Express: Get Britain out of Europe campaign
Here’s a question that should probably be addressed: when The Express team decided to make their tabloid a wheel for anti-EU propaganda, what on earth was going through their minds?
The Express has made the decision to propagate anti-EU sentiment with every single article that mentions Brussels, as well publishing a special webpage entitled ‘Get Britain out of Europe.’ By deliberately taking such an overtly black-and-white stance on an important issue, going against basic journalistic principles of informing readers, the once-respected paper has run its own image into the ground. Why would it do this? Not for money, one would hope…
This is not a case of The Telegraph favouring tory viewpoints, or The Mirror’s traditional Labour preference. The Express is sporting a shamelessly one-sided position, pedalling non-stop anti-EU propaganda and using scarcely concealed didacticism in an apparent attempt to whip up their readership into a Brussels-scorning mob.
At the same time, the paper’s ‘Europe Crusade’ page on their website rains down on the Brussels institution with a monochrome slating. The strong-worded, 1,000-word tirade complains about Britain spending “too many years as the victims of Brussels larceny, bullying, over-regulation and all-round interference,” as well as listing a series of reasons – or excuses – why to hate the EU; not just leave, but hate.
With little or no regard for any view other than the highly personal one it represents, the whole thing smacks of an ill-thought-out and immature abuse of journalism.
For one thing, they have entitled their crusade ‘Get Britain out of Europe.’ That hardly seems like fully thought-out heading; what does it even mean?! Is the entire editorial team genuinely ignorant as to the distinction between the European Union and Europe as a continent, or do they really want to migrate the entire British landmass to another corner of the world? (Have our Little England heads really ballooned so much that we have lost sight of the rest of the world? Are we going to be our own continent from now on??)
Furthermore, one dreads to think what the rest of the UK might have to say about that, considering Scotland has been seriously contemplating leaving the United Kingdom to participate more fully in the European Union, and consequently be even more integrated inEurope, the continent.
The Express’ rant about the European Union starts by informing us that “[t]he famous and symbolic Crusader who adorns our masthead will become the figurehead of the struggle to repatriate British sovereignty from a political project that has comprehensively failed people right across Europe.”
While every journal has its political leanings one way or another, The Express seems to have misread where the limits lie. By representing nothing but black-and-white views, the editors are completely undermining the paper’s history and reputation as a worthwhile information source. People read papers to inform and educate themselves – not to be brainwashed. And as an organisation which has been running for over 100 years, it surely knows this well enough; so what were they thinking? It makes you wonder whether they’ve been receiving “special funding” from Nigel Farage, whose voice is frequently echoed and never, ever contradicted by the paper. One wonders why not?
After all, their entire backlog of articles on the EU seems to insist that the institution has never achieved anything of worth ever – can their editors really believe that? Putting aside Britain’s relationship with the EU, it surely can’t be denied that Brussels has done some good during its existence. The recent accession of Croatia, for example, represents twenty years’ worth of work from both the EU and Croatia itself, which have brought the country from what was once broken and scarred state, financially brought to its knees and by civil war and corruption, into the well-integrated, democratic success it has now become.
Likewise, the association agreement Ukraine is about to sign with the EU is, as far as Kiev is concerned, one of the single most important actions in the country’s history for the last two decades. Former President Viktor Yushchenko explained in an interview with the EU Observer that every major politician in the country is behind efforts to sign the agreement, as it is the highest hope for the nation to escape Russian President Vladimir Putin’s voracity for the sovereignty of his neighbours.
“During the 20th century, we declared independence six times and lost it five times,” ex-President Yushchenko explained. “Our most important achievement in the past 21 years was to achieve independence once again. If we can get Ukraine into the family of European nations, this would be the second most important.”
Suggesting, within a balanced view, that the UK is not made for the EU is a completely reasonable – if debatable – position, but The Expressstretching out its claws to make blind blows on the entire EU institution is downright irresponsible. With the influence the tabloid has the good fortune to hold, it should at least offer its readership a knowledge of the issues and themes, rather than feeding its audience an endless stream of imbalanced stories full of gaping holes.
Our papers have a moral obligation to at least offer two sides to a story before stating an opinion as fact. Whether or not the company has been receiving dirty money for their narrow editorial line, it has gone too far, drifting outside the boundaries of decent journalism and entering into the realms of immorality.
Written by Rosie Lightwood
