. Editor John Mair “fixed rig” cameras to capture turned into studios with discreet observation, in which locations are Society inWalton Heath, Surrey. a celebrity guest at the Press Golfing state tobe of forhissecretary arranged department,had Officepress Ireland McDowall, thehead Northern of the six-member republican team. and Martin McGuinness were among minister . Gerry Adams was the Cheyne Walk houseUlster of the task. ideas or confidence” is clearly up to The date was July 1972, the place @MaggieBMedia , The Undateables s. Molly Dineen First Dates First A Licence to be , and , 24 Hours Keeping 71 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 72 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 have been stillborn. McDowall, veteran real story leaked, the initiative would for state-owned British shipbuilders, Conservative Cabinet ministers alike, consummate skill for Labour and for the job he performed with fulminates against the American term this endeavourthink of as “spin”. He near- apoliticalcareer.”the of wreckage from come had Triumph turned the tables on the terrorists. but at it the we end of knew we had praise. “It had been a very long day, and McDowall doesnotstintonthe was news amanagement high order, of the US media also fell into line. This day’s front page. RTE in Dublin and those days) wrote itupwell onnext of Wood, “authoritative political editor” correspondents. performance to political Westminster turret to give a second spirited him up to the lobby room in a sweet-talked the MPs, and McDowall and McDowall would the press.square ministerial statement to the House, Ireland secretary would make a instant action plan. The Northern His faithful media operator devised an wringing that he would have to resign. development,this grim hand- the bombshell news –nopunintended. realistic agenda for peace, they leaked inevitably since the Provos had no compunction. When the talks failed, Unfortunately, the IRA had no such newsroom, made sure it didn’t. the of The Times It worked Whitelaw acharm. Whitelaw woke McDowall with That was story. Had the Paradoxically, McDowall does not That worked a treat too. David South London Press South London (they were rarely less, in andthe Mail

news cycle. And I haven’t even feeding the the Moloch 24-hour of partisan stories, too much relentless too many special advisers doling out True, there are too many spin doctors, phrase fashion. that has gone out of our old friend public relations, a Associates. when as KMAhe set up for himself and for businesses a whole host of for the CBI employers’ organisation the victims of police liesthe in victimsthe of dogged, decades-long campaign for BrianReade,Mirrorman whose thankfully, a profession). I cite working in the trade (it’s not, journalists first-rate still are There because Iwriteforthe Sadly, not.” exist? think I gave me my whole career and life, still does the journalism I loved, and which might plead guilty to the charge. But rat-like cunning’. Occasionally I Nicholas Tomalin conjured up – ‘a andthatthelate practice phrase hacking, corner-cutting, sharp writes. he living,” a for did I what no longer as proud as I was to say I hesitate. I hate to confess it, but I’m ‘journalist’, but sometimes these days ask me about my former job, I say McDowall’s liking. “When strangers be fed. Westminster. The beast is out. It must terms” and insider dealing at back to the leisurely “lobbygavotte of these days. We can’t turn the clock reviewer. But that’s how the world is a mystery to both McDowall and this mentioned theso-calledsocialmedia, Spin is merely another name for I beg to differ, and not just “To many upphone- itconjures The new reality is not to Daily Mirror . paperback) Research Skills for Journalists, Isabella Cipirska Lessons learned regarded as fundamental a skill as fingertips, research is perhaps not and an overload information of at our skills. With Google justaclick away to overlook the importance research of cantend journalists points out,trainee theAs intervieweesone of in this book Tribune, of editor Observer The Labour was Routledge Paul mothers into the media. Too many daughters following fathers and bourgeois. Too many sons and establishment occupation. Too an hasbecometoomuchjournalism of spin. cycleof journalists to give a lead” to break the pleads for “some determined man” – he is in his eighties – and view may an old be “the rantings of example. McDowall concedes that his Hillsborough tragedy, as a prime systematic and critical research is newly qualified journalist that cultivation. careful much writing, or one that demands just as This book will convince any The real problem is that the Huddersfield Examiner and the ©Cipirska; DOI:10.1177/0956474816668805c; [2016/9]27:3;73-75; http://bjr.sagepub.com Independent onSunday. by Vanessa Edwards (Routledge, pp247, £29.99 The Times, The among others.among journalism’s loss. as a media manager. Spin’s gain was before he too joined the establishment it. McDowall those kids, was one of really is or, at any rate, how they see with a burning desire to tell it like it ambitious youngsters from the sticks enough access for clever, awkward, those about whom they write. Not background between journalists and much shared social and political from less advantaged homes. Too unpaid internships closed to those proposes new ways to approach and easily digestible format. It ground in a wella lot of structured useful points about each topic. succeeded in teaching me new and training, familiar to me after journalism processes discussed were already expectant editors. While the many of balanced and original stories for crucial to developing accurate, and later for politicalcorrespondent He stillwritesfor the Packed with information, it covers Research Skills for Journalists Daily Mirror,

73 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 74 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 or beat, as well as introducing new as developing contacts in your patch standard journalistic practices, such individual network, as well as how but understanding who uses any career. Social media sites come and go, anyone at thetheir early stages of not being immediately relevant to a fascinating read, despite probably The introduction to the dark web was searching with lesser-known engines. andexperiment results cross-reference search engine, by discovering how to as routine as typing requests into a learnt new techniques for something and building virtual connections. I section on conducting digital research eye-opening chapter to be the early increasing competition. make trainees stand out against ever in particular as a quality that will skills. tocodeishighlighted Learning themselves with the latest digital toequip new journalists encourages contagious. Thoroughly up to date, it enthusiasm for its potential is wholeheartedly and the author’s need toembrace thedigitalworld understands that journalists today up resources concludes each chapter. helpfulfollow- comprehensive listof scattered on every page, while a Usefully, links for related websites are thatthe basics. I had a solid grasp of curiosity piqued and feeling confident brief, I left every chapter with my considered thoughtfully throughout. content across media platforms are producingresearch demands of datasets andstatistics. The different areas such as working with large This book is relevant because it While each topic is necessarily For this reason, I found the most is applicable to any kind of journalism, journalism, is applicable toany kind of approach to preparing for an interview great tips none the less. A methodical book’s original brief, but offer some interviewing seem to stray from the The chapters on people and people as key to gathering information. advocates getting out and talking to research methods, the author still effectively for research. and why, was stressed as vital to use it themselves inthescenariosexplored. ethical issues where they present and inspiring reading. makers for topresenters freelance documentary journalists, from BBCradio interviews with adiverse of range and read between the lines. The explain how to analyse PR material press release was the best way to Similarly, printing in full a sample one backed up with a real life example. the different ways it can be used, each until Icametothebullet-pointlistof research seemed like an abstract idea crowdsourcing into journalistic instructive. Incorporating Royalcoverage of Ascot was how sheplannedherwebsite’s journalist’s step-by-step accountof illustrate its points. Reading one giving concrete, in-depth examples to this book is most engaging when dreaded death knock. constructive advice on how to handle a nerves when interviewing and featured handy tips for conquering for inexperienced reporters. Italso isparticularly conferences press useful and the explanation how toof tackle Despite the emphasis on digital hr sacrflcnieaino of consideration careful a is There Advertised as a practical guide, Vice , made for insightful newspaper may report an event, and applied). More than occasionally, a second place to varnish munificently instances truth unvarnished takes truth at all (given that in some indeed ittomorrow had much – if largely true) today may be less true means that what appears true (or journalismThe ephemeral nature of paperback). Making Waves: Murray the Sayle of Journalism Cal McCrystal nature of Force York. of University the from Worksliterature English degreein has a Journalist and Isabella Cipirska has just completed an NCTJ accredited journalism course at Brighton accounts and taking equipment considerations, from setting up bank introduced me to various practical It illuminating. especially was chapter where to start, the penultimate of idea clear a without but abroad, when using drones for research. sources’ data and avoiding intrusion advances bring, such as protecting responsibilities that technological ventures the new into discussions of contemplation. The guide also confront are put to the reader for might journalists be forced to Challenging questionsthat As someone interested in working ©McCrystal; DOI:10.1177/0956474816668805d; [2016/9]27:3;75-77;http://bjr.sagepub.com original distortion or will have been “infected” by the as the something different may well emerge practitioners. As time goes by, artifice that journalism imposes on its impossible, given thehasteand affairs. stateBut usually of this is itsit, ownas a true interpretation of the necessary basics. and thoroughly equip them with all journalists that it’s worth the effort, read will persuade idealistic, enthusiastic inspiring and useful This work. ultimately takes practice and hard new journalists.broad range of reporting, making it relevant to a journalism, from financial to celebrity typesof effort toconsiderdifferent out on a local paper, there is a real the target reader is someone starting life documents. of through customs,proof toarranging by Lewis Chester (pp276, £9.99 Fine-tuning your research skills While I got the impression that actualité , butby thenthereader @ICipirska 75 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 76 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 spread half-truths like bacteria (germs misinterpretation. decades, has done much more than exceptional journalist down the who to my mind has been an equally of pages achievements live on, not least in the nursing 84. But hishome at the age of through abrick wall.” reporter who could talk his way else that a foreign editor had needed a September), Bangladesh and anywhere , Czechoslovakia, Jordan (Black in the battlegrounds Vietnam, of Everest, sailed the Atlantic, reported The Sunday Times spellbinding stories retailer … of For from University, and a broken nose acquired in graduating buccaneering figure with a large legend in journalism,Times: an unmistakable Vanished of stories True himin Evans, wrote of his what book also goes beyond confirming relentless in the truth. pursuit The of last century), of second was half histime(roughly the of journalists most open-minded and intrepid not-too-distant past. Sayle, the one of landmark journalism did exist in a Sayle Making Waves: Murray the Journalism of proprietors.to doctrinaire people we serve: from biased readers of arange beware of theprejudices jerk all,responses. we must Most of andknee- preconceptions of careful lest we get it wrong. But we must be should shrink from reporting an event truth?). That is notof to say we However, Lewis Chester’s book, In other words, journalism can Sayle died in 2010 in a Sydney , dispels all doubt that confident, Sunday Times Making Waves Murray had climbed editor, Harold . Its author, My Paper Chase: “Sayle is a scoops from Moscow (by tracking state conflicts, filed international globe-trotting reporters and, between Times’s of one became Australian his admirable subject. nerve, the intellect, the thrust behind enabling the reader to appreciate the personal and professional lives, thedoorstoSayles’– hehasreopened Sayle’srecord the highlights of career and autodidactic erudition.” brash informality tasty mixture of energetic prose was flavoured with a lightning-fast writer whose witty, Brobdingnagian accomplishment, a Promethean giftsjournalist and of “Murray Sayle … was a wonder – a Hendrik Hertzberg, had this to say: that selections, Iwastonote notsurprised others inChester’s stimulating to Hiroshima. Reading it and all the the first official US presidential visit day that was making this version, especially on the very enlightened and enthralled to ingest original publication, I was greatly of Hiroshima that graced an entire issue the bomb end the war?” – on Among them is a 1995 piece – “Did inspiring work cannot be faulted. anxious to have his expertise. Prospect YorkerNew him. Inhislater years hewrote for the worldpart seemedof foreign to ), to name but two. No uncovering guerrillas connected by Philby) and from Bolivia (by down the Soviets’ British spy Kim The New YorkerThe New The burly, casually dressed Chester’s selection from Sayle’s The New Yorker’sThe New leading award-winning, and several other publications , The Atlantic . Having missed the executive editor, , The Sunday The , the traditional fiver in my pocket”, “hot from theSydney Japanese speakers). whomchildren were (all of fluent Sayles, including their three young raising money for rehousing the dowsing, clearing and cleaning, and neighbours rushed to the rescue, 1988. But thankfully their Japanese burned down just before Christmas in mountainside near Tokyo. The house stood in a forest clearing halfway up a American publication. Their house moved foran toJapanreport the 1980s, he and his wife Jenny the public in Britain and abroad. In journalists, butalsoby members of affection by not only most fellow regarded with admiration and writer. Hewas alsoaliterary criticfor the published editor andforeign features editorof Cal McCrystalreporter, was foreign chief correspondent, New York bureau chief, news It has to be said that Sayle was On arriving in London in 1952, Independent onSunday Daily Mirror The Sunday Times, and later , Financial Times. Financial The Observer Observer The abovethem. book shows, he rose a million miles in such qualitieshimself for, as this ability”. I doubt that he included plausible manner and a little literary journalism are “rat-like cunning, a successful qualities for success in attribution, by Nick Tomalin – that coined the dictum – later used, with profession. He is credited with having giant, didn’t mind his making light of leaving”. and excuses much “making waves” as “making course,area. meantThis, not so of brothels in the Shepherds Market first assignment was to expose literary skill and political acumen. His (he joked) he felt he could bring (then in Covent Garden), to which Sayle quickly foundwork on But Murray, a serious journalistic before joining the newly as a columnist andfeature as acolumnist The People

77 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 78 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 Leveson: the musical second time around: anearly work at all.” at those who will do it for no inducement successfully betray my country; and who, for a salary cheque and less, debasement;instruments to those of handle theirprofessionsas daily deal out treachery; to those who liars and self-deceivers; to those who playtext: “Idedicate thisplay tothe terse introduction to the published words, Osborne set out his stall in a Express. columns inthe pseudonymous gossip authors of Tanfield and William Hickey, devoted todenouncinghistormentors. musical, manifold dalliances that he wrote a columnists’ obsession with his Entertainer in man, two author palpable of stage hits young theoriginalangry Osborne, politically incorrect). In 1959, John understand that “luvvies”isnow among showbiz stalwarts (I are following an age-old tradition and fellow victims their lives, , , In raging against press intrusion into (Faber andFaber, 1959,pp96) With Manners Music PaulThe World Slickey: aComedy of of Michael Leapman Look Back inAnger The play itself takesThe play longer to get itself among them wereChief Paul Never a man to mince his h ol fPaulThe World Slickey of , was so hacked off by gossip , was sohacked off Daily Mail ©Leapman; DOI:10.1177/0956474816668805e; [2016/9]27:3;78-79; http://bjr.sagepub.com and The and Daily , spelled out starkly lamely – in – if Mrs Slickey undergoes asex change. flagrante that Therefollows era. the death scenes that were markedly explicit for law – relationships played out in sex his wife is sleeping with her brother-in andhiswife’ssecretary sister, while conducting affairs with both his complications is that Slickey is financial jiggery-pokery. several One of to go there and investigate some the phone by his Canadian proprietor overthe houseandisbeingbadgered thedaughtersof tooneof is married played by the pop singer Dennis Lotis, misconceived andmisspent.” back in anger upon a night Osborne’s debut play thus: “I look criticwhodrama hadreviewed after JC Trewin, the distinguished compulsory butler was named Trewin, flowers.large bunch of The dame thetime, where the comedies of featuredthe drawing-room in many of the kindand a country that house of alternates between a newspaper office with a ludicrous plotline, its setting to the point. A ramshackle farrago The overarching message is Slickey, thegossipcolumnist, invariably entered carrying a of the lord of thethe manor,lord of of while , by John Osborne @TheBJReview grande in despite recruiting Kennethdespite recruiting MacMillan struggled to get the musical staged, scarcely surprising that Osborne and its incoherent structure, it is give themwhat they want.” us. men Thiswho happyof breed of starve not. And why? us, Because of the multitudes who hunger and yet our circulationJust think figures, of at the breakfast table or on the 8.15. for us to package up for consumption Nothing too trivial or unimportant his craft: “What a function we fulfil! Iam.’” therefore was, but now I exist. You drink, you, I‘Because am. Before, of I never you will look up into his face and say: prevent real questions being asked, deceit, as he asks the questions that he leansunsteadilythebarof against will say to the ultimate journalist, as delivered to an aspiring starlet: “You herinundress.”photograph mistress, your possess, you money much press, the to pander must Osborne’s lyrics: some of reviews for the for reviews inthecolumn In a55-yearcareer, Michael has Leapman edited “If you’re going“If to impress you Given the absurdity of the plot theplot Given theabsurdity of And here is Slickey summing up Then there is this speech, they gotoheraddress If Don’t they malign feel distress if They’ll want you to assess how Daily Express BJR n samme fthe and isamember of and the Dog in column BJR have Iseenanything soappalling.” It “Never inallmy theatrical experience –whoOsborne wrote inhisdiary: Coward of –hithertoanadmirer attended thefirstnightwas Noel savaged it.Amongthecelebrities who London’s Palace Theatre, thecritics gaps across the auditorium. By the interval there were yawning theatre’s core audience – stalked out. their ladies – in those days that tipping seats astheSussexand squires only afewminutes camethesoundof when the curtain went up, but after week. The theatre was reasonably full itssecond Brighton, at theendof athree-week tour. pre-London start of Bournemouth in April 1959 at the directed it himself. It opened in producer, took it on and Osborne Eventually DonaldAlbery, aWest End director.until thenhisregular with it. Nor would Tony Richardson, Theatre, would have nothing to do first two plays at the Royal Court George Devine, who had nurtured his set designer (both later knighted). as choreographer and Hugh Casson as more resilient. more Slickey andhisheirshave proved can discover, hasnever beenrevived. closed aftersixweeks asI and,asfar The Times editorial board. When themusical reached I caughtitat theTheatre Royal, Press Gazette.Press Diary, the William Hickey He commissions bookHe commissions 79 British Journalism Review vol.27 no.3 September 2016 @TheBJReview Alagiah, Stoppard at Wheeler evening

The BBC reporter and news presenter George Alagiah received the Charles Wheeler award for outstanding contribution to broadcast journalism at the University of Westminster on 14 June. Organised in collaboration with the university, the British Journalism Review award is made each year in honour of the late Sir Charles Wheeler, one of Britain’s greatest broadcast journalists. Following the presentation of the award by Lady Wheeler, Sir Charles’s widow, the distinguished playwright and former journalist Sir Tom Stoppard delivered the annual Charles Wheeler lecture, which was followed by a Q&A session led by Steve Barnett, professor of communications. Sir Tom’s address covered definitions of the public interest and the responsibility of the media to find the right balance between privacy and free speech in a democracy. Receiving his award, Alagiah said: “I know that I stand here in front of you today as a man who benefits enormously from everything the richer world can give us, but I try each day not to forget I began my particular journey in the poor world, and that transition is one that billions of people have yet to make. And we, all of us in this rich country, have a role to play helping to make that journey somewhat easier.” The evening continued at a reception at which former London mayor (the now ) Boris Johnson – a son-in-law to the Wheelers – joined members of the Wheeler family, Sir Tom and Lady Stoppard and guests from journalism and academia.

Good evening: Steve Barnett, George 80 Alagiah and Sir Tom Stoppard