The Morning Star
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Morning Star | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | Daily newspaper |
| Format | Compact |
|
|
|
| Owner | People's Press Printing Society |
| Editor | John Haylett |
| Founded | 1930 |
| Political allegiance | Socialist, Communist |
| Headquarters | William Rust House, 52 Beachy Road, Bow, London E3 2NS |
|
|
|
| Website: www.morningstaronline.co.uk | |
- For other uses, see Morning Star.
The Morning Star is a left-wing, British daily newspaper, set in a compact format. It is mostly dedicated to foreign and domestic news, with a bias that leans towards social issues and unions, and away from the perceived "pro-business" stance.[1] It also has an arts page, a TV page, and sports pages. It famously eschews the gossip columns and sensational news of heavier tabloid papers, keeping to a lighter, tighter format (currently 12 pages weekdays, 16 on a Saturday).
The Morning Star was founded in 1930 as the Daily Worker, the official organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain, but since 1945 it has been owned and published by a readers' co-operative, the Peoples Press Printing Society which operates on one vote per shareholder. The paper was re-launched as the Morning Star in 1966.
Contents |
[edit] Editorial policy
[edit] Current Editor
The current editor is John Haylett, who was part of the group that left the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988 to found the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), and successive annual general meetings of the People's Press Printing Society have agreed that the editorial policy of the paper is founded on the CPB's programme, Britain's Road to Socialism.[2] However, despite this special relationship with the CPB [3] the Morning Star is not a mouthpiece for any political party [4]: features are contributed by writers from a variety of socialist, social democratic, green, and even religious perspectives.
[edit] Editorial line
Generally, the editorial line is in support of the ideals of peace and socialism. It was largely uncritical of the politics and actions of the Soviet Union. It is moderately Eurosceptic, though its reasons for such a stance are different from those of the Daily Mail or Rupert Murdoch's newspapers.
It is critical of the upper or ruling classes. It defends peaceful protests and civil disobedience and industrial action by groups of workers to improve their working conditions and wages. The Morning Star is also concerned with environmental issues and supports several environment campaigning groups; it advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament. In elections the paper endorses the Communist Party of Britain; where the CPB is not standing, the paper (albeit with some reluctance) advocates a vote for the Labour Party – although not what it terms the New Labour faction.
[edit] Contributors
The paper carries frequent contributions from campaigning journalists John Pilger and Uri Avnery, Green MEP Caroline Lucas, Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Alan Simpson, Respect MP George Galloway and former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone.
- " ... We have articles from people that at one time we would never have given the time of day to - like the Welsh and Scottish Nationalists, the Greens, and regular contributions from church people ... [but] ... things that happened in the Soviet Union 70 years ago are still being used as a stick to beat the Morning Star" (John Haylett, editor)
The celebrated cartoonist Martin Rowson is a regular contributor.
[edit] History of support
The paper was the only British daily to support the National Union of Mineworkers during the miners' strike of 1984-1985, and it still campaigns for the coal industry to be rebuilt. It adopts the phrase "clean coal" to emphasise that the environmental impact of mining must be taken into account. The 2006 energy review by the Tony Blair administration was criticised for not giving enough consideration to clean coal energy.[5]
On international issues the paper generally advocates a "two-state" solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and calls for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories. It is also critical of the Republican Party of the United States. It was the only daily paper in Britain to take a serious stance against the Kosovo War, denouncing North Atlantic Treaty Organization military intervention, and the only paper to criticise the way that Slobodan Milošević was removed from office. It also opposed the Iraq War, but was much less eager to defend Saddam Hussein.
On Northern Ireland the paper generally takes a pro-nationalist line. News reports from Northern Ireland are almost invariably described as being "from our foreign newsdesk".
[edit] General history
[edit] Editorial history
In 1940, the paper, then the Daily Worker with an anti-war editorial policy during the Vyacheslav Molotov-Joachim von Ribbentrop Pact, accused Sir Walter Citrine, the General Secretary of Britain's Trade Union Congress, of "plotting with the French Citrines to bring millions of Anglo-French Trade Unionists behind the Anglo-French imperialist war machine." Citrine sued, and the case turned into a display of the Daily Worker's editorial position as being directed from the Soviet Union.[6] Because of its pro-Moscow position during the war, the Daily Worker was suppressed by Government order between January 21, 1941 and September 7, 1942.
[edit] Finances and circulation
The Morning Star carries very little commercial advertising, with low advertising rates[7], and the cover price does not cover print & distribution. Consequently the paper has always been heavily dependent on donations made by activists, reader's groups and sympathetic organisations such as Trades Unions.
The paper currently relies for its funding largely on donations to its perpetual "Star Fund" appeal (monthly target £16,000). In its past, the paper also received some indirect subsidy from the Soviet Union, in the form of bulk orders. The paper has been calling on readers and supporters to guarantee the Morning Star's future via a dedicated fund-raising effort. The funds raised by readers are being pledged to extra pages and more colour.[citation needed]
Backing from readers is intended to ensure independence from business-related advertising. While reporters on all the other national dailies may at times have to strike a balance between the financial interests of their employers and the informational interests of their readers (for example by reporting in such a way as to avoid causing offence to a major corporate advertiser or a billionaire proprietor), with the Morning Star the readers are the proprietor, so in theory no such conflict can arise.
In March 2005, BBC News Magazine reported the Morning Star's circulation as between 13,000 and 14,000, quoting John Haylett's comment "perhaps only one in 10 of these readers would label themselves as communists."[8] In August 1996, the Guardian reported the print run to be "around 25,000".[9]
[edit] On-Line version
An on-line version of the paper was launched on 1 April 2004. Most of the site, including the editorial Star Comment, all cultural coverage, sports and the front page are free, but news reporting and features coverage is currently subscription only. Plans are currently on the table to try to expand the scope of the Morning Star Online website.[citation needed]
[edit] Editors
- 19?? - present John Haylett
- 1974 - 1995 Tony Chater
- 1959 - 1974 George Matthews (1917-2005)
- 1949 - 1959 JR Campbell
- 1930 - 1949 William Rust[10]
[edit] Notes
- ^ BBC NEWS | Magazine | Pressing on
- ^ People's Press Printing Society Limited 61st Annual Report for Annual General Meeting June 2006, p. 4
- ^ More about Scottish Communists: Part of the Communist Party of Britain
- ^ Morning Star Online - Britain's socialist daily newspaper
- ^ Morning Star Online - Britain's socialist daily newspaper
- ^ Reds, Labor and the War. Time (magazine) (13 May, 1940).
- ^ Contact Us
- ^ BBC NEWS | Magazine | Pressing on
- ^ Morning Star faces Olympic challenge | Media | MediaGuardian
- ^ Communist Party of Britain - for peace and socialism
[edit] References
 |
This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations. |
- Coughlan, Sean. Pressing On. BBC News Magazine. Monday, 21 March 2005. Retrieved May 24, 2005.
- Sanghera, Sathnam. A lifetime on the left Financial Times Friday 23 Apr 2005. Retrieved 1 October 2006.
- Deeson, Martin. Still flying the red flag: Despite the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Morning Star presses are still rolling. The Independent. Monday. 23 May 2005. Retrieved 24 May 2005.
- The Crisis at the Morning Star "What Next journal- 1998"
