Profits from propaganda

BY LAURA FRIEL

 

The British media wields enormous influence on the British voters and consequently has significant impact on the British government, Roy Greenslade told an audience in West Belfast during Féile week.

Greenslade, a Professor of Journalism at London's City University and former editor of the Daily Mirror, had travelled to Belfast to promote his forthcoming book on British newspaper history, 'Press Gang: How to make profits from propaganda', which will be available in October.

As a media commentator for the Guardian newspaper for the last ten years, Greenslade has been well placed to monitor the British press in its attitude and approach to important issues such as the British conflict in Ireland.

Despite British newspapers claiming to hold British governments to account for their activities in Irish affairs, they have always acted as government cheerleaders, said Greenslade. The British public has never understood what the conflict in Ireland is all about because their newspapers have failed to report it fairly and honestly, he said.

After Partition, the British media almost completely ignored the Six Counties, surrendering all control to the locally based and unionist dominated media. Even the BBC, which at least purports to offer a public service, operated with total deference to the Orange state. In a policy document of 1945, the BBC spelt out their position. The media should reflect the sentiments of people who maintained a position of British loyalty, urged the document.

Speaking to an audience, including many journalists and writers, in the Falls Library, Greenslade recalled an interview with John Taylor in which the Ulster Unionist rejected the Civil Rights Movement as a sham.

Taylor had painted a picture in which, since Partition, "Catholics had been treated so well and unionists had been kindness itself". And the really scary thing was that the journalist conducting the interview never challenged a word. "When it comes to Ireland, the British media prefer myths to facts," said Greenslade.

After Partition, the British media became completely disinterested in the North of Ireland. There was, as Liz Curtis said in her study, 'The Propaganda War', a conspiracy of silence. "The British ruled it and forgot about it," said Greenslade. "Continued opposition to Partition was stifled and the reality of the Orange state remained a secret."

Censorship in the unionist-dominated state was maintained by deference to Orange rule by the British media. In 1959, BBC presenter Alan Whicker travelled to the Six Counties to make a series of short films about nothing very much.

But in one short film about betting shops, footage in which 'vote Sinn Féin' graffiti appeared in the background and the image of an armed RUC officer was considered so subversive that Whicker was accused of presenting an "unbalanced picture of life in the province".

Unionist outrage reached such a crescendo that Lord Brookborough threatened to withdraw screening rights from the BBC. The BBC apologised and complied by withdrawing plans to screen all seven films.

The media largely restricted coverage of the Six Counties to the rare British Royal visit, with only a handful of articles breaking the mould. In 1950 the People ran an article debating the unionist position with that of the case for unification. In 1953, the Daily Herald ran articles by the British Labour Party's Michael Foot in which he highlighted religious discrimination and the practice of gerrymandering.

But this was to change with the onset of the civil unrest of the late 1960s. Journalists, who arrived in the north of Ireland knowing nothing after years of media silence, were initially shocked by the reality they found.

Faced with Ian Paisley "fanning a campaign of violence against Catholics", British journalists initially identified with the nationalist community and sympathised with the objects of the civil rights movement. The Daily Mirror even compared Paisley to Hitler. "By August '69 the media had switched onto full power," said Greenslade. But it was short lived.

With the arrival of British troops, the British media shifted back to their traditional role of supporting their boys. The conflict was presented as religious and the media's emphasis shifted to violence rather than politics, the effect rather than cause, said Greenslade.

"I particularly remember an editor shouting down the telephone to a journalist "how high are the flames?" said Greenslade.

Greenslade traced the British media's change of attitude by considering their treatment of Bernadette Devlin. Initially, Bernadette was described in glowing terms as the 'Celtic Joan of Arc' and her maiden speech as a newly elected MP to the British Parliament was reported with a positive spin, but it wasn't long before she was being dismissed as 'bitter'.

Soon, the media coverage was reduced to the "IRA bogeyman enemy" and dependency on British Army briefings. With the introduction of Direct Rule, even the right wing couldn't grant unionism a return to Stormont and the notion of 'two warring tribes' emerged. Unionist violence, initially identified as the catalyst of the conflict - RUC and loyalist mobs attacking civil rights campaigners - became depicted as 'responsive' and secondary to republican 'violence'.

But interestingly, Greenslade sees the British media's slavish adherence to British government policy as less secure in the current peace process. Greenslade sees the British media as still locked into their anti-republican agenda forged at the height of the conflict and are resistant to the peace process.

"Press Gang" is published by Macmillian on October 3 at a retail price of £30. A copy can be ordered from Macmillian Distribution Ltd, Brunel Road, Houdsmills, Basingstoke, Hants, RG21 6XS.