over politicians goes back a long way too. Rupert Murdoch found in Margaret Thatcher a natural ally for his pro-privatisation and Remember Wapping following venues: London 9-13 January 2012, Bishopsgate Institute Further updates: www.cpbf.org.uk deregulation, anti-EU and anti-union agenda. In 1995 Tony Blair, deciding that the support of Murdoch was crucial to electoral success, wooed News International and made sure Labour abandoned long-standing policies on media ownership. David Cameron curried favour by hiring former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, pledging to tear up the BBC Charter, reining in the regulator Ofcom and relaxing the rules on cross media ownership. The Tories were on the point of doing a deal to make Murdoch's BSkyB take-over possible when the storm broke.
Corruption at the NOW also underlined the need to raise standards in journalism. In non-union newsrooms espe cially, reporters come under unrelenting pressure to get a story by any means possible. Murdoch outlawed unions in News International in 1986, provoking the hard-fought Wapping strike. And the Daily Mail group is another non-union stronghold.
Says CPBF: 'It is no coincidence that the media with the highest professional standards - the Guardian, Financial Times, the Independent and Telegraph groups, the BBC and ITV News - are those with the strongest NUJ representation.'
The reforms proposed in A Chance for Change provide powerful ammunition for media freedom campaigners and the whole labour movement at a time when media corporations find themselves firmly on the defensive. • A Chance for Change, £2 inc postage from CPBF 23 Orford Road, London E17 9NL. Brighton 28 November -1 December, Unite national sector conferences London 5-16 December, Unite regional sector conference, Green Lanes