Mainstream newspaper shocks with fair coverage of direct action camp

international | environment | other press Wednesday August 22, 2007 19:13 by XIT

Independent (UK) portrays Climate Camp as something other than hate-filled extremists

It's almost unheard of for any mainstream media organisation to give positive or honest coverage of direct action, action camps etc, so on the rare occasion that it does happen, it's worth seeing. Below is a scan of the front page of last The Independent (UK) of last Saturday (18 August, 2007). The cover story is a special report on the Climate Camp at Heathrow.

Front page of The Independent (UK) of Saturday, August 18th, 2007

The headline across pages 2 and 3 is:
"A camp armed with science in a battle to save the world".

Journalist Johan Hari was invited to stay on the camp. For the main photo on page 3, instead of one of the cliched images of anti-capitalist protestors, it's an 83-year-old woman with a walking stick who lives nearby and who's on the camp to give her support.

Here's a link to the article:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article28741...3.ece

Here's one choice extract:
'I recognise an undercover journalist from a right-wing newspaper. "This is terrible!" he says "I've been sent to find stories about drug-addicted layabouts and they're all nice people with PhDs." '

Hari seems to have gone to the other extreme, only using quotes from people with scientific qualifications or from the over-60s. He also exposes the police's bizzare tactics. By the way, Hari is not some activist who managed to persuade the Independent to take his article; he is one of the paper's most prominent writers.

It's a good example of what can happen if you identify a mainstream journalist you trust and get them onside by giving them exclusive access, information etc. Of course that's not to suggest for a moment that this will necessarily work: it's a risk. Neither is it to suggest that the mainstream media is in any way preferable to alternative/independent/community media; nor that you should court the media instead of being the media...