Protestors target ‘Daily Express’ offices

By Sarah Lagan

Journalists, anti war activists and religious groups held a protest outside the Daily Express offices today against a series of stories and headlines in the paper which they say encourage “racist stereotyping and contempt”.

Around forty protesters and journalists turned up to the event organised by Media Workers Against War and the Stop the War Coalition. They waved banners saying “stop media attacks on Muslims” while chanting slogans such as “Daily Express, Daily abuse”.

MWAW sent a letter to Northern and Shell proprietor Richard Desmond and Daily Express editor Peter Hill outlining examples of what they believe are inflammatory headlines published in the Express such as: “Over 860 migrants flood in every day”, “Muslim laws must come to Britain” and “Migrants send our crime rate soaring”.

It appealed to the company to stop “pedalling lies” and to allow journalists to refuse to write stories they believe break the Editors’’ Code of Practice.

The letter said the headlines “do nothing to inform Express readers – on the contrary they encourage racist stereotyping and contempt.”

It states: “Your ‘facts’ are highly selective, you make little attempt to give context or comparisons and you publish no opposing views.”

Chair of MWAW and FT journalist David Crouch said: “We’ve decided to protest here at the Express because since mid-January they have run a series of what we believe are inflammatory front page splashes targeting Muslims and immigrants more generally. So we decided to start with the Express but the interest that has been shown in this protest will encourage us to take the protest elsewhere.”

The Daily Express declined to comment.

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