In addition to writing letters to the Editor of the Courier Mail, a petition has been established by Sarah Cloutier to submit to the Leveson Enquiry and call for an effective means of regulating journalism such that the perpetual denigration of women in the media is called to a halt. A letter of submission calling for this regulation has been sent to the Leveson Enquiry. Please support this petition in order to call an end to the abuse of women in the media.
There is no doubt that for too long the media have been able to get away with saying what they like, making false claims and allegations based on little more than hearsay and gossip. We have heard how celebrities often bemoan the media and how they twist stories, make up stories or sensationalise stories just to sell a paper or a magazine and perhaps we thought ‘no smoke without fire’ ? The recent media articles on Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine have just confirmed to me the serious lack of journalistic responsibility and integrity in the reporting of these stories and affirmed what the celebrities have been saying for years – you can’t trust what you read in the press.
It is astounding that the media can get away with reporting serious allegations, lies, mistruths and serious mis-representation of people and organisations with no system to hold them to account. It seems like the code of ethics for journalists means little to many of them. However, it is not just about the journalists – and I fully appreciate they are not all of the same ilk and that there are those who endeavour to abide by their code of ethics and to be responsible in their reporting. Part of the reason the media has been able to get away with it for so long, is because we the public have not held them to account. Indeed, we have perpetuated such stories by buying papers that sell sensationlist stories and by also staying silent and not taking any action to hold them to account. That is changing with the Leveson Enquiry. As part of that enquiry, we are calling for a means to regulate the press that prevents the perpetual denigrating and demeaning attitudes to women. If we don’t respect ourselves enough to say no to this, then why should others respect us? Our silence, our passive acceptance of denigrating media reports only serves to perpetuate the abuse of women in the media. So, whilst it may be long overdue, and perhaps we have felt that media is such a giant of a system that our voice would not be heard, let us not stay silent any longer, but make known through signing this petition that we as women say enough is enough, that we say NO to the ongoing denigration and demeaning portrayal of women in the media. For if we don’t – who will?
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