Watch: Hackney Mayor talks local journalism and democracy at Goldsmiths event
Mayor Glanville speaking at Goldsmiths University
Mayor Philip Glanville spoke about local journalism and democracy last night at a panel event at Goldsmiths University.
The Mayor was joined at the ‘Silenced voices: why we need to speak up for local journalism’ event by journalists Hannah Walker, Koos Couvée and Gareth Davies, on a panel organised by Professor Angela Phillips.
You can watch the event on the video below.
Silenced voices: why we need to stand up for local journalism https://t.co/iYRVvMfr2b
— EastLondonLines (@eastlondonlines) October 12, 2017
A poster for the event read: “The Grenfell Tower disaster highlighted the necessity for community reporting. So why don’t we hear from the ‘little people’ any more?”
Readers can respond to the video in the comments below.
“A bit rich” is the phrase that immediately comes to mind.
The Town Hall have been deliberately obstructive with information requests regarding fire safety and when pushed by the excellent work of the Hackney Citizen on the issue they have failed to provide answers.
Local journalism cannot just be about publishing the Mayor’s weekly itinerary along with a smiley picture, sometimes there are tough questions to answer and the Mayor and Hackney Council have certainly fallen short in doing that since the Grenfell tragedy.
Add in the fact they are circulating what is essentially a Town Hall proganda rag and calling it a newspaper, I think the Mayor needs to have a long hard look at what he is actually doing to protect local journalism.
Yes, but the Hackney Citizen isn’t a real newspaper either, so it’s workers don’t count as “journalists”. They are just ‘working in advertising’ until they get their unpaid internships at The Guardian.
Are we really still circulating that Right Wing trope that the last remaining Left Wing local government news sheets are “propaganda”? “Town Hall Pravdas”, as Pickles called them.
See previous discussion on Thatcher’s best friend, and paid Tory agent, Eric Pickles’ war on local Labour councils that started in Bradford.
Greg Clark, who you’ve probably never heard of, has wisely decided not to waste tax payers money fighting the issue, as it’s the government who demands LBH must print statutory notices, and Hackney Today is the most cost effect way of doing so.
I am sorry but we chavs living in social housing would rather have a free paper telling us about free courses than the latest hipster fad we cannot afford to consume.
And let’s face, you don’t want us turning up at your art openings drinking all your free wine either, do you?
I will give you an issue based example to illustrate why I refer to Hackney Today as propaganda.
There was an issue of Hackney Today that detailed how quick Hackney Council had been to respond to fire safety concerns in the wake of Grenfell. Yet they will not even answer an FOI request to tell me if all of the new risk assessments have been completed yet neither can they give a date of when they will be, they have yet to release the vast majority of FRA’s they have promised to do, they will not release old FRA’s for scrutiny and are generally being obstructive on the issue.
The fact that the circulation of Hackney Today delivered to residents doors details how great a job the council is doing when in fact they are doing a poor job is a clear example of how this publication is used as proganda for the council.
At local election time, who will benefit from Hackney Today telling residents how great the council is doing?
I take your point on statutory notices, but there are ways to design and package Hackney Today differently instead of making it seem like a real news publication.
Whereas the Hackney Citizen might only be being inspired by an attempted grab at Hackney Today’s advertising income and budget … and presumably the additional cost of publishing the statutory notices … I think we should be very cautious about how neatly their propaganda war against Hackney Today fits in with the Right Wing attack on Left Wing local governments.
So much so, I am starting to suspect this publication’s intentions.
Personally, I’d be very happy for the Hackney Today to be far more of a “Townhall Pravda”, if that ‘Pravda’ was attacking Central Government cut backs and how they are effecting the majority of Hackney’s citizens. Precisely the kind of discussion the Thatcherites were attempting to crush through Eric Pickle’s movements.
Remember his comments about how if Labour could be destroyed in Bradford, then they could be destroyed anywhere.
I am concerned that the vast majority of the “Hackney Hipster’s” readership has no memory and awareness of the Thatcher/Pickles era and agenda, merely because they were still in diapers at the time and, largely, because they are of a class that was and is not so heavily effected by it.
Is LBH a bit crap? Of course so. Is it very crap is certain areas? For sure. Everyone in the borough knows it.
Will the citizenry of Hackney benefit from a bunch of luvvy arrivistes peddling a Right Wing agenda and attempting a grab at advertising income? I doubt it.
Will the citizenry of Hackney benefit from said advertising income being spent in a trendy coffee shop rag? I doubt it. Most of them don’t or can’t afford to drink at said coffee shops.
Would said luvvy arrivistes even end up with the advertising income they have set their aims on? I seriously doubt that too as most of it is aimed at a different and dissonant market.
Is the Citizen’s hipster readership really interested in low cost NCVO training (typical of the Today’s advertising)? Clearly not.
So what’s this noise all about?
As far as the fire issue, it may be a good axe for the Lib Dems and others to grind for whatever their political agenda is, but in the real world, it’s a bit of a non-issue. Like worry if lightning will strike you twice or a sink hole will swallow your car.
If the Hackney Citizen wants more income, it should do its own business better – including being better critics of the council and even Hackney Labour Party if they so wish – instead of just aiming to feed off increasingly limited local government funds.
And if it’s not just aiming to feed off increasingly limited local government funds … hardly a noble business plan … then it must be part of that greater Right Wing agenda.
Regarding your comments about our employees:
Citizen News & Media Limited recognises that its staff have rights as employees to work in a supportive, safe and harassment-free environment.
The company believes that all its employees should be treated with dignity and respect at all times and it will not tolerate bullying, harassment or victimisation.
We do not tolerate any form of verbal abuse on our staff.
This is a formal request to desist from such behavior. Failure to do so will result in your being banned from the site.
Keith Magnum, Director
And London Borough of Hackney councillors and employees don’t have a right to free of your constant hectoring (over Hackney Today etc)?
Yours must have awfully thin skins if they are upset at such a comment.
More double standards, surely?
Instead of lining me up for a banning, why not address the issue of how your interests dangerously aligning themselves with Right Wing Thatcherite agendas instead?
Presumably you got the ironic point over the nature of the discussion over what constitutes a “newspaper”.
The closest to a legal definition of what constitutes a newspaper in the UK [Newspaper Libel and Registration Act (1881)], includes being sold for a definite price.
BTW, how many of your employees are NUJ?
For the record, it’s still early days for Philip Glanville, and he is in a not at all easy position. However, I think he’s already showing signs of making notable efforts to be the “accessible” mayor he promised and to bring about positive changes in the way Hackney is managed.
He may have inherited your ire over not being able to lift Hackney Today’s advertising income – income that I don’t think would come your way anyway, even if Today folded. But he did not create the sitation.
Of all the priorities that LBH has to address, and it has many, I think the Citizen is *way* down on the list. Way down after cars and waste being dumped on the estates, and bubblegum on the new pavement outside of McDonalds.
Give it up, and move on.
There’s a saying in politics that “one letter is worth 10,000 votes” and I am not the only person giving you this feedback. The more you go on about it, the more the lack of support will turns to opposition and suspicion.
Citizen News & Media Limited has a duty of care to its employees,
The company believes that all employees should be treated with dignity and respect at all times and it will not tolerate bullying, harassment or victimisation of any groups or individuals.
Citizen News & Media Limited will promote an environment where standards of conduct are of the highest level to ensure that no one is harassed, bullied or victimised.
Our employees are entitled to join a trade union if they so wish.
The law sets out a series of conditions, at least one of which has to apply before an employer discloses sensitive data.
Sensitive data includes information concerning an individual’s trade union membership (within the meaning of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992).
Regarding your assertion that “our interests dangerously align themselves with Right Wing Thatcherite agendas”:
This story documents cross-party concern, including five times when Labour opposition councillors criticised council freesheets on their doorstep:
https://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2016/11/29/council-newspapers-ten-quotes-crossparty-concern/
In a statement to the Hackney Citizen on 3 December last year, Mayor Philip Glanville said: “I reiterate my support for the Hackney Citizen and have taken out a subscription to safeguard its future and would urge other residents to do the same. It’s clear the Council and the Citizen disagree on a number of issues, but not on the importance of local journalism…”:
https://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2016/12/05/hackney-today-competes-aggressively-local-papers/
Well, taking up just the first line,
“The Department for Communities and Local Government’s publicity code states that any freesheets produced by councils should be published no more than quarterly to ensure that independent local media does not face unfair competition.”
sounds all fine and dandy … until you put it into the context of what Eric Pickles and the swivel-eyed loon elements of the Tories were up to and why, and what his track record was.
Within ‘that’ context, as a matter of principle, it should be ignored and that the Tories have not attempted to enforce the law, suggest even they are not confident in it.
Hackney Today saves Hackney money and provides a service to Hackney’s citizens Hackney’s Citizen does not. It finds a good balance and does it job.
It’s no more propagandic that it is as overtly political, as I’d like to see it.