Reforming the media

"Issues of race go straight to the heart of British journalism," said The Chronicle six months ago in "What Colour is the News?," a report of racial disadvantage inside news organisations.

Exposing the "race blind spot" in the media and press, the report proposed bold new action plans to meet the challenges of diversity and democracy.

In response, the media has been slow to acknowledge its shortcomings. However, prompted by the Stephen Lawrence (MacPherson) report which forced Britain to confront "institutional racism," it is now "Time to be brutally honest," says Peter Preston, editorial director of The Guardian Media Group, in an article 1 March.

Preston, whilst noting that his own rude awakening to race and the media came in the "after shock of the Brixton riots", was quick to plead innocence. "The fundamental situation...wasn't one in which newspapers conspired not to hire journalists from the minorities - but absolutely the reverse. The trouble ...was a shortage of high-flying candidates, not a shortage of institutional will," he said.

The Chronicle, and our eminent Black speakers and colleagues at a December seminar in London, disagree with this weak, untrue and "blaming the victim" accusation.

Further investigations and observations by our correspondents elaborate these points. Click the Media link below to see what they have to say.

Notes from a Reporter's Casebook confirms the need for diversity in the media workforce and a fair deal to the black and ethnic minority public, and outlines the positive actions and goodwill needed to implement change.

Dr. Beulah Ainley, author of Black Journalists, White Media, calls on the media industry to support positive training and employment programmes for black journalists.

Mike Jempson of PressWise, the media ethics body, recounts how black and white journalists made a significant contribution towards breaking the bias against people of colour in the media.

Blacks in the U.S. News and Newsrooms details how the U.S. has addressed the legacy of its failure to write and report on the whole, not just white, America.