Stephen Lawrence And What Every Journalist Needs To Know

Yesterday evening, nine of my friends choked back tears as they watched the moving Panorama Special on the conviction of Gary Dobson and David Norris for the murder of Stephen Lawrence over 18 years ago. It was an incredibly moving piece of journalism as it followed Stephen’s mother, Doreen Lawrence, over the past year as the case against the two murderers was reopened and their eventual conviction on 3rd January 2012.

The Panorama special also charted the larger story of how the Lawrence’s have fought for justice for over 18 years – and how that fight has changed British society forever. Their struggle was marked by numerous different events – from Nelson Mandela taking up the cause in 1993 a few weeks after Stephen’s death, to the failed private prosecution in 1996, and the Macpherson Inquiry that ushered in the phrase “Institutional Racism” into everyday parlance.

But as someone interested in diversity, television and journalism the part of the story I paid closest attention to happened on 14th February 1997. On that day, the Daily Mail’s front page showed pictures of the five white men thought to have killed Stephen, accompanied with the headline: “Murderers: The Mail accuses these men of killing. If we are wrong, let them sue us”.

It is possibly the Daily Mail’s most famous front page, and marked a major event in itself by increasing the general public’s awareness of the case. The Daily Mail’s Editor Paul Dacre has said that some people even argue that it was this front page that prompted the Labour Party – who were then in opposition – to promise to hold a Public Inquiry when they came into power later that year. It is a headline that every journalist and anyone interested in diversity in the media should be aware of.

However, the story behind the headline is even more intriguing. According to the renowned journalist Nick Davies in his book “Flat Earth News” one of the reasons the Daily Mail took its strong stance was because – purely by chance – Neville Lawrence (Stephen’s father) had done some plastering in Dacre’s house. Davis argues that it was this personal connection that made the Editor look at the case favourably and publish the historic headline.

History often hangs on these kinds of chance meetings. If Neville had accepted another plastering job would the Daily Mail have run the same headline? And if there had been no headline, would Tony Blair and the Labour Party, who were always acutely aware of the Daily Mail’s opinion, have ordered the judicial inquiry? And if that inquiry hadn’t happened, would the legal and policing reforms have taken place to enable the two convictions to finally take place, 18 years later? The truth is, we will never know.

But what the story behind the historic headline does reveal is the importance of personal contact with people in positions of editorial responsibility. The reality is that more diverse the people with editorial control are the more likely it is that they will have social and professional contact with others from diverse backgrounds and hear their stories.

The Daily Mail headline may have changed history, but I don’t want us to have to wait for another editor’s house to need plastering before more historic headlines that fight racism and challenge the status quo are printed. And the only way that will be achieved is if more people from diverse backgrounds work in the media.