IPR Conference: Media manipulation risked undermining the
government’s ethical stance during the Kosovo conflict, said Ian
Hargreaves, professor of journalism at Cardiff University, last
week.
Speaking at the IPR’s conference in Birmingham, Hargreaves, a former
editor of the New Statesman and the Independent, said: ’Ethical foreign
policy means ethical media management. Spinning is a value negative,
it’s only any good if you don’t get caught.’
However, Hargreaves recognised the need for intervention by the Prime
Minister’s press secretary, Alastair Campbell, when the media criticised
NATO after the bombing of a refugee convoy.
After the bombing, Campbell was despatched to NATO headquarters to
organise reinforcements of the organisation’s press team and improve the
quality of its daily press conferences.
’The media is critical - the war could not have happened if the media
had not been in support of it broadly. Alastair Campbell was right to
intervene, whatever the nature of the methods used. We saw a master at
work on that.’
Hargreaves predicted that news management would become even more
difficult in future. He predicted that web TV would be in use by the
next major conflict.
He said: ’What Kosovo shows most significantly is that the new media
means that it is even more true that there is nowhere to hide.’
He said wider availability of information would force organisations to
be more open. ’The new media offer the people on the PR side of the
fence a fantastic opportunity to examine the corporate situation and to
decide what reason there can be for not making information available.’
