W/C - 10th October: Weekly Article (10)

The Sun and Daily Mail accused of 'fuelling prejudice' in report on rising racist violence and hate speech in UK

Referencing the death of Lucy Meadows 

Summary

From the newspaper conglomerates of the UK The Sun and Daily Mail have been pin pointed in a report on ' hate speech' and discrimination. The ECRI (European Commission against Racism and intolerance) took a targeted aim at some British media outlets particularly tabloids for being offensive, discriminatory and provocative in the terminology they used in their news. The ECRI findings highlight in a even greater presence how much of a problem hate speech is so much so that people have taken their own lives because of it. It talks of how newspapers are guilty of a dishing out a huge amount of monstering and harassment.  People affected by the published articles even spoke up about the problems  that they faced but were point blank ignored. The report from the ECRI also concluded how reports on immigration, terrorism and the refugee crisis was contributing to a environment of hostility and rejection. For example, Katie Hopkins infamous column in The Sun citing refugees as 'cockroaches'. ECRI is urging the media to take more notice of the importance of reporting not only to avoid such stories coming out again but also to stop targeting vulnerable groups of people.

Key Statistics  - Not directly from the article but relates

Statistics from Met Police - CRIMES

As per the article, the key statistic that I drew out was the rise in hate crimes particularly Islamophobic crimes as reported by Met Police which is some what at the fault of the newspapers and what they have been printing. In July 2015 reported Islamophobic crimes were at a total count of 83 whereas July of 2016 reported crimes were at a total of 161 which is percentage change of +94.0%. 

My Opinion

Personally, some of things that I have seen published in the papers growing up has always had me questioning why newspaper conglomerates were publishing such things, because as soon as I read them I questioned why they published such things that even I could tell would cause outrage. A lot of newspapers are known for dishing out scandals but is this the way to go if we are trying to reduce London crime rates. Despite, this newspapers print stories like this because they think that stories like those on immigrants etc is the only way to get a audience back from what already is a dying market because of citizen journalism. However, this is not the case because newspapers such as the FT get just as much interest from audiences as those printing these outrageous stories about Islamophobia. This all takes me back to a saying that I was told when I was growing up which is something that I think newspapers should abide by which is: " Treat others how you would like to be treated", newspapers should think about what they are printing and how readers will see it before it is printed. Would all those hot shot editors sitting at the top of the chain on wealthy salaries like to be called gold diggers or worse... NO!.