Colour barred in U.K. press reports

Press, 13 January 1987, Page 4

Colour barred in U.K. press reports

NZPA-AAP London Newspapers should not identify the race or colour of people in news reports unless it is directly relevant to the story,' the British Press Council has ruled. “References to race and colour are highly selective and appear to find their way into reports of cases of grosser criminal violence where the persons convicted are black,” the chairman, Sir Zelman Cowen, , wrote in the council’s annual report Sir Zelman, a Queen’s Counsel and former Gov-ernor-General of Australia, said the 33-member council had reconsidered the issue after some sections of the British press had complained that such rulings amounted to censorship of facts.

The “Daily Telegraph,” favourite newspaper of Britain’s Establishment, had argued in an editorial that it was relevant to report the sex, race, social station and general circumstances of a criminal, and that the deliberate non-reporting of these facts was a direct and serious threat to press freedom.

The “Telegraph” had earlier reported that a learner driver who killed two women when he drove at lOOkm/h on the wrong side of the road was black. The Press Council upheld a complaint against the article, ruling that the man’s colour was irrelevant. Sir Zelman said the fact that a crime was horrendous or abhorrent did not of itself make the race dr

colour of a convicted person relevant Because such crimes ' excited strong emotions it was more important to avoid irrelevant references to race or colour which might pander to prejudice, he said. The report contained an example of colour identic fication which the council considered fair. A London suburban newspaper reported that a gang of black youths had robbed white passengers on an underground train after the Notting Hill Carnival, a predominantly Caribbean festival.

The Press Council ruled that in this instance colour was relevant in helping the police identify the wrongdoers and because the carnival is about ethnic consciousness. Sir Zelman said the council would not prohibit the publication of photographs of convicted persons, even though the inevitable consequence would be to reveal their race or colour. He added: “That the rule can be only partially effective is obviously a matter for regret, but it is by no means a reason for its abandonment”