A strategy for Britain's news media

Introduction and Summary

Jonathan speaking at ICAHD-UK conference

I gave this talk to the annual conference of Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD-UK) on Saturday 17th October. The theme was: Empowering Palestinians in their Struggle for Justice.

The event includied compelling speeches by:

• Jeff Halper, the founder of ICAHD, about the One Democratic State campaign

• Mohammed Usrof, a Palestinian writer and researcher, founder of the Palestinian Iniative for Climate Strategy (PICS)

• John Garrett and Rev Sue Parfitt talking of experiences supporting the banned Palestine Action

• Bruno Sorrentino of Palio Fims a UK-based documentary filrmaker, who showed us clips from Rooted in the West Bank)

• and others

I spoke about a strategy towards Britain's news media that would help empower the Palestinians.

I explained that CAMPAIN, an organisation that seeks to address gross misrepresentation in the media and public affairs, had grown out of our growing sense that Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), the main UK Palestinian rights organisation, was neglecting this serious problem. While we had found PSC an impressive and potent campaigning force, it did not seem to be connecting with large swathes of the British public. Moreover it did not seem to be contesting the media environment, including the misrepresentation as antisemitic of leading advocates for Palestinian rights.

We felt that campaigning organisations, including PSC, needed to better understand different sections of the national audience they sought to influence. They also needed to take a more proactive approach towards the news media - working closely with allied groups - notably the many excellent independent media outlets, and organisations that work for the reform of our mainstream media (across the board, not just as regards Israel/Palestine). I ended by inviting others to form a strategic alliance to bring this about.

Britain's news media: a strategy to help empower the Palestinians in their struggle for justice

We formed CAMPAIN in 2021, thinking that fixing our news media was key to making democracy work. We were particularly concerned about reporting of Israel and Palestine, and an evidence-free smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters. If you recall, it was constantly reported that they were allowing antisemitism to proliferate in the Labour Party, or were antisemitic themselves.

Significantly four of the six founders of CAMPAIN came from a Lib Dem background, but were nevertheless incensed by the way Corbyn and followers were being treated.

Misinformation and misrepresentation on the Israel-Palestine topic are endless – most recently in reporting of Zack Polanski and the Green Party over the Zionism is Racism motion. Double Down News examined a sample of news reports by the BBC, the press and news agencies, finding they devoted almost 10 times as much space to critics of the motion as to supporters. And as in the earlier case of Jeremy Corbyn, the supposedly impartial BBC, and the liberal Guardian, are in the forefront.

But the biggest problem of the misinformation is that it facilitates political autocracy. People like Trump, Putin, Narendra Modi, Erdogan and Netanyahu have sought to consolidate their power by having a compliant news media. I sense the same pressures here when it comes to international affairs.

I have slightly edited the talk to take on board comments from people attending the Conference.

Our love-hate relationship with PSC

In the years before COVID, our current Chairman (Adam) and I were both members of PSC and used to meet at its AGMs. We both admired PSC for its strength as a campaigning organization. It was heavily involved in street campaigning (every time Israel decided to mow the lawn), and its other big priority was BDS.

However, we found it a bit narrow in its approach. Its message was important to those already committed to the Palestinian cause, but it seemed to have much less to say to massive swathes of British population for whom Palestine was not an immediate priority. I meet many of them in the London Borough of Bromley, which I think is broadly representative of middle England – they are generally good people, but not greatly concerned about foreign affairs.

We felt that to get more support from such people, we needed to better understand their thinking, how they could be influenced and what messages resonated with them.

We were also disappointed that PSC was not prepared to defend Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters during the smear campaign I mentioned.

There is a long-standing doctrinal reason for PSC’s stance. I first learned about this talking to Ben Jamal in 2017, and their Executive Committee reminded me of it at the end of last year. PSC sees itself as taking its strategic priorities from the Palestine (BDS) National Committee, that means Omar Barghouti and co., and there is a fear of taking on any new activities that detract from its established priorities.  

In one way, I find it good that PSC is rooted in the Palestinian community, but in another way, I find it short-sighted. The members of PSC are British, and it is these people and our journalists who are best placed to understand the thinking of fellow citizens they need to bring over to the Palestinian cause. If you will forgive me for borrowing a couple of marketing terms, I find PSC’s approach much more supply-driven than demand-led.

Anyhow, this led to our forming CAMPAIN.

What should the basis for our appeal?

An early thought of ours was that altruistic concern for Palestinians is not the sole basis for supporting Palestinian rights. Indeed, motivating these other groups may require appealing to people’s enlightened self-interest. When marching through London, we often shout in unison that In our thousands, in our millions we are all Palestinians.

Perhaps we need to make more of this, by showing people that the immense suffering of Palestinians is part of a larger problem tearing up the world that our children and grandchildren will inherit. We only need to cite the many foreign misadventures for which British Governments bear significant responsibility, and where the British news media failed to apply adequate scrutiny.  Apart from Israel’s war on the Palestinians, the Lebanese and the Iranians, I can cite:

• The US-UK invasion of Iraq in 2003

• The intervention into Libya in 2011

• The civil war in Sudan where the UK (penholder on Sudanese affairs at the UN) has stood by while the United Arab Emirates supported the deadly Rapid Support Forces

• Support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, and

• Events leading up to the war between Russia and Ukraine

  
  

In this last case, I am not suggesting Britain should simply ditch Ukraine in its current predicament. We do however need to recognise that the continual eastward expansion of NATO has prompted the military response we now face; much as forecast by George F. Kennan, the guy who designed the containment policy towards the Soviet Union in the post-war period. If you are interested, I can discuss the other cases in the Q&A afterwards, but must now move on.  

Behind these failures lie two main factors:

• firstly, systematic bias in our body politic and our mainstream news media in favour of the powerful, and

• secondly, a malleable electorate that is by and large poorly informed about international affairs. People are hardly taught about them at school and tend to go along unquestioningly with dominant mainstream narratives.

When I refer to The Powerful, I include: the security state and armed forces – with many decades of Cold War behind them; arms manufacturers who make money out of international conflict: the mainstream press overwhelmingly in the hands of right-wing people, many not resident in the UK; big tech bosses (think of Palantir, Larry Ellison and Elon Musk) heavily invested in Western war machines, and; lobbies representing foreign powers. Unfortunately, Andy Burnham only refers to foreign interference by official enemies like Russia, China and Iran; Israel's massive meddling in our internal affairs is never mentioned.

Encouranging developements in the news media

Notwithstanding this situation, I can see some very encouraging developments that show we have allies, not all of who campaign heavily about Palestine, but who push in the same direction:

Firstly, we have some magnificent independent media outlets such as Declassified UK, Double Down News and Middle East Eye. They critically examine British foreign policy, and provide evidence-based journalism of a kind too often lacking in the mainstream. Then we have a relatively new entrant, NewsCord, that involves the public in electronic campaigns to expose misreporting and seek redress. We have the Crispin Flintoff show that brings us a range of interesting interviewees. And there are other independent media that provide incisive comment, including Electronic Intifada, Novara Media, Zeteo UK, Open Democracy, Prospect Magazine, The Canary, Byline Times and Reel News.

Secondly, there is the growing number of high-quality journalists who have broken free from the mainstream gravy train and have chosen – at considerable financial cost to themselves - to focus on telling the truth. I would particularly cite Jonathan Cook, Peter Oborne, Sangita Myska, Richard Sanders and Owen Jones in this regard.

If we care to look for accurate news on Israel, Palestine and the Middle East, we are spoilt for choice. The only problem is that while articles and social media videos by independent media and journalists sometimes can get as much as 250,000 views, they are hardly followed by the mass of the population.

One cannot yet compare the outreach of the independent media to the mainstream. A recent report by Ofcom states that, despite the vertiginous rise in online intermediaries, 82% of Britons over 16 have used the BBC and other public service broadcasters to find news over the preceding month. That’s tens of millions of people[1].

Of course, the bulk of the press lies well to the right of these broadcasters, and is largely engaged in culture wars and obsessively support the United States and Israel.  Just three companies account for 90% of circulation).

Another encouraging feature is a strong movement for effective reform of the mainstream media. I associate this particularly with the Hacked Off Campaign, which specifically seeks the effective regulation of the press, and the Media Reform Coalition, which has proposals to reform all UK news media, including press,  BBC and other public service broadcasting and online publishers. Both these organisations were formed around concern about the accuracy of reporting and the way the press often messes up the lives upon people on which it reports.

As its name suggests the Hacked Off Campaign grew out of the phone hacking scandal that erupted in 2011. This led to the closure of the News of the World and the humiliation of Rupert Murdoch, and to the Leveson inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press.  The Hacked Off Campaign has tirelessly advocated for full implementation of Leveson’s proposals for independent regulation, but in practice the press barons have used their political muscle to prevent any independent vetting, and have established a regulatory body (IPSO) under their own control.

Leveson’s proposals were however implemented in part with the establishment of the Press Recognition Panel (PRP), and the appointment of a single independent regulator (IMPRESS) that operates under a Royal Charter. IMPRESS regulates 241 publications including many of the independent media I previously mentioned. It also runs an arbitration panel that provides a far cheaper way of settling disputes than going through the courts. So, we have a paradoxical situation while these smaller titles are held to an independent standard, while the Times, the Sun, the Telegraph etc. are regulated by a body that answers to the press barons that own them. But there is a positive side to this: those seeking regulatory reform can hold up the PRP and IMPRESS as what could be achieved with a more comprehensive regulatory system including the mainstream titles.

So, what can we do - those of us primarily concerned about Palestine?

CAMPAIN would like to form a strategic alliance of organizations that seek to change the national narrative around foreign affairs, and particularly Palestine and the Middle East. Given the positive forces already at work (independent news media, outspoken journalists, and media reform movement), we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We only need to complement their efforts.

Our strategy would tentatively cover, briefly:

1. Developing a better understanding of our audience

2. Using our networks to selectively promote the best outputs of independent media

3. Timely rebuttal of erroneous reporting, focusing particularly on BBC and other broadcasters, while it is fresh in people’s minds

4. Join forces with those promoting regulatory reform of the UK news media. Instead of Palestine supporters just sitting in their own box, this would involve reaching out to these groups and offering support – you might even say I scratch your back, you scratch mine.

5. Developing media literacy, first among our own supporters, and then in the country at large.

Now, when it comes to rebuttal of mainstream reporting, some of you may know the journalist Richard Sanders – who has a long history of making films for C4 and Al Jazeera, is now with Double Down News. He has strongly advocated for creating a rebuttal group on the grounds that it would be an effective tool in making journalists aware of their mistakes and how they can improve.

One option would be to put more resources behind the work NewsCord is doing, on a shoestring as I understand. You may remember that PSC had its own rebuttal scheme between 2009 until 2016, called the Fair News Initiative, that focused on getting the BBC to correct its stories. It was very capably coordinated by Amena Saleem, but she left to look after her mother and was not replaced and the activity ceased. Several people who are now CAMPAIN members provided voluntary support and found this work both effective and rewarding.

CAMPAIN is a small group with about 5,600 subscribers, and there is a limit to what we can do on our own. We would like PSC to take the lead – it is a far larger organization with over 100 groups around the country, a subscriber base of 300,000 and a strong online presence, but it remains tightly focused on its current campaigning, notably the big marches, and BDS, and sees work on the media as detracting from this focus.

This might change with a new Director and there are opportunities to involve local PSC groups that are less bound by HQ doctrines.

Apart from this, the strategic alliance can start with whatever organisations share our vision. We start by extending an invitation to ICAHD-UK and any other groups represented here.

[1] https://pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/uk-sources-of-news/