A letter published in The Guardian this week says disabled people, alongside other minority groups, have experienced “sustained levels of misleading, hostile and discriminatory reporting in the press”.

Activists say there is strong evidence that such reporting has caused an increase in disability hate crime.

The letter welcomes the conclusion by Leveson – in his report on press standards – that the presence of “a significant tendency” within the newspaper industry has led to the publication of “prejudicial or pejorative” references to disabled people and other minorities.

Leveson’s report says a new press watchdog would need to “address these issues as a matter of priority”, with the first step allowing groups representing minorities to lodge “third party complaints”, with the possibility of fines, corrections and apologies if the newspaper was found to have breached the relevant standards.

The “editor’s code” of the current press watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), says newspapers must avoid such “prejudicial or pejorative” references, but provides no protection for minority groups if no individual has been identified in a story.

This has given newspapers freedom to run articles portraying disabled benefits claimants as “scroungers” and “fakers”, with the PCC powerless to act.

The letter was written after a Conservative MP told the Daily Telegraph – one of the newspapers criticised by Leveson for publishing misleading stories about disability benefits – that third party reporting could lead to “sinister” and “politically motivated” complaints.

This week’s letter to the Guardian says third party reporting is “critical to ensuring a right of redress and a voice for minority groups”, and was “not a slippery slope to the press being ‘hijacked’ by ‘sinister’ pressure groups” but would “give those who are so often the victims of sensationalist and prejudicial headlines the basic right to make a complaint”.

The Guardian letter has been signed by disabled activists, disabled people’s organisations and hate crime campaigners, including Tracey Lazard and Kirsten Hearn, chief executive and chair of Inclusion London; Tara Flood, director of the Alliance for Inclusive Education; Linda Burnip, a co-founder of Disabled People Against Cuts; journalist Katharine Quarmby, author of Scapegoat, a ground-breaking investigation into disability hate crime; John McArdle, a founding member of the user-led campaign group Black Triangle; Stephen Brookes, coordinator of the Disability Hate Crime Network; and John Pring, editor of Disability News Service.

12 December 2012

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

A conference in September – organised by Inclusion London, Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People, Disabled People Against Cuts and the Alliance for Inclusive Education – called for an alliance between the traditional disability movement and the grassroots organisations of activists set up to fight government cuts to disability benefits and services.

The new UK Collaborative Disabled People’s Network aims to fight threats to independent living, quality of life, inclusion, social justice and human rights, and create “a stronger voice” for disabled people and their organisations.

So far, 73 DPOs and disabled activists have signed up to the idea, with the plan to push for even wider backing from other DPOs once the manifesto has been drafted.

Tracey Lazard, chief executive of Inclusion London, said the first task would be to draft a manifesto of “achievable challenges”, and she stressed that it would need to include “positive alternatives and ideas, and not just a set of bullet points, saying ‘don’t cut this, don’t scrap this.’”

She said: “We can contribute and lobby and campaign in very diverse ways but we need to have a unified voice on key positions. I think it is really, really important to do that.

“It’s about developing and clarifying some key positions around issues we think are crucial.”

The manifesto will probably be launched in the early summer and is set to include demands on benefits; independent living and social care; health; inclusive education; employment; housing; accessible transport; access, inclusion and participation; “turning human rights into reality”; and “real” co-production.

Lazard said she believed it would be a “challenge” to secure agreement on the manifesto, but that there would be “a lot of key areas of consensus”.

The network is also planning Freedom Drive 2013, a week of campaigning action to be held across the UK in the summer or early autumn.

They hope Freedom Drive will win support for the manifesto through a week of rallies, public meetings, direct action, marches, creative arts and the use of social media.

Any DPOs or disabled people who believe they can contribute to the new network can email:

Tracey.Lazard@inclusionlondon.co.uk.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com