BOLD & the local media

How much freedom of speech do we really have?
John Wilkins

THIS article summarises the problems a local campaigning group BOLD (Building Our Local Democracy) based in Middleton, has encountered with regard to freedom of speech.

It is an issue which is central to much of what the group is about as illustrated by the first two aims of the group:

1. Encourage more people to exercise their democratic rights, in order to bring power and decision making closer to the people.

2. Promote more democratic accountability and transparency in central and local government, public and private bodies.

Our last but one meeting focussed on the latest of a catalogue of scandals involving Rochdale councillors.  This being the caution accepted by the now Councillor Faisal Rana for casting votes in two different constituencies in the last round of Council Elections. Individual members of our group have contacted the Council, Heywood & Middleton Labour CLP and even the Local Government Ombudsman.

The last meeting concentrated on why many local people in Rochdale Borough will be oblivious of this and earlier scandals as there is inadequate coverage of local politics in the media here.  The local printed papers rarely print a letters column these days which was a way of getting more exposure on local issues.  Until recently Rochdale On – Line was an outlet for those wanting more political stories being put into the public domain.  A prolific contributor on politic issues as well as some of our members have complained about the dearth of comments from residents being published now as well as the archive of previous letters being deleted.

We have to speculate on the reasons behind this weakening of political expression. Could it be that the financial problems reported to be afflicting this news outlet means they are even more dependent on advertising finance from adverts placed by the Council?

In some ways this is not a new issue as a member claimed the child abuse scandal at Knowl View only became covered properly after exposure in 1979 with articles in Private Eye and later The New Statesan.

One member directly asked a local journalist why there was less coverage of public's letters in the local media.  His response was to the effect that there was little enthusiasm from management for printing views that were challenging to local politicians!  Some members regretted the loss of a political reporter for the local papers who was always willing to publish views from them.  One can only guess that his career change might have been due to the stifling of freedom of expression.

With regard to the national media there has long been an in-balance in newspapers with a more right wing agenda being pushed in 80%.  The BBC was also felt not to be always neutral and quite selective of issues it promoted.  A few years ago I asked the organiser of a meeting on TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) which such an important topic rarely got coverage.  The response was he had asked the same question of a senior BBC presenter to be told 'they 'were leaned upon' not to give the topic much exposure!

An example of the suppression of freedom of expression had been experienced by a member who edits a more left wing periodical.  The paper edition was blighted by the deliberate lack of distribution by the two conglomerates who have a virtual monopoly of it. Since then he has struggled to get just a few on-line editions out having suffered from a vendetta instigated by a local politician and taken up by the blogger Guido Fawkes. Unfounded insinuations of anti-Semitism have resulted in extensive abuse and also death threats to many contributors including a local MEP!

We explored some solutions to this impasse, one of which was more use of social media which is where most of the younger generation got their news.  Northern Voices kindly offered us space to put our views out.  Following a jocular observation that we could fly-post our views on lamposts another suggested the group could produce newsheets to give out in the town centres, particularly as the older generation still often preferred a written format to digital.  The member editor of the paper, The WORD, suggested a leaflet on local issues could be inserted in his paper when it gets back into print again. 
 

It is ironic that as we come up to the 200th. anniversary of Peterloo, an event that captured the attention of newspapers at that time and led indirectly to the creation of the Manchester Guardian, that we are in such a situation now.  We might in the interim return to the spreading of ideas through being like the 'Pamphleteers' of previous centuries!

Follow us on Facebook at BOLD = Building Our Local Democracy or for more information on our group e-mail j.wilkins248@yahoo.com

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