TWENTY thousand spoof copies of the Daily Mail were handed out to unsuspecting commuters this morning as campaigners challenged corporate power over Britain’s press.

Headlines such as “billionaires control our ‘democracy’” and “funding both sides of the war on terror: everyone loses except UK arms companies” were splashed across the front page of the mock newspapers.

The Daily Mail with a difference was distributed across London and Manchester as part of the Real Media campaign, to make people think about who controls the news agenda.

The event kicks off a fortnight of action, supported by the Star, which will see daily events highlighting issues the mainstream media ignores.

Campaign spokeswoman Kam Sandhu said topics like austerity and inequality were “sidelined, trivialised and ignored by biased media.”

“This media wishes to see us sleepwalking into ecological and economic disaster whilst churning out vitriolic rhetoric attacking immigrants, benefit claimants and other groups,” Ms Sandhu said. “It protects the powerful and takes aim at the powerless.

“Information and well-executed journalism is fundamental to democracy. The doctored version of the truth presented by much of the mass media shows a contempt for these values.”

Most of the British print media is currently owned by five men:
n News UK (The Sun, The Times): Rupert Murdoch
n Daily Mail and General Trust (Daily Mail, Metro): Viscount Rothermere, aka Jonathan Harmsworth
n Express Newspapers (The Express, Daily Star): Richard Desmond
n Press Holdings (The Telegraph): David and Frederick Barclay
The campaign believes a shift away from mainstream media is already happening, with readers increasingly following alternative media for “more truthful, inclusive and representative news.”
Morning Star acting editor Ben Chacko praised the campaigners for taking on the “poisonous influence” of big business on Britain’s press.
“As we near the general election the ability of pro-Tory tycoons to dominate the political debate is an affront to democracy,” he said.
“That’s why it’s so important that alternative voices such as the Morning Star, a co-operative answering only to its readers, are given a hearing.”
This week’s events will be followed by another six days of events demanding the arrest of media mogul Mr Murdoch for his role in enabling media corruption.
Occupy Rupert Murdoch will be staging a sit-in at his new headquarters in London starting on March 23.
Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom chair Ann Field said it was an “opportunity to make a statement on the concentration of the ownership of the press.”
Unlike Mr Murdoch’s Sun, the Star was yesterday praised for its uncompromising support for the 99 per cent, especially for workers during the 1984 miners’ strike.
Speaking at a miners’ memorial event yesterday, Labour MP Ian Lavery contrasted “terrible” right-wing press attcks with the Morning Star’s “solid” support.
joanaramiro@peoples-press.com