Grenfell MediaWatch Report: What, Where, When JUSTICE? The Government RBKC Councillors Decision-making Accountability Responsibility LFB Risk Assessments Fire Safety Residents Listening Policies and Procedures Job Descriptions Communication Building Regulations Materials Regulations Reporting Guidelines Action Death Toll Public Health Fire Emergency Protocols Ballots Salaries Budgets Investments Criminal Investigations Paperwork Media Reporting Fuel Poverty Tax Consultants Lawyers Developers Panel Members Experts Meetings Living Poverty Action Homelessness Mental Health Fraud Freedom of Information Fines Public Inquiry Select Committees Deniability Housing Community Ownership Location The School Community Spaces Charities Volunteers Community Initiatives Cost Sentencing Representation Public Money Hierarchy Bureaucracy The Law Amendments Pain Judgement Numbers Reparations History …. to name a few…. 72 June 2019 In remembrance of the Grenfell Tower community Including those that lost their lives, the survivors, family and friends About Grenfell MediaWatch Grenfell MediaWatch (GMW), is a group of volunteer Citizen Journalists formed in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. Our group is unfunded and includes volunteer members from North Kensington and across the UK. Using our collective skills and grassroots experience, we use the tactic of monitoring and critiquing national, regional and local media to counter the misrepresentation of community issues. Together we collect, analyse, report and share information by creating openly biased content, in service of the community. We are committed to Malcolm's "make it plain" philosophy. This report was produced by the Grenfell MediaWatch team of Amma, Angie, Anu, Dawn, Isis, Jay, Oleander, Sophia, Toyin Please credit any content use to GMW and contact us if you would like to provide feedback or collaborate. Fair Use Notice: This is a not-for-profit publication for educational use only and may include images that have not always been specifically authorised by the copyright owner. [Rev.1 – 2 July 2019] Grenfell Media Watch Report – June 2019 1 Contents Introduction 1 Focus Points 3 Media Trends 4 Grenfell: A visible injustice 8 Report on Met Police’s Community Drop-in Session 16 Prosecuted 20 Justice or JUST US? 22 Antiuniversity Event: Media Watching in the Aftermath of Grenfell 28 Some Key Questions on the Stay Put Policy 29 Public Inquiry Update - Phase 2 33 Suicide in the Aftermath of the Grenfell Tower Fire 38 Recommendations 42 Grenfell Media Watch Report – June 2019 2 Anthony Disson, 65 Ligaya Moore, 78 Gary Maunders, 57 Jeremiah Deen, 2 Bassem Choucair, 40 Jessica Urbano Ramirez, 12 Berkti Haftom, 29 Mohammad al-Haj Ali, 23 Nadia Choucair, 33 Omar Belkadi, 32 Biruk Haftom, 12 Denis Murphy, 56 Mierna Choucair, 13 Farah Hamdan, 31 Hamid Kani, 60 Ali Yawar Jafari, 81 Fatima Choucair, 11 Malak Belkadi, 7 Isaac Paulos, 5 Abdeslam Sebbar, 67 Zainab Choucair, 3 Leena Belkadi, 6m Fatemeh Afrasiabi, 59 Fathia Ahmed Elsanosi, 71 Sirria Choucair, 60 Mary Mendy, 50+ Sakineh Afrasiabi, 65 Abufars Mohamed Ibrahim, 39 Hashim Kedir, 44 Khadija Saye, 24 Vincent Chiejina, 60 Isra Ibrahim, 35 Nura Jemal, 35 Victoria King, 71 Khadija Khalloufi, 52 Mohamed Amied “Saber” Neda, 57 Yahya Hashim, 13 Alexandra Atala, 40 Kamru Miah, 79 Hesham Rahman, 57 Firdaws Hashim, 12 Mohamednur Tuccu, 44 Rabeya Begum, 64 Rania Ibrahim, 30 Yaqub Hashim, 6 Amalahmedin Tuccu, 35 Mohammed Hamid, 27 Hania Hassan, 3 Logan Gomes, 1m Amaya Tuccu, 3 Mohammed Hanif, 26 Fethia Hassan, 5 Abdulaziz El-Wahabi,52 Amna Mahmud Idris, 27 Husna Begum, 22 Marco Gottardi, 27 Faouzia El-Wahabi, 41 Maria ‘Pily’ del Pilar Burton, 74 Joseph Daniels, 69 Gloria Trevisan, 26 Yasin El-Wahabi, 20 Marjorie Vital, 68 Sheila (Smith), 84 Raymond “Moses” Bernard, 63 Nur Huda El-Wahabi, 16 Ernie Vital, 50 Steve Power, 63 Eslah Elgwahry, 64 Mehdi El-Wahabi, 8 Debbie Lamprell, 45 Zainab Deen, 32 Mariem Elgwahry, 27 “Forever in our hearts.” June 2019 Grenfell Media Watch Report – June 2019 3 Introduction Greetings, welcome to the June 2019 edition of the Grenfell MediaWatch report. Two years on from that tragic day at Grenfell, the North Kensington community remains both physically and metaphorically scarred. We continue to mourn our losses, we continue to keep precious memories alive, we continue to demand answers and we continue to fight for justice. As 2018 drew to a close, we started to see reports that the next phase of the public inquiry will not resume until the end of 2019, some media reports suggested maybe not until 2020. In the meantime, we are asked to wait while the chair Martin Moore-Bick produces an interim report based on the 20,000 documents collected and almost 100 days and he and his team have worked on. For many, this entire process has been one of delays, “If such a tragedy was to reactionary responses and failures to act in a timely fashion. happen tomorrow, who Not only did official bodies fail to take action in the immediate would and should take aftermath of the fire, but they have also continued to be responsibility for people's reactionary after the communities affected have raised safety, during, and in its concerns, or indeed, been forced to protest their collective immediate aftermath?” grievances. There are many examples, from collating the names of families after the fire; the inability to assist with the coordinated relief efforts by volunteer groups and the lack of sufficient support in areas such as mental health and wellbeing. The rehousing situation is worse with the council initially making offers of high rise buildings in some cases, to the survivors who escaped the fire. It's easy for many to forget the soil contamination concerns that were highlighted in private, then leaked to the media after the area was investigated by the authorities and cleared as being low risk. It begs the question: if such a tragedy was to happen tomorrow, who would and should take responsibility for people's safety, during, and in its immediate aftermath? When Dany Cotton, commissioner of the London fire brigade, gave testimony she was very clear. If the same thing were to happen again, even with hindsight, she would not do anything different. She was among a cabal of people responsible for our safety who, when asked to give account for their actions, simply replied – “I don't remember”. If any of the people convicted for fraudulently claiming resources meant for Grenfell survivors had shown such contempt to the judicial system, they would have received extended custodial sentences. For a privileged elite however, justice seems to be an abstract idea like planning for a space shuttle landing on the Shard. The recurrence of such a tragedy is not that far away. Close to two years on and there have been numerous tower block fires across the UK, the most recent being in Barking East London where fifty homes were destroyed. Thankfully no-one was harmed. Yet we Grenfell Media Watch Report – June 2019 1 are already learning that the residents had complained to their landlord Bellway Homes with fire safety fears. Fortunately there is some good news, the campaigning work of Grenfell United has raised awareness of the horrendous threat such fires pose and it has had an impact on the public conscious. At the end of May 2019, when the Gooch House Tower Block caught fire in east London, members from the nearby Madina Mosque bravely risked their lives to help rescue hundreds of people before the fire brigade arrived. National support for the Grenfell community also saw the inquiry reverse its plans to exclude additional voices to the inquiry panel and recently appoint Professor Nabeel Hamdi, an international expert in housing and planning, and Thouria Istephan, a partner at firm Foster + Partners with responsibility for construction regulations as new members. Reparative progress in institutional processes are occurring very slowly, but the goal of achieving justice seems to be even further away than it was two years ago. We frequently hear the narrative that the Grenfell fire was UK’s deadliest domestic fire since World War Two, yet despite this, some media commentators are factiously suggesting we should be willing to wait for the same 27 years it took the Hillsborough families to see a second inquest deliver justice. The police have already announced they don’t expect anyone to face criminal charges for the Grenfell Tower fire until the end of 2021. That is, if they and the Crown Prosecution Service decide anyone should be charged in the first place. And so we wait, not because it’s necessary, but because it enables politicians to allow time to pass so passions can die down, for the British public to forget or become distracted with new political issues, for the police to say they have no suspects, for the inquiry to publish its final report, many years later and suggest there are 'lessons to be learned'. It doesn't have to be this way; it mustn't be this way. We hope you find this report useful. Thank you for reading. Peace, Love and Justice Grenfell MediaWatch Team Grenfell Media Watch Report – June 2019 2 Focus Points Government Investigations Social Community Media Response & Justice Response Agendas Reports (Requiring Public (Including Non-MSM) Support) Public Inquiry Met police criminal Reparation (local) Projects Hostile Martin Moore Bick investigation Community initiatives Daily Mail Contributors (Operation Reparation (national) Community groups LBC Core Participants Northleigh): Community voices The Sunday Express Family