A half-day conference hosted by Media Workers Against the War

Saturday,
November 15 2008
2pm-6pm

Old Lecture Theatre, London School of Economics
Houghton St, Aldwych,
WC2A 2AE

Holborn
(Central or Piccadilly line)

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Agenda

1.15pm
Registration for 2pm start

2-3.15pm
Plenary
Islam, war and the media
with Peter Oborne, Inayat Bunglawala, Louise Christian, Lyndsey German
Chair: Jeremy Dear, NUJ

3.15-4.25pm
Workshops

• Fighting Islamophobia
  Roshan Salih, Inayat Bunglawala, Peter Oborne, Uzma Hussain
• Afghanistan: the good war?
  Moazzam Begg, Andy Worthington, Guy Smallman
• Alternative media and the anti-war movement
  Vision On TV, Adrian Cousins, Reel News
• Journalists and the "terror" laws;
  Marc Vallée, Louise Christian, Hicham Yezza
• New global flashpoints in the "war on terror"
  Mark Almond, Explo Nani-Kofi, Deka Salad

4.25pm
Break

4.45pm
Plenary
War, the crisis and the media
with Nick Davies, Moazzam Begg, Eamonn McCann
Chair: BBC journalist.

6.00pm
Finish

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Full price: £15

Students/concs: £10

"This was propaganda, this was not journalism, this was the picture that the Ministry of Defence and others wanted put across the front pages of the newspapers"
Jon Snow,
Channel 4 news anchor, on the news blackout on Prince Harry in Helmand

"We should all feel a little bit ashamed about the way we treat Muslims in the media, we misrepresent and in certain cases persecute them. We do not treat Muslims with the tolerance, decency and fairness that we so often like to boast is the British way"
Peter Oborne,
Daily Mail columnist

“For journalists working on terrorism in Britain, like myself, another spectre is hanging quietly over our heads – how will the new batch of terrorism laws affect our ability to protect our sources and, most worryingly, will journalists themselves face prosecution under these laws for withholding information from the authorities?”
Shiv Malik,
freelance journalist

"Even in the Falklands war, which was hardly a model of media-military relations, television had better access than in this unseen operation. It is not in anyone's interests, including the Army's, that the people should be kept in the dark about what the soldiers are doing in their name"
Martin Bell,
veteran war reporter, on the British media coverage of Afghanistan

 

Hawijah, Iraq, June 21 2006: A man detained by US and Iraqi forces.
Photograph: Sean Smith

The "war on terror" continues to have an intensely damaging effect on the mainstream British media – and in turn on British politics:

• The doubting, questioning approach to war that emerged after the Iraq WMD debacle has largely been silenced. In its place, the dominant narrative is that of Britain and the US bringing democracy to the world;
• Iraq has become a "good news" story. Since senior editors colluded with the army to impose a blackout on Prince Harry's service in Helmand, coverage of Afghanistan has been dominated by tales of British derring-do;
• Without critical media we can stumble blindly into new wars, such as that in the Caucasus in August. Iran is routinely demonised, while war is already spreading – almost unmentioned – into nuclear-armed Pakistan;
• At home, the war means vilification of Islam and scapegoating of Muslims. Journalists who investigate extremism are targeted by the courts, while the police use "terror" laws to harass photographers.

This conference will examine what media workers and students can do to improve coverage of the "war on terror", to bring critical views into the mainstream, raise the profile of the anti-war movement, and create our own sources of critical news and comment.

Speakers agreed so far:

	Louise Christian campaigning solicitor who has acted tirelessly for families of rail crash victims and prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay
	Peter Oborne Daily Mail columnist, former editor of the Spectator and author of Muslims Under Siege: Alienating Vulnerable Communities.
	Nick Davies investigative journalist and author of Flat Earth News.
	Deka Salad Somali Forum for Peace & Democracy
	Guy Smallman freelance photographer, just returned from Afghanistan
	Mark Almond lecturer in modern history at Oriel College Oxford
	Marc Vallée photojournalist
	Jenny Lennox NUJ assistant North of England organiser.
	Uzma Hussain news reporter at Press TV, formerly BBC.
	Roshan Salih news editor for Press TV, formerly with al-Jazeera and Islam Channel.
	Vision On TV web TV Channel, showcasing films for positive social change.
	Explo Nani-Kofi editor of the Kilombo, a Pan-African Journal.
	Lyndsey German national convenor, Stop the War Coalition
	Jeremy Dear general secretary, NUJ.
	Eamonn McCann leading Irish journalist and Raytheon 9 campaigner.
	Andy Worthington author of The Guantanamo Files.
	Inayat Bunglawala Muslim Council of Britain.
	Adrian Cousins guerilla video artist.
	Moazzam Begg author of Enemy Combatant and former Guantanamo inmate.

Conference hosted by Media Workers Against the War -
Supported by: London Central Branch NUJ, Press and PR Branch NUJ, London freelance Branch NUJ.