SubScribe: May 2016 Google+

Sunday 29 May 2016

Being arrested does not mean you're guilty

Sun page 21


A few years ago a lot of journalists were arrested on suspicion of criminally paying contacts for stories.
They did pay for the stories and never denied it.
The contacts should not have sold the stories and many went to jail for doing so.
All but one of the journalists was cleared when their cases came to trial and the one man who was convicted is appealing.
The Sun, some of whose staff were embroiled in what was known as Operation Elveden, was very angry about the whole business.

A few decades ago we used to have something called the "sus" law, which allowed police to stop and search people they thought might be up to no good, even when there was no apparent reason to do so.
Young black men were the main victims of this over-used policing privilege. Some said that they regarded it as routine to be searched on trips to the shops or the cinema. It was part of life.
Eventually newspapers got quite cross about it and eventually the law was abolished.

Why the history lesson?
Because sometimes we can be presented with true facts and jump to the wrong conclusion.
So today seems a good day to remind ourselves - and the Sun in particular - that it is perfectly possible for a lot of people to be arrested and for most of them to be innocent of any crime.

The Brexit audit


In four weeks' time it will all be over. The UK will have decided whether its future should be as part of the EU or outside of it.
The referendum on June 23 is not an election in which candidates offer manifestos packed with promises of what they will do if they win. There can be no promises because nobody knows what will happen after the votes are counted. All anyone can do is gaze into a crystal ball. And that ball is pretty cloudy.
For Brexiteers, the future means freedom from Brussels bureaucracy, the right to control who comes into the country and how our money is spent.
For Remainers, the future means stability, the continuation of partnerships across a whole range of spheres from science and research to trade and environmental initiatives.
For national newspapers fighting for survival in an age where people generally get their news from television, social media and apps, this campaign should have been an opportunity to prove that they are still relevant, and a chance to demonstrate print journalism's advantages over the screens.
Scrolling down on your mobile, you see only one item at a time. Pick up a newspaper and you can see everything at a glance: the main story, the sidebar, the panel. How better to see all the arguments? How convenient to have one side's view on one side of the page and the opposing stance on the other. It's called balanced reporting and good old-fashioned newspapers are uniquely placed to offer this kind of journalism.
Have they taken this opportunity? Have they proved themselves invaluable sources of information for a confused and rather irritated electorate?
Are you joking?
The right-wingers have gone all-out for Brexit, with the white-tops shouting at readers that they MUST vote to leave the EU, while the left-wingers have been muted. The Mirror's instincts seem to be to Remain, but it is struggling to come to terms with the idea of being on the same side as David Cameron. The Times is trying to be even-handed, but the only paper so far rising to the occasion is the i, which seems genuinely interested in informing rather than instructing its readers. This real shame in this that the paper's key selling point is that it is "concise". If only those with more space would adopt a similar strategy, they might reap some benefits. Maybe in the last four weeks of campaigning they will.
It should be remembered that newspapers are not obliged to offer balanced coverage. They are entitled to take a standpoint and press that view. Campaigning journalism has a long and glorious history. If the Daily Mail, Daily Express and Sun truly believe that Britain and its people would be better off outside of the EU, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with their arguing that case.
They have, however, all signed up to be regulated by Ipso and to the editors' code of practice.
The relevant clauses of that code state:
Picture
The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or  images, including headlines not supported by the text.

The Press, while free to editorialise and campaign, must distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact.
An Oxford University study published this week looked at nearly a thousand articles published in the two months after David Cameron announced the date of the referendum and found that 45% of them had been pro-Brexit, 27% pro-remain, 19% were mixed and 9% were neutral.
SubScribe does not have the resources of Oxford's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, but it is going to attempt an audit of the nine mainstream paid-for national papers' coverage of the last weeks of the campaign. This will be published on the mothballed website here.
To start with, you will be able to click on any of the titles to see the pages they have produced over the past week and make your own judgments on the headlines, prominence and projection of stories. These collated pages, which will be updated regularly, are those that directly refer to the EU debate. That means that if one paper regards overturned refugee boats from Libya as part of the issue, they will be shown; where another treats the Mediterranean tragedies as separate, their pages covering that story will not be included.
There is also a brief resumé of events in the campaign since last Monday, so that you can decide whether they have been reported clearly, ignored or overplayed.
And when all that has been put together, there will - naturally - be some SubScribe commentary on the way things are going and possibly some straight reporting of issues that the Press seem to have missed.
Your feedback will be much appreciated on this, especially in pointing up anything missing from the "events" round-up.
Thank you.

Sunday 1 May 2016

May front pages

Tuesday 31 May

front pages 31-05-16


Monday 30 May


front pages 30-05-16


Sunday 29 May


front pages 29-05-16


Saturday 28 May


Front pages 28-05-16


Friday 27 May


front pages 27-05-16


Thursday 26 May


front pages 26-05-16


Wednesday 25 May


front pages 25-05-16


Tuesday 24 May


front pages 24-05-16


Monday 23 May
front pages 23-05-16


Sunday 22 May


front pages 22-05-16


Saturday 21 May


front pages 21-05-16


Friday 20 May


front pages 20-05-16


Thursday 19 May


front pages 19-05-16


Wednesday 18 May
front page 18-05-16


Tuesday 17 May
front pages 17-05-16


Monday 16 May


front pages 16-05-16


Sunday 15 May
front pages 15-05-16



Saturday 14 May


front pages 14-05-16


Friday 13 May

Front pages 13-05-16Thursday 12 May
front pages 12-05-16


Wednesday 11 May

front pages 11-05-16


Tuesday 10 May

front pages 10-05-16

Monday 9 May
front pages 09-05-16


Sunday 8 May


front pages 08-05-16



Saturday 7 May


front pages 07-05-16


Friday 6 May


front pages 06-05-16


Thursday 5 May


front pages 05-05-16


Wednesday 4 May


front pages 03-05-16


Tuesday 3 May


front pages 03-05-16


Monday 2 May


front pages 02-05-16


Sunday 1 May


front pages 01-05-16



You can see the April front pages here and those for the rest of the year by following the archive links on the right or clicking on the "front pages" tab under the masthead.