Landeskunde GB – British tabloids ¨¨

Editor, heal thyselfBritain’s racy tabloids try internal reforms

ritain’s tabloid newspapers have long concentrated on the lurid and voyeur-istic, whether it be shocking photo-

graphs of air-crash victims on the pages of the PEOPLE or bare-bosomed women on page 3 of the SUN. But in recent months, the news-papers’ owners have discovered that the regular diet of sex, scandal and sensationalism has resulted in parliamentary indigestion and growing public outrage. With the threat of governmental press control approaching, 20 of the country’s leading newspapers last week signed a broad code of ethics, which includes the hiring of mediators, obviously to slap down editors and reporters who place exploi-tation before fairness.

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The British public’s antipathy to the press was heightened last month when the PEOPLE, a Sunday tabloid with 2.7 million in circulation, printed two front-page pictures of Prince Williams, 7, urinating in a park (headline: THE ROYAL WEE). That led to protest from Prince Charles and Princess Diana and to the subsequent firing of editor Wendy Henry by the publisher, Robert Max-well. Earlier in the year, the editor of the SUN (circ. 4.2 million) apologized in print for a story alleging that drunken Liverpool soccer fans had “viciously attacked” rescue workers after 95 fans were crushed to death at a crowded soccer stadium in Sheffield. The wildly exaggerated story caused a boycott of the paper in Liverpool. The SUN, owned by Rupert Murdoch, was already shocked by a $1.8 million out-of-court settlement with rock star Elton John after falsely accusing him of

using the services of a male prostitute. The new code, which carries no penalties,

was written by the Newspapers Publishers Association, a group that includes both tab-loids and the so-called qualities, like the TIMES and the GUARDIAN. It was formu-lated, admits Arthur Davidson, director of Associated Newspapers, because of a belief that “legislation of some sort would come about.” The British press, which lacks the protection of a constitutional right to free ex-pression, is already constrained by a law that sharply restricts what it can print on national-security matters. And a group, set in by the government, is to report next year on what additional measures are needed to protect the British public’s right to privacy.

Anticipating this study, the code pledges to protect privacy (except when there is a “public interest” in intruding), to provide an opportunity for reply, to correct mistakes promptly, and to avoid irrelevant references to race, color and religion. The code also promises an end to the sort of deception that followed the Sheffield tragedy, when journalists posed as social workers to interview grieving relatives.

But can the tabloids really reform them-selves? Well, the day after the code was signed, the SUN was back on the street with a story that began, “Sex-mad Barbara Williams has ditched her toy boy hubby.”

[Adapted from TIME, Dec 11, 1989; 455 words.]

hm-abo – Januar 1990

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