Date: Fri, 05 Sep 1997 07:43:47 +0100
Subject: M-G: New Worker re Diana, on Press Law


Robert Malecki enquired what the left wing press in Britain is saying. It
is early days but the following editorial is on the New Communist Party's
web site. IMO it has the merits of avoiding disrespect to popular reaction
and of concentrating on addressing political issues. 

It does not centrally address the political control of the capitalist
ownership of the press, including around the market in paparazzi
photographs, which both feeds and trivialises the mass popular
psychological responses.

But with the editors of the press specifically banned from the funeral
service, by the insistence of Diana's brother, there is room IMO for the
left wing press to make initiatives on this question in a way that does
accord with popular psychological responses.



Chris Burford

London.


______________________________________




                         No to a privacy law.


  THE DEATH last Sunday of Princess Diana in Paris when her speeding car
overturned
  while trying to evade press photographers has led to renewed demands from
some Tory
         politicians in this country for even tighter controls on the
British press.

 We don't need a new "privacy act". Britain's draconian libel laws,
together with the Official
   Secrets Act, already muzzle the media in ways unknown even in France or
the United
 States. In fact that very Sunday, the Official Secrets Act was used to
prevent a newspaper
      from publishing more revelations by a renegade member of the secret
police.

  It's no surprise that the loudest calls for greater press censorship are
coming from those
   Tory politicians exposed in the sex and sleaze scandals of a Major
government which
             hypocritically preached "Victorian morality" to the masses.

 These calls must be resisted whatever one may think about the antics of
the paparazzi and
 the editors of the tabloid newspapers and magazines who fill their pages
with gossip about
 the empty lives of rich parasites and their hangers-on to divert working
people away from
                   their daily lives of misery and exploitation.

 The millionaire publishers who control most of the media in this country
defend themselves
  by claiming that they are simply meeting public demand for intrusive
photos and scandal
                   about royalty, celebrities and the very rich.

  This may well be true as far as it goes. It is equally true that the
public would also like to
  read more about the antics of M15 from their former agent David Shayler.
But that has
                  been suppressed, at least for the time being.

  Ultimately the British media is controlled by the ruling class, through
the press barons and
the state itself. They say we have "freedom of speech". From time to time,
differences within
 the ruling class are reflected in the columns of their newspapers and
magazines. Sometimes
    junior politicians are thrown to the wolves to try and divert public
anger against the
   government of the day. Occasionally, maverick pundits and clergymen are
allowed to
            express contrary views in their journals and on their television.

 But when the chips are down they all close ranks around their class line.
During the miners'
    strike in the 1980s Arthur Scargill and the NUM leadership were victims
of a hate
       campaign aimed at breaking the strike and forcing the miners to
their knees.

  During the massive campaign against Cruise and Trident prominent peace
campaigners
  were ridiculed and smeared by the bosses' media. Throughout the Cold War
the Soviet
 Union and the socialist countries were a target of a ceaseless campaign of
lies to justify the
   arms race and imperialism's crimes all round the world -- a campaign
which continues
            against People's China, Democratic Korea and Cuba today.

   When the Gulf War raged the media, led by the state's own BBC, justified
the criminal
  invasion of Iraq with a torrent of lies about Saddam Hussein and his
government. Little is
 said now about the half-million Iraqi children who have died because of
the cruel Western
              blockade of their country still enforced seven years later.

  This is all we can expect of the media under capitalism. Nor can we
realistically argue for
     any "reform" of the media which could make it more accessible or
responsible to
 democratic forces any more than we can expect capitalism to reform itself
out of existence.

 We must resist all attempts to further curb the media, which includes the
labour movement
 press. We must demand a freedom of information act and we must campaign
for an end to
     the libel laws which are there solely to protect and serve the rich
and powerful.

 But the only way we can combat the bosses lie machine with all its
distractions, smears and
 distortions is through the working class press we still possess. The
right-wing of the Labour
 Party and the trade union movement long ago dumped the Daily Herald but we
still have the
    left daily Morning Star and a handful of weeklies, including our own
New Worker.

    The fight for peace and socialism is clearly linked to the struggle to
build the labour
   movement and communist press. We can only rely on our own resources,
that of the
                   working class, to do it, but do it we must.




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