ON ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY RED PEPPER LAUNCHES A

CHARTER FOR THE MINORITY PRESS

Press diversity is a foundation of democracy. But Britain is an extremely harsh
habitat for independent media. Diversity and choice have been squeezed out of the
chain stores. Free Speech has been commodified. On its tenth anniversary, Red Pepper
is initiating a campaign to counter this.

Ken Livingstone will launch Red Pepper's Charter for the Minority Press at the ICA
on May 13. The Charter has been framed in association with the Campaign for Press
and Broadcasting Freedom and is backed by Mark Fisher MP, Bob Marshall-Andrews MP,
NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear, CWU General Secretary Billy Hayes, and Mark
Seddon of Tribune. It will call for the right of all legal publications to be sold
in newsagents, for the reintroduction of the Royal Mail's recently scrapped
Newspaper Registration Service (providing first-class delivery for second-class
prices), and for tax deductible subscriptions to non-profit publications. The
recommendations of the Charter will then be put forward as an early day motion in
the House of Commons.

Red Pepper's editor Hilary Wainwright says: "We need a charter because the flow of
knowledge cannot be entrusted to the market. In Britain Red Pepper, Tribune, New
Internationalist, The Ecologist and all the rest of the alternative press have to
compete with crisps and sandwiches for space on the shelves of WH Smith. But
publishing is not just another industry - the free flow of information and ideas is
a human right".

The proposals are not new. In France, where distribution is in the hands of a
tightly regulated co-operative to which all publishers pay a subscription,
legislation prevents retailers refusing to stock a periodical on commercial grounds.
Similar legislation was introduced in Italy after fascism to guarantee that
information could never again be monopolised by the state or moneyed interests.
Equivalent arrangements obtain in Germany and Greece. In Nordic countries there is a
long tradition of supporting the local and regional press through a subsidy system
designed to promote pluralism.

Having struggled against the odds for ten years, Red Pepper is fighting to ensure
that other publications will have it easier in the future. The stakes are high. As
Mark Fisher MP writes, 'newspapers and magazines affect what we know, how we think,
how we see the world. We have a right to cultural diversity'.

a.. Ken Livingstone will launch the Charter for the Minority Press on Thursday May
13, 11.45am - 1.30pm at the ICA - Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Nash Room,
12 Carlton House Terrace Entrance, SW1Y 5AH.
For further information contact Hilary Wainwright on 07973 215 351, Alex Nunns on
07763 607528 or email  media@redpepper.org.uk


Alex Nunns
+447763607528
Press Officer
Red Pepper