By Santiago Bracho, Queen Mary University Graduate.
Since the election of the first Labour government in the UK in fourteen years many progressive and liberal forces have been hopeful media reform will follow. Will it?
Notably, with the 2023 Online Safety Act, the media regulatory body Ofcom has increased powers over transparency and fact-checking of online media networks. As media communications expert Dr Steven Barnett says, British broadcast journalism is bound by “laws of impartiality”. However, a similar legal system is lacking in press media.
In 2012, after investigating hackings by the now defunct News of the World newspaper, the Leverson Inquiry recommended the creation of a “new watchdog independent of MPs and newspapers”. This recommendation was never set into law. Therefore, as British television journalism is regulated, and greater regulation is slowly being placed on online forums, the possibility of regulatory media and ownership reforms looms over press media monopolies.
Labour’s lack of ambition
However, Tom Chivers of the Media Reform coalition has claimed that Labour’s plans on media reform have a “deeply worrying lack of ambition” regarding this pressing issue. The Media Reform Coalition 2023 report has found that three companies, DMG Media, News UK and Reach, dominate 90 percent of national newspaper circulation, and 41 percent (page 15) of online news media circulation.
In 2014, Dr Barnett highlighted the issue of media ownership that had gone unchallenged since the 1996 election, when John Major proposed limitations on televised and print media ownership. This trend seems to continue, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stated he has no plans to initiate the second stage of the Leverson Inquiry.
These press conglomerates can be antithetical to a democratic free society, as editorial control and an ability to spread important news is concentrated in a small group of people, whose narratives are not representative of the UK public.
The urgent need for true diversity
Pivotally, UK media reform must promote diversity and equality to change the state of UK media. Diversity and equality of origin and opinion is needed for the media to be representative of our society. According to a 2023 study by the National Council for the Training of Journalists, “The proportion of editors from non-white ethnic backgrounds is only six per cent”. Furthermore, a 2023 study of 27 black journalists by the Ethical Journalism Network claimed racism had been commonplace in their workplace experience.”
This lack of diversity within the workforce is also reflective in the UK press media’s controversial coverage of minority groups. For example, in 2021 a study by the Muslim Council of Britain’s Centre for Media Monitoring, found that between 2018 and 2019, 60% of articles studied which mentioned Islam or Muslims, did so with a “with negative aspects of behaviour”.
The Media Reform Coalition, and online news platform TRT News have both made statements believing the UK 2024 Summer Riots targeting Muslims and refugees, were fuelled by the UK media’s constant negative portrayal of these groups. Clearly, press media’s coverage under this monopolistic ownership, through newspapers and online circulation, created a polarised and harmful environment in the UK.
Additionally, British print media seem to currently be conflating these xenophobic narratives, with negative news stories on both international and national regulatory legal bodies. For example, former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed the UK must have a public referendum on continuing European Court of Human Rights’ (ECHR) membership. An Amnesty International poll has shown 57% of Britons do not want to leave the ECHR, with over 90% saying it is a low-priority issue. Yet, Boris Johnson’s announcement was the cover page for the 4th of October 2024 issue of The Telegraph.
Concurrently, articles by The Telegraph, Daily Express and Daily Mail have highlighted the case of a convicted Albanian burglar, who appealed his deportation from the UK under ECHR Article 8, claiming private and family life issues. The Daily Express had to later amend the article, as they claimed the EHCR “ruled on the case” which they did not.
Polarisation and misinformation
This reporting and hyper-focus on the ECHR, which often conflates the ECHR with negative views of foreigners from Eastern Europe and majority Muslim nations, displays a clear hostility by these mainstream newspapers against international human rights regulation. Their discrediting of these legal regulatory bodies is almost a pre-emptive reaction against any government or civic attempt to try to regulate their industry.
The media hostility also persists with national equality legislation in the UK. For example, linguist Paul Baker from Lancaster University, led a study which revealed over 6,000 articles about transgender people between 2018 and 2019, were overtly negative in their portrayal.
Clearly, a connection can be made between these media trends and current candidate for Conservative leadership – Kemi Badenoch – pledging to amend the 2010s Equalities Act. She wants the category of discrimination by sex to only apply to “biological sex”. It could make it legal to bar transgender women from “women only” spaces. This is despite the fact that in 2023 violence against transgender people increased by 11% in England and Wales. Yet the argument from many in the Conservative party and mainstream media, is that the Equality Act of 2010, should be paired down, not strengthened.
Their discrediting of national and international legal and human rights institutions could arguably be part of a wider narrative for press monopolies to preserve their current unregulated status. Thus, degrading democratic institutions which challenge these traditional power structures, like the 2012 Leverson Inquiry.
Without proper regulatory safeguards, the narratives targeting minority ethnic and LGBT groups, will continue fuelling polarisation and misinformation.
Therefore, the movement to reform the media must focus on entrenching values of equality and diversity, to promote a fair portrayal of all UK citizens.
This is needed not only to improve the quality of our news media, but also to strengthen British democracy within society, allowing for a wider engagement by all people to display their perspectives, struggles and joys.
Pictures from shutterstock.com
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Media Diversity Institute. Any question or comment should be addressed to [email protected]
