Corporate ownership of the media leads to a number of things:
Conflicts of interests between accurate reporting and the businesses that own/control/ subsidise the media.
An unrepresentative press: the views expressed are of the middle class journalists and not of ordinary people.
Reactionary sexist/racist/homophobic coverage: it is there to divert the public’s attention away from the real issues of class and hierarchy.
REVOLUTION struggles for workers control of the media and communication sector.
To achieve this we call for:
An end to all censorship, capitalist copyright laws and capitalist advertising.
For media workers to take direct action to stop the printing, broadcast or production of materials that are racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-working class, which are ultimately aimed at dividing the working class.
Stop all attempts to privatisation of public service radio and TV.
TV
Television is the most popular form of media and should therefore be controlled by the majority and not a handful of corporations and propagandists. We call for:
TV to be free to watch for whoever wants to watch it, no subscriptions, no license fees, no pay per view.
Nationalisation of television channels under the control of the workers and viewers, not to act as propaganda for the state but to allow TV to be reclaimed by ordinary people. Programmes to be made by the public and for the public.
Time to be allocated for public broadcasting, to be financed by the state by taxing the rich and big business. Not to be politically censored and to be to all to participate in.
Radio
Radio is everywhere: in the car, in the shops, and at home. It is therefore a very powerful tool that is used by business and government to divert and control people. From music that is played to the companies who run the stations, it is all designed to politically numb the public. We call for:
Open the AM-waves under democratic control to enable the public to put across their views regardless of their class and social background. Public funding should be invested and supported in order to give people the means with which to broadcast.
Investment in local music acts. Music is a key form of expression and should not be dominated by complacent melodies about consumption and fake rebellion. We can?t let music being controlled by commercial interests. For the state to support the diversity in the world of music.
The Internet
The internet should provide the opportunity for millions of people to be able to freely access
information and communicate with each other. Unfortunately this, like many other technologies, has fallen into the hands of the money hungry tycoons and is used to fuel consumerism. Information that people access is often restricted and monitored by the state and other agencies. We call for:
Nationalisation of Internet Service Providers under workers control to ensure that people can access information freely and not be threatened with monitoring to aid business or so called ‘security measures’.
We encourage projects such as indymedia which allow the public to distribute and discuss their own news and ideas.
Free internet access for all.
The Printed Press
Everyday we see newspapers filled with reactionary hysteria and adverts – the two things are connected. We call for:
Newspapers to be publicly funded and democratically controlled to ensure that they do not have to rely on advertising to support themselves and so what they report is not subject to the advertising company’s scrutiny ensuring unbiased reporting.
