10,000 copies of an 8 page spoof of a local paper, 'East London Adversaries', covering the DSEi protests were delivered to about 90% of the Canning Town area.
A downloadable pdf of the newspaper is available here:
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/323198.html
The East London Advertiser has responded to the paper claiming it's own design has been hijacked by anarchists and it's journalistic intergrity has been compromised.
A downloadable pdf of the newspaper is available here:
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/323198.html The East London Advertiser has responded to the paper claiming it's own design has been hijacked by anarchists and it's journalistic intergrity has been compromised.
Anarchists ‘passed off’ Advertiser, claims editor
Published: Thursday, September 15, 2005
By Sarah Lagan
East London Advertiser editor Malcolm Starbrook has claimed his paper's design, layout, masthead and even bylines have been "blatantly hijacked"
by a publication produced by an anonymous organisation aiming to sway local opinion against the bi-annual arms fair, which is taking place in London's Docklands.
Starbrook was contacted by a concerned reader who mistook an eight-page free publication, being distributed from an East London bookshop, with the Advertiser and could not believe the Archant title was offering its own opinion on the matter.
Under the masthead East London Adversaries the organisation printed its publication using the same colour and font as the Advertiser.
The sports page on the back of the publication used the same masthead before the Advertiser was relaunched, and uses the byline Jona Smith where the Advertiser's sports editor is called John Smith.
Starbrook believes the publication has mimicked his paper to piggyback its strong reputation in the area.
He said: "They have blatantly hijacked our paper and I find it appalling.
"I am angered that an organisation sets itself up to replicate a reputablenewspaper and uses the respect we have to gain support for what is a call for protests and, even worse, the possibility of violence.
"They have the potential to damage our reputation. We always report on the event, but we never take a view.
"They are taking a partisan view in their coverage and are attempting to make it look as if it's the ELA's reports.
It's all spun against the organisers of the event, but we have never tried to side with the protesters."
Contact details in the paper are false.
Starbrook added: "If we could stop them we would, but the whole thing about anarchy is that you can't find those in charge."
Published: Thursday, September 15, 2005
By Sarah Lagan
East London Advertiser editor Malcolm Starbrook has claimed his paper's design, layout, masthead and even bylines have been "blatantly hijacked"
by a publication produced by an anonymous organisation aiming to sway local opinion against the bi-annual arms fair, which is taking place in London's Docklands.
Starbrook was contacted by a concerned reader who mistook an eight-page free publication, being distributed from an East London bookshop, with the Advertiser and could not believe the Archant title was offering its own opinion on the matter.
Under the masthead East London Adversaries the organisation printed its publication using the same colour and font as the Advertiser.
The sports page on the back of the publication used the same masthead before the Advertiser was relaunched, and uses the byline Jona Smith where the Advertiser's sports editor is called John Smith.
Starbrook believes the publication has mimicked his paper to piggyback its strong reputation in the area.
He said: "They have blatantly hijacked our paper and I find it appalling.
"I am angered that an organisation sets itself up to replicate a reputablenewspaper and uses the respect we have to gain support for what is a call for protests and, even worse, the possibility of violence.
"They have the potential to damage our reputation. We always report on the event, but we never take a view.
"They are taking a partisan view in their coverage and are attempting to make it look as if it's the ELA's reports.
It's all spun against the organisers of the event, but we have never tried to side with the protesters."
Contact details in the paper are false.
Starbrook added: "If we could stop them we would, but the whole thing about anarchy is that you can't find those in charge."
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Comments
Hide the following 6 comments
Hamsters to bring libel charges?
18.09.2005 20:13
Regarding Sarah Lagan's article
I am one of those responsible for the publication of the East London Adversaries and refute Malcolm Starbrook claim that we have attempted to 'pass-off' our paper as the Advertiser.
Unlike the Advertiser, our paper was free and delivered door to door to 90% of streets in Canning Town and Customs House.
See
While is is true that the our paper used a similar masthead to the old Advertiser masthead, it is worth pointing out that the Advertiser abandoned that masthead several weeks ago and now uses an entirely different font and colour scheme.
Furthermore, the byline 'Jona Smith' on the sports page is taken from the source article posted on Indymedia in 2003 and has nothing to do with the Advertiser's sports editor John Smith.
There are several inaccuracate statements which we would like to correct. We are not an "anonymous organisation", we are Hamsters and that is stated clearly on the rear page of the paper by the bar code.
Additionally our contact details, which were also printed on the paper, are not false. Nobody from the Advertiser has tried to contact us via either email or phone so Starbrook would appear to be making malicious claims in order to discredit our publication.
Personally I am appalled at Starbrook's careless and potentially libelous use of the term "anarchy" and the accusation that our publication has somehow called for the "possibility of violence" during protests.
The East End Adversaries is one in a long line of political spoofs printed over the last decade. All have been produced in responce to an increasingly urgent need to address the monopoly of the media (including the so-called 'local' papers) by corporate interests.
This particular paper was intended to ensure that local people were aware not only of the likelyhood of disruption during the protests but also the motivations behind the protests.
It was felt that the local papers had not been addressing the issue apart from unquestioningly repeating police propaganda. For example, The Wharf (Sep 8 2005) "POLICE fear that illegal protests could cause carnage around ExCeL London next week"
The editor of the East End Advertiser is welcome to take legal action if he rates his chances, althought no other political spoof that I am aware of has lost such a case.
In the meantime, perhaps Hamsters will seek legal council on the possibility of issuing a writ for libel against us.
hamsters
Bloody cheek!
18.09.2005 21:05
I did some of the distribution in the area and found several times I had to assure people that it wasn't the Advertiser before they would take a paper from me. Perhaps the Advertiser does have a strong reputation but one to boast about.
Papergirl
we are all hamsters now!
18.09.2005 22:16
hamster solid-arity
Brilliant
18.09.2005 23:52
naeb'dy
East London Newspapers
19.09.2005 00:19
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Archant can trace its roots back over 160 years and today remains one of the country’s largest independent media businesses. As a private company it employs 3000 people right across England and Scotland. Its head office is in Norwich and has an annual turnover of £186 million.
The newspapers division, Archant Regional, produces four daily regional newspapers and more than 85 weekly titles with a combined circulation of three million copies every week. It is a UK top five regional newspaper publisher. It also publishes many of the group’s 120 websites and a number of its magazines.
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The Archant Print division has two main printing facilities at Norwich and Ipswich. It prints the majority of the group’s newspaper titles and offers a contract print service at both sites.
local
Excellent
19.09.2005 11:36
GW Bush