Give black journalists their 40 acres and a mule.

In the late 90’s to early 2000’s I produced a current affairs radio show for Choice FM called the “Schumann Shuffle” every Saturday morning. It was three hours long; the first hour was music and general radio banter. In the second hour we would get important guests to discuss a pressing issues (Trevor Philips as Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission was a regular guest, Simon Woolly from Operation Black Vote often came into the studio and we had the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone a few times) if they were important to black Londoners we got them in front of the mic. The last hour was a current affairs phone-in discussing the news topics of the week.

At the time it was arguably the most influential current affairs programme for black people in the UK. It got larger audiences than its counterpart at the BBC and was where black politicians and decision makers spoke directly to black people and black people spoke back to them - holding them to account. Despite working at the BBC for 24 years in many ways I think this was the most important public service broadcasting I ever did.

It was also my first foray into news and current affairs and it was an excellent training ground for a young journalist. Without this experience I do not think I would have been able to do the other news and current affairs programmes I went on to do in the rest of my career.

I firmly believe that black led journalism organisations can provide a valuable service to the black community and nurture black journalists by creating a pipeline for them to go on to other mainstream media organisations. Gary Younge, Afua Hirsch, Henry Bonsu and Dotun Adebayo all worked at black newspapers at some point in their careers.

But the truth is “ethnic media” are under threat. Choice FM became Capital Xtra in 2013 and no longer plays the community role it once did. The New Nation newspaper printed its last copy in 2016. The Voice newspaper still exists but my understanding is that it is under severe financial strain. British Asian media is under similar pressures with Eastern Eye close to closure just ten years ago.    

This week the UK government’s Cairncross Review was published, its remit was to investigate ways to secure the future of high-quality journalism in Britain. The government is worried that too many newspapers are making a loss, due to advertising migrating to Google and Facebook. Yet, high quality journalism is essential for an informed electorate to know how to vote and make informed decisions. The review says we cannot afford to lose it.

The Cairncross Review made several recommendations, but the one that has caught the most attention is the idea that the government should provide direct funding to local newspapers to make sure they can support important local journalism. Frustratingly they did not say anything about the BAME press and media.

The BBC, Google and Facebook all currently have different initiatives worth millions of pounds to fund local newspapers either directly giving them money or paying for journalists. Because, like the Cairncross Review, they recognise the importance of local journalism and fear what would happen if it vanished.

The UK government has also set up the Audio Content Fund worth £3 million a year to fund what Broadcast Magazine calls; “original commercial radio productions that are traditionally more difficult to support commercially.” To put it another way this is precisely the kind of fund that could have paid for the work I was doing at Choice FM which was more expensive than just playing three hours of music. When radio stations are strapped for cash often quality journalism is the first thing to go.

If the government, BBC, Google and Facebook are all worried about the demise of quality journalism, they can’t just look at the problems facing local newspapers, they must also turn their attention to how they can support BAME focused newspapers and media From legacy publications like The Voice and Eastern Eye to new digital publishers such as Black Ballad and Media Diversified.

Add the fact that 94% of British journalists are white the demise of BAME media outlets has cut off one of the most effective pipelines to increase the number of BAME journalists.

Back in the 90’s when I was producing the Choice FM current affairs show, black people would often use the phrase “40 acres and a mule” when they felt they were owed something. A reference to the supposed promise that freed slaves were promised 40 acres and a mule by the US government. So in my best 90’s vernacular I think it is about time black journalists were given their “40 acres and a mule”.