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For my entire time as the climate columnist for The Independent, I was allowed complete editorial freedom to cover the issues I thought most important, except for the one key issue that I thought was the most important.
I was constantly blocked from mentioning the visceral opposition or complacency of the powerful UK and global billionaire-owned media to the urgent climate action that is required.
Any time I tried to mention this in a column, it was immediately censored. After all, The Independent itself is owned by the Russian billionaire Lebedev family and at the time its offices were co-located in the Derry Street headquarters of the climate action-trashing Daily Mail Group, owned by the billionaire Lord Rothermere.
This Wednesday, a coalition of UK and international civil society groups, under the banner Media Revolution, are launching the first Media Liberation Day, to highlight the negative impacts on society and democracy by the domination of our media by the billionaire and corporate 0.1%.
I first became aware of how the UK’s political system was imprisoned by the billionaire media, when back in 1998 I was on the Liberal Democrats’ Federal Executive. I was frustrated that in previous EU elections, the party had not campaigned on any European issues but just on national issues. So, when the Executive discussed the upcoming 1999 European elections, I requested that we should campaign on European issues in the election.
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But when I did so I was told by a senior figure on the executive that would be impossible. I asked why? His response stunned me. He said if we did so, Murdoch would destroy us.
I said then, that if even the most pro-European political party, was too scared to campaign on European issues, even during European elections, then if the UK ever had a referendum on EU membership, we had already lost. Sadly, 17 years later, I was proved right in the Brexit referendum.
But it is not just the existential climate and nature crises that the billionaire media squashes debate.
On almost every aspect of politics, the billionaire media seeks to divide and demonise those working for a better world. These include the disabled, people of colour, refugees, climate and nature campaigners, Palestinian activists, NHS, local councils, Liberal Democrat, Labour, SNP & Green politicians, nurses, the BBC, gay people, gypsies, middle class people, actors, working class, trade unionists, plant-based diet advocates, cyclists, or Muslims.
There is hardly any section of society that they will not demonise, when and if they chose to do so, in order to pursue their agenda.
The aim of Media Liberation Day is to raise awareness of this billionaire capture of our media. They are asking people to print off a “Cover Story” A4 sheet from their website and place it on top of the piles of billionaire newspapers in supermarkets and also urging people to unsubscribe from billionaire online news outlets and to follow independently owned media, instead.
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It is crucial that we address this existential flaw in our democracies.
It is impossible to have a free society if the media is almost all in the hands of the 0.001% billionaire class.
According to the Media Reform Coalition two offshore-based billionaires in Murdoch and Rothermere, control 73% of the UK’s newspaper market. Another billionaire Paul Marshall owns GB News, The Spectator and Unherd. Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and Instagram are also all owned by US-based billionaires.
While many British people are horrified about the recent upsurge in support for the far-right Reform Party, nobody is asking the crucial question as to why is this happening?
The truth is that it was not a sudden upsurge in Farage’s charisma, but because of an extraordinary but largely unnoticed coup happening in what was then the Conservative-supporting press, about five years ago.
Their editorial line suddenly switched from supporting the Conservatives to supporting Reform, as their chosen political vehicle of choice.
They started pumping out pro-Reform propaganda 24/7. The Sun, Daily Mail, Telegraph, GB News and Talk TV all piled in. And the BBC’s coverage started to fall into line too.
So what should be done about this media emergency devouring our democracy and trashing our climate and ecosystems?
We need A British Media For The British People Sovereignty Act, which would democratise media ownership and free journalists to report on what is actually happening to our world and its climate.
No climate reporter should ever again have to be censored working for a major UK media organisation, if we want a free democracy and our civilisation to survive.
It’s only then that we can stop our planet from being destroyed by the very same interests still trying to block the solutions and silence those trying to promote them.