Media Trust and Black journalists urge positive media response to Lawrence inquiry report

The Media Trust, a partnership of media specialists and voluntary organisations, joined forces recently with the Black Creative Collective of journalists to mark the six-month anniversary of Sir William MacPherson's report on the Stephen Lawrence case. Stephen's death at the hands of a white gang in Eltham, southeast London, in 1993, had triggered shock waves of revulsion across the nation and brought calls to prosecute race attacks under a reformed Race Relations Act.

John Snow, news presenter

Jon Snow of the trust and Joy Francis of the collective brought together influential and campaigning national media figures - from broadcasting and print - at a forum in London. Black and Asian journalists and academics were represented, along with minority community groups from as far as Glasgow.

Open society
Participants welcomed the tentative climate of "openness to diversity" sparked by the MacPherson Report published 23rd February this year. But the press at large failed to support Government pledges to create a "racism-free society" by the new decade of the millennium. "To paraphrase a well-worn cliche, the media still have some way to go yet," said forum organisers.

Personal testimonies of poor media performance on racial issues enlivened the meeting. Contributors included Simon de Banya, a Stephen Lawrence justice campaigner, Rhonda Siddall of Undercover Britain, Blue Water Films, and Rubel Ahmed of the Drummond Street Project. Invited guests included Jonathan Hicks, political correspondent of the New York Times.

Integrated journalism
Jon Snow, a well-known Channel 4 News broadcaster, summed up the forum's vision to participants: "We believe that you too want to see integrated journalism where it becomes second nature to seek out the views of Black and Asian people on a range of concerns. Positive and workable strategies to counter institutional racism within the media have to be created. And the only way for progress to be made - and sustained - is by honest, open discussion with clear objectives."

The event, billed as "informal and unconventional", would not provide a radical antidote to the colour-blind shortcomings of the media, said Snow. Its aim was "to remind the media of its responsibilities to reflect what is a racially and culturally diverse society". Community groups were urged to draw up action plans "to make the media do justice to the untimely death of Stephen Lawrence and the birth of MacPherson's report".

(The Black Creative Collective is a newly formed group. The Media Trust, a national charity, " gives a voice to voluntary and charitable organisations".

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