Reparations, Representation, and the Revelations of Black Journalists in UK Media

As I walked inside the room for the Media and Social Transformation Panel at the UK Reparations Conference 2023, organised by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Afrikan Reparations I couldn’t avoid but notice that I was one of the only white journalists in the room. As pointed out by Lesler Holloway, Editor of the Voice, the only British national black newspaper operating in the United Kingdom, “Why are mainstream media not in rooms like these? How can we get our truth out if they are not here?”.?

UK media are not diverse and inclusive enough, even though the United Kingdom prides itself on its diversity and multiculturalism. According to a recent Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism black journalists account for just 0.2 per cent of the staff members compared with three per cent of their UK population. The same reports highlight that white journalists comprise 94 per cent of the whole journalistic workforce. Data are from 2015 and there hasn’t been a recent comparison of these numbers. Even if after 2020, and especially in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, we have seen a shy increase in numbers, cases of racism, reduced career opportunities and hostile newsrooms are a day-to-day fight for Black journalists.?

“UK media are failing Black communities, commented Nadine White, UK's first dedicated Race Correspondent for The Independent. UK media is failing to engage with the audience in a meaningful way. 0.2% of journalists in the UK are Black. How many of them are slavery’s descendants? I am trying to be part of the solution by amplifying the voices of Black people and trying to make a change for our communities, which is also the reason why in the first place I decided to become a journalist, but there is still a lot of work to do. The fact that The Independent created this role to improve the reporting on issues affecting the lives of people of colour and expose stories of racial injustice it is a step in the right direction”.?

Many of you might know that The Guardian was founded in 1821 in Manchester. But what you might not know unless you have already read the Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement report, is that the Guardian was built on the back of the cotton trade and transatlantic slavery. Nine of the 11 men who loaned John Edward Taylor, the journalist who founded the Guardian, money to fund the Manchester Guardian had similar economic links to transatlantic slavery through their commercial interests in Manchester’s cotton and textiles industry. Joseph Harker, Senior Editor for Diversity and Development for the Guardian explained to the audience that “the owner of the Guardian has issued an apology for the role the newspaper’s founders had in transatlantic slavery and announced a decade-long programme of restorative justice. The Scott Trust said it expected to invest more than ￡10m, with millions dedicated specifically to descendant communities linked to the Guardian’s 19th-century founders”.

What is important here for us is that the fund will increase the scope and ambition of Guardian reporting on the Caribbean, South America and Africa, and on Black communities in the UK and US creating up to 12 new editorial roles within the Guardian).

It will also expand the Guardian Foundation’s industry-leading journalism training bursary scheme. The Scott Trust bursary currently funds three journalism masters courses and paid training placements at GNM each year for aspiring journalists in the UK from underrepresented backgrounds. The additional funding will create three new places each year for Black prospective journalists in the UK.

Surely this is a great step forward for the publication, and it will offer incredible opportunities to many Black journalists in the years to come and shed light on topics that are still far from frontpages and mainstream media. However, it feels still very far from the reality that many other Black journalists are still facing today in the UK’s newsrooms as described by Nadine White, in this article.

News organisations and editors are the ones deciding the news agenda, and if the people sitting at the table of newsroom meetings all belong to the same class, group and gender, the news that will be served to the British audience, will not be inclusive or diverse.?

Marcus Ryder CEO of Film & TV Charity pointed out that “What we are seeing now in UK mainstream media are black issues through a white lens. In 2020 there was one week of headlines, 174 for the precision, and not one of them across the 11 most powerful national newspapers went to a black journalist”. [Ryder refers to the week of Black Lives Matter marches across the UK, and in particular to the one where protesters in Bristol have pulled down a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston].

A March 2022 report from the Reuters Institute entitled Race and Leadership in the News Media 2022: Evidence from Five Markets assessed the percentage of non-white top editors in Brazil, Germany, South Africa, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) from a sample of 100 major news platforms. The study found that in the UK, no mainstream media platform had a non-white top editor, noting that the Financial Times, where Roula Khalaf is editor, and CNBC where John Casey is MD, were not included in the sample as outlets were selected according to the highest consumption figures. The report notes that this is highly problematic given that the roles of editor-chief, executive editor, or head of news are the main gatekeepers for news and content and often decision-makers in recruitment and retention processes.

Roger McKenzie, International Editor for the Morning Star asked the audience “Discussing what happens on the editorial level is great, but let’s talk about ownership. Who owns the media? Where is the money coming from?”.?

We all know the answer to this question: the money comes from the pockets of white, middle-class men.?

“In July 2023 ITN appointed Debbie Ramsay as Editor of 5 News, and this is the first time we have a Black person as Editor in Chief, said Marcus Ryner. However, as we have seen from the data and figures reported, we are still very behind and if this trend persists “the final decision on what goes on the news agenda - continued Ryner - will never rest with us.? Individually our responsibility is to continue reporting with accuracy, creating a fair narrative. Structurally we need more independent media owned by Black people to progress”.

When it comes to increasing the spaces for Black and non-white journalists the conversation and planning have to be intersectional, across race, class, identity, and gender. To achieve this I think we need to answer three questions (the same that have been roaming in my mind since I left that room):?

With the decline and loss of power of national media, is there an opportunity for Black media to take that space??

What are you doing [I refer to any other white journalist/media organizations/newsroom] to leave space for more diverse voices and stories to thrive or to amplify them??What opportunities are you creating?

Where are the other white journalists and why are they not in these rooms?