Journalistic responsibility? No thanks, we’re British

The ongoing discussions for the future of the European Union prompted a swathe of criticism from Britain’s tabloid newspapers, using any feint notion that negotiations had not proved successful to accuse the organisation of bureaucratic failure and the British government of failing to protect the national interest. Irrespective of one’s views regarding European integration, the overt Euroscepticism exhibited by both the black- and red-top rags presents worrying challenges to the potential for balanced political debate in a country where tabloids are read by in excess of 8 million people every day.

The left-leaning journal, Social Europe, was particularly critical of the Daily Mail’s reporting of the recent EU summit, commenting that “it really is sad that irrelevant facts and rumours are obviously more important to some parts of the British media than real politics”. True enough, the fact that Blair and Sarkosy dined at the exclusive Thiou restaurant has little to do with the intricacies of supranational cooperation and diplomacy, but more worrying are the factual inaccuracies in the same article, which suggest that the EU may be controlled by the French as and when they see fit and cut the number of member states from 27 to 25.

Sure, the Franco-German axis wields significant influence in Brussels, but in the British context, where despite constant scandal, the print media is generally trusted as a primary source of political knowledge for a significant proportion of the country’s population, the tabloid press should be more aware of its responsibilities to provide accurate information to its readers. The exaggeration of intra-European rivalries does little for the prospects for balanced debate, leaving governments torn between being seen to be pro-Britain domestically and pro-European in supranational negotiations.

Neutrality is not a goal the press has ever aspired to, nor should it, but factual accuracy is a cause worth striving for, even if we never will know the true impact of President Sarkosy’s choice of dessert on the balance of power in Europe.

SL