Students Start Petition re. the Guardian's Reporting of the 26th March Demo
AnonStudent | 17.04.2011 11:55 | Other Press | Public sector cuts | Repression
Frustrated with how, after big protests, almost all major papers put out biased reports - acting as mouthpieces for the police and politicians, rather than telling people what really happened, students have started an online petition against the Guardian, calling for an apology for their reporting of the protest on March 26th.
The anger centres on this article, which was leading on their website on the days following the protest: . The petition text states:
"By selective quoting and reporting, [the article] paints a picture of indiscriminate, violent, hooligans trashing London, simply for the hell of it. This is untrue, and extremely unfair to those who decided to take direct action against the cuts on that day. Rather than allowing people to give different perspectives on what happened, the article basically strings together quotes from police and politicians trying desperately to give demonstrators every negative label they can think of [...]
"Why were the "tiny minority of violent, parasitic, unrepresentative hooligans" not given a chance to defend themselves? It is all very well reporting verbal attacks on activists by politicians sitting in their comfy seats in the houses of parliament, but none of them were being hit with truncheons yesterday, and probably never will be [...]
"We have had enough of irresponsible and mindless journalism which prioritises media outlets’ commercial interests rather than the public interest of reporting truth. As such we demand an unequivocal, printed apology from the Guardian editorial board'
Of course, since the 27th the Guardian has redeemed itself a little with coverage of UkUncut, and the unjust arrest of over one hundred of them - a markedly different tone from the tirade days before (see: and , for instance). However, this was all days after most people had made up their minds about the "tiny minority of violent, parasitic, unrepresentative hooligans", and still contained no serious look at police violence on the day (such as at Trafalgar Square). It also seems particularly spineless of them to have accepted the claims of the Met Police at face value, yet waited for documentary evidence from UkUncut before printing their side of the story.
If you feel the same, I urge you to sign and share this petition - it needs numbers to make it effective. I do not think reporting of protests is going to change until the press know they can expect an outcry whenever it happens.
Solidarity with all those arrested or beaten - you are not alone!
"By selective quoting and reporting, [the article] paints a picture of indiscriminate, violent, hooligans trashing London, simply for the hell of it. This is untrue, and extremely unfair to those who decided to take direct action against the cuts on that day. Rather than allowing people to give different perspectives on what happened, the article basically strings together quotes from police and politicians trying desperately to give demonstrators every negative label they can think of [...]
"Why were the "tiny minority of violent, parasitic, unrepresentative hooligans" not given a chance to defend themselves? It is all very well reporting verbal attacks on activists by politicians sitting in their comfy seats in the houses of parliament, but none of them were being hit with truncheons yesterday, and probably never will be [...]
"We have had enough of irresponsible and mindless journalism which prioritises media outlets’ commercial interests rather than the public interest of reporting truth. As such we demand an unequivocal, printed apology from the Guardian editorial board'
Of course, since the 27th the Guardian has redeemed itself a little with coverage of UkUncut, and the unjust arrest of over one hundred of them - a markedly different tone from the tirade days before (see: and , for instance). However, this was all days after most people had made up their minds about the "tiny minority of violent, parasitic, unrepresentative hooligans", and still contained no serious look at police violence on the day (such as at Trafalgar Square). It also seems particularly spineless of them to have accepted the claims of the Met Police at face value, yet waited for documentary evidence from UkUncut before printing their side of the story.
If you feel the same, I urge you to sign and share this petition - it needs numbers to make it effective. I do not think reporting of protests is going to change until the press know they can expect an outcry whenever it happens.
Solidarity with all those arrested or beaten - you are not alone!
AnonStudent
Homepage:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/guardiancutsapology/
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