scottishleftreview Issue 14 January/February 2003 The voice of Scotland? What's to be done with our media? Paul Holleran on a Scottish Media Commission Gregor Gall on the state of the trade unions £1.50 £1.00 Claimants scottishleftreview comment Issue 14 January/February 2003 A journal of the left in Scotland brought about since the formation of the Scottish Parliament in July 1999 ike so many other ‘debates’ at the start of this century, Lthe debate about our media has conveniently ossified. Just like ‘free’ trade, the divine right of markets to exist, the relativity of human rights, the need for ‘just’ war or the Contents relentless requirement to ‘modernise’, discussion begins from a base which is so loaded in one direction that Comment ...............................................................2 making sense of where we are becomes difficult. Simply by repeating a few apparent axioms enough times they An open letter to our MSPs ...................................4 become the only possible starting point and then, because of the narrow alley down which they direct questions, the A socialist media policy for Scotland?...................5 only possible end point. If we begin by accepting that all Chris Atton, Robert Beveridge, Gregor Gall, Henry McCubbin, apples are red, what happens to green apples? David Miller, Roz Patterson And so it is with press freedom. When we start talking Lots of noise, but how many voices? ...................12 about what we might do about the abusive power that David Hutcheson the media wields over public life, we seem required to Holding the unaccountable to account................14 do so from a starting point of accepting that the need for the press to be ‘free’ is unquestionable. This is not to Paul Holleran suggest that we should be considering a state controlled Last left writing....................................................16 media, it is to suggest that we need to think more carefully William Bonner interviews Ian Bell about what ‘free’ means. Free to tell lies? Free to ignore Behind the braziers .............................................18 anything a proprietor doesn’t want to be known? Free to pursue a monopoly strategy? Indeed, do we really mean Gregor Gall that the ‘freedom’ of the press should be linked only to the The nuclear option...............................................20 financial ability to buy that freedom? Corrina Thomson So if we choose not to start from that point, where might Diary.....................................................................23 we start? How about if we pose the question ‘what do we want from our media?’ Despite the dumbing-down process, despite the scepticism many feel towards the Cover Illustration: Tommy Perman, [email protected] www.surfacepressure.co.uk media, despite enormous flaws, the media is one half of the absolute conditions necessary for a democracy to exist (education being the other). Democracy is another of the great untested axioms of our age. It is assumed that nothing but democracy can be countenanced, but that all that is needed is a right to vote. It is not. The right to Editorial Committee vote is no more sufficient to make someone a citizen than Aamer Anwar Henry McCubbin the right to cut someone open is to make them a doctor. Bill Bonnar Tom Nairn Unless someone is capable of understanding what the Moira Craig Andrew Noble real impact of their vote is and the extent to which it is Roseanna Cunningham Jimmy Reid (editor) achieving the outcomes they want to see for their society, John Kay Tommy Sheppard it is not expressing their will. Multiply this by millions Isobel Lindsay Alex Smith and we might be less smug in the west about assuming John McAllion Elaine Smith that our electoral system can reasonably be described as reflecting the will of its people. The worst political system Robin McAlpine Bob Thomson apart from all the rest indeed. Articles for publication should be emailed to: [email protected] To understand how a ‘free’ press can entirely negate Letters and comments should be emailed to: [email protected] democracy we need only take a glance to Venezuela. A Website: www.scottishleftreview.org Tel/Fax 0141 424 0042 democratically elected leader who connected with the Scottish Left Review, 741 Shields Road, Pollokshields, Glasgow G41 4PL sentiments of the vast numbers of dispossessed and who 2 3 represented the expression of their desire for a change in more dangerous, a small vial of ricin or a kitchen knife their society ought to be the epitome of democracy. And which, after all, is capable of killing a lot more people a lot yet, because part of his agenda for making his society more quickly? (Of course, “Kitchen Knife Found in Asylum fairer challenges the financial interests of the powerful, Seeker’s House” isn’t really going to rally much support the powerful have flipped this picture upside down. Those for a Blair speech in support of an extremist American who demand a perpetuation of poverty and starvation are regime.) those who are currently rich and sated; by no coincidence, also the people who own all of the media. By telling There is a dual strategy being pursued by the market capitalist the tale as one of a corrupt leader ignoring the almost ideologues who own our ‘free’ press. Firstly, make sure that unanimous wishes of his people they are not rewriting people don’t have the information and evidence with which history, they are rewriting now. If democracy is about the to answer any of the above questions in a way which might will of the people, Venezuela is an almost perfect example challenge the rights of a minority to entrench their privilege, of how a ‘free’ press is one of the most effective ways to but supply them with edited information and the drip-drip of ensure there is no democracy. opinion to ensure the right answer. Secondly, try to get them to opt out of these decisions altogether. Don’t be fooled into We don’t face quite the same problem in Britain or in thinking that the senior managers at Northcliffe (owners Scotland, but we are certainly in no position to be smug. of the Mail group) actually want poor people to vote. Led, The Daily Mail has made a nation with paedophilia, violent worryingly, by the Herald’s new owners Gannett, the ‘90s crime and immigration at levels below those of recent saw a process of cutting back on hard news in the American decades believe that our society is coming apart at the press and its replacement with ‘lifestyle’ copy on things such seams. In pursuit of a reactionary policy of spreading as celebrity gossip and recipes. The message is clear - your panic, the Daily Mail spends every day of the year filling fate is not actually interesting, so lets have a look at Brad our minds with fear and hatred - take a look at a week’s and Jennifer’s new baby. The analogy with the control of the Mail editorials and see if you can find one Gammas by the Alphas in Huxley’s Brave which is actually positive about something. Do we really New World is direct and complete. Make no mistake, this is an attempt to mean that undermine democracy. So we might be able to agree that a ‘free’ the ‘freedom’ media can be a pretty worrying thing, but We have the same problem in Scotland. of the press then there really isn’t any alternative, is Everyone has seen the hostility of large should be there? Not if we start from the assumption parts of the print media to the Scottish that there is no alternative. So let us for Parliament. The ordinary people of Scotland linked only to a few sentences start from a different actually think the Scottish Parliament has the financial assumption. What if all media was free spent a lot of time discussing fox hunting. ability to buy in the sense that there was no editorial Seven hours over the course of four years, control by the State, but that it could not actually. Nobody is in any doubt that the that freedom? be owned by individuals or that it could not will of the Scottish people is opposed be profit making? What if the number of to fox hunting (this is one of those clear moral issues media outlets were to be quadrupled and funded by the in which we don’t need a vast amount of information to State but contracted out to a diverse range of trusts which come to a decision - the torture of a defenceless animal controlled content, all with different political and cultural for the pleasure of a few doesn’t require much supporting viewpoints? What if all media had a public interest clause evidence), but the Mail, the Scotsman and even the Daily ensuring that distortion of fact was illegal? What if Record were not content to let it rest at that. They genuinely advertising was banned? Impossible, right? So how come believe that their will is more important. the BBC exists? But to return to the question of what we want from our This is only to say that there are alternatives, and that media, we really do have to support the right of people criticising the ‘free’ press as a dangerous thing as to express different opinions, and if the owners of currently constituted in western democracies does not newspapers want to rip foxes to shreds they have a right equate you as a Stalinist. The media has far too much to put forward their case. Trying to persuade people of power and it is painting the world in its own image with their case is not the big problem.