World Press Freedom Day is Meaningless Without Media Diversity

Today, Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 is World Press Freedom Day. The purpose of the day, (now in its 30th year) is to raise awareness about the value of press freedom, the necessity of defending journalists' rights, and the need to support independent, free media.

The most recent report on press freedoms by the World Press Freedom Index revealed a shocking decline in press freedoms across the world, with a record 31 countries being in a “very serious situation”, the lowest rank in the report, up from 21 just two years ago. The list, released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), also saw the UK fall from 24th in the global rankings last year to 26th this year.

My concern, as a Black British journalist, is that the UK’s position might be even worse for people of colour working (or more specifically failing to work) in the industry.

Freedom of the press means nothing if large sections of the population are denied access to it.

According to the Reuters Institute, only about 0.2% of British journalists are Black

In 2020 the Press Gazette published research by Women in Journalism, showing that in one week in July 2020 - at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests across the world  - UK’s 11 biggest newspapers failed to feature a single byline by a black journalist on their front pages. And of the 174 front page bylines examined in that period only 4 were credited to journalists of colour.

 

The same report also found that in the same week just one in four front-page bylines across the 11 papers went to women.

 

It should be noted that the week the study surveyed featured front page stories about Black Lives Matter, the replacement of the toppled statue of the slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol and the appeal over the British citizenship of the Muslim mother, Shamima Begum.

Front page stories frame how the public view an issue with many never getting past the headline. 

A recent report by the Ethical Journalism Network also found that anti-black racism in UK newsrooms is “commonplace”. 

And finally there is not one single major television news bulletin from the BBC’s Breakfast News, One O’clock, Six O’clock or Ten O’clock to Channel 4’s Seven O’Clock to any of ITV’s major bulletins or Channel 5s which is headed by a person of colour or a visibly disabled person.

For clarity I am not talking about the people in front of the camera – I am talking about the executives and editors behind the camera, the people with real power who decide which stories are covered and how. 

Today, in newsrooms across Britain – whether print, online or on TV - it is primarily white, non-disabled, heterosexual men, in London who are deciding what issues news organisations should cover and how they should be covered.

This is a damning indictment of the very principle of Press Freedom, if Black people are not able to tell their stories or are relegated to minor coverage - even about stories that directly affect us such as the #BLM protests - we do not have a free press.

This is not a freedom that is being curtailed by “evil” governments targeting the press, which is how many of the stories about World Press Freedom Day are framed. This is a press freedom that is being curtailed by the inner workings of the newsrooms themselves.

When we write and discuss World Press Freedom Day we must recognise that diversity and inclusion are not viewed as a side issue, but are essential to the very press freedoms all journalists should hold dear..

It is important that we should all fight for press freedoms across the world, but in doing so we must not forget those closest to home who are also seeing their freedoms curtailed.