by Chris Youett

The NUJ has updated its policy on reporting the far right following the election of two BNP candidates to the European parliament.

Speaking at a conference held at the historic Mechanics Institute in Manchester, NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said now the BNP has two Euro MPs, the need for quality journalism and ethical reporting to expose wrongdoing by the BNP and other far right organisation was more vital than ever.

The conference was organised to give NUJ members practical advice on reporting the far right. Paul Scarrat, secretary of Yorkshire and Humberside Unite Against Fascism, said that in his view the election of BNP leader Nick Griffin in the north west and Andrew Brons in Yorkshire and Humberside was the biggest electoral breakthrough for the far right in British history.

In the 1999 Euro elections, the BNP got 100,000 votes. In 2004 it won 800,000 votes, and this year it was almost one million. This meant the BNP was now part of the democratic furniture and were now going to get far more publicity, he said.

Paul added that many voters did not know what the BNP really stood for. All too often, its policies sounded as if it had been listening to gossip down the pub.  However, the party is still committed to mass repatriation, crushing trade unions and ending democracy.

This means media workers face fresh problems covering the far right, particularly in reporting and advertising.

I pointed out that when I was a junior reporter 30 years ago there was little or no guidance on reporting the far right. Britain’s leading nazi Colin Jordan lived in Coventry and the only advice I got on reporting was to do it “by the book” and stick to the traditional four Ws – who, what, where and when.

I warned that the leaders of the far right are often plausible and charismatic people who could take in unprepared journalists.

Assistant editor of the Manchester Evening News Ian Wood talked about practical advice on dealing with editorial and advertising. He said it was MEN policy that all adverts which even looked as if they might support the far right had to be personally approved by the editor. Stories had to conform to high ethical standards.

Newspapers across the country had accepted adverts from the BNP in the run-up to the European elections and the NUJ has lodged a complaint with those editors.

Former NUJ president and chair of the union’s ethics council, professor Chris Frost reminded delegates about the guidelines on reporting race, travellers, immigration and asylum issues. And if members want someone to talk to, there is an ethics hotline and email address. The anti-fascist magazine Searchlight has also produced its own guide for journalists.

Pete Lazenby of the Yorkshire Evening Post has done a lot of research on the far right in his circulation area and this helped shift the newspaper’s stance against the BNP. Pete said he stuck to factual stories including what happened to a BNP councillor who resigned from the party when she found out what it really stood for.

In conclusion, Jeremy said he was delighted that editors were prepared to share a platform with the NUJ on questions of reporting the far right, but regretted that the Newspaper Society, which represents most of media employers, didn’t share this view.

• Chris Youett is the NUJ delegate to TUC midlands and minutes secretary of NUJ Birmingham and Coventry branch

Posted by NUJ Left

Tags: anti-fascist, anti-racist, ethics, journalism, National Union of Journalists, NUJ