Stifling independent media stifles democracy itself. All journalists should be standing in solidarity with investigative reporters.
A Level 2 ‘Media freedom alert’ has been issued to the UK government by the Council of Europe, following the Ministry Of Defence’s blacklisting of investigative media outlet ‘Declassified’.
Declassified were told by the Ministry of Defence ‘we no longer deal with your publication’, following critical coverage of UK-Saudi arms deals and our government’s complicity in – and apathy towards – war crimes in Yemen.
By now, it’s uncontroversial to say our current Prime Minister has a bad track record on media freedom. He’s threatened to cut public funding for both the BBC and Channel 4 following ‘hostile’ coverage during the 2019 General Election.
He’s heavily centralised editorial control at the BBC and is threatening to cut the licence fee entirely, making the institution even more reliant on direct government funding. Channel 4 are still being boycotted, and may even be privatised, after using the visual metaphor of a melting ice block to represent Boris’ ghosting of the climate debate. His personal disdain for media scrutiny is self evident.
“It’s key to acknowledge that this problem didn’t start, nor will it end, with Boris’ premiership. Attempts to censor independent reporting are not without precedent in previous administrations.”
For instance, John Pring of Disability News Service was blacklisted by another government department, the Department of Work and Pensions, in 2015. Pring had uncovered the first suicide linked to welfare cuts. This work was indisputably a vital public service, and had a big role in shaping the austerity debate.
Not only are such outlets often financially vulnerable, and take much bigger hits when blacklisted than their corporate counterparts, independently funded investigative outlets are even more scarce than paid internships in our industry, if you can imagine such a thing.
“Client journalism has been rising steadily for over a decade, and correlates well with increasing distrust of media.”
The phenomenon of client journalism also explains Boris’s ambivalence over the notion of a free press, clearly demonstrated by this tweet – audaciously published the same week as the media freedom alert was issued.
A free press is vital in holding the government and other powerful institutions to account on issues critical for the future of our country, including the fight against climate change.
It is completely unacceptable to seek to limit the public’s access to news in this way.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) September 5, 2020
In short, most politicians are in favour of a ‘free’ press as long as such freedom doesn’t derail their political ambitions or public image. This seems like an opportune moment to point out that not one government has been elected this century without the support of the Murdoch backed press.
Media monopolies are corroding our democracy and independent media outlets are a vital antidote. They’re invaluable in diversifying media output and enriching our democracy. We cannot have a truly informed public, and by extension informed voting, without such outlets.
As journalists, we need to stand in solidarity with Declassified. Just as we should also be standing in solidarity with Assange. Solidarity should in fact be the bare minimum, so – in case you couldn’t tell – I’ve been rather disappointed to see near radio silence on this issue.
Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere. Our media hell-scape will never improve, nor will public distrust of it, unless we’re willing to fight. Once again I’m asking the media to practice the values we claim to so dearly hold.
Dayna Latham
Featured image courtesy of @Kelsey Chance via Unsplash. Image licence found here. No changes were made to this image.