VIOLENCE IN THE MEDIA - Call To Cut Media Violence

CALL TO CUT MEDIA VIOLENCE The following News Release was issued by mediawatch -uk on 23 February 2007

In the light of recent shootings in South London and the "Gun Summit" at Downing Street last week (Feb 2007), John Beyer, Director of mediawatch-uk, is calling upon broadcasters and film makers to embrace a much more socially responsible attitude to their portrayal of the use of firearms in their productions.

Research carried out over many years by mediawatch-uk shows that the depiction of firearms being used in criminal ways is by far the most commonly portrayed violence on TV.

Mr Beyer said today: "In 107 films shown in 2006 our monitors identified a shocking:

540 incidents involving firearms,

368 violent assaults and

180 incidents involving knives and other offensive weapons.

The worst offenders were films such as Hard Target, New Jack City and Raw Deal on BBC1, Cliffhanger on ITV1, Natural Born Killers on Channel

4, Bad Boys, Dirty Harry, Heat and Young Guns on Five all repeatedly shown on the five terrestrial channels in recent years."

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The people most responsible for promoting a culture of violence in which the criminal use of guns is portrayed more often than any other fictional violence are the film and television industries. From this quarter there has been a deafening silence and ce rtainly no publicly announced undertakings to stop or even reduce the visibility of guns or other offensive weapons.

The regulator, Ofcom, too has been silent despite the findings of their own research which states that 56 per cent of people say there is too much violence on television. (The Communications Market 2006, page 269)

"In this age of "joined up" government and the trend for multi-agency approaches to problem solution the influence of film and television cannot be ignored nor can the industries remain aloof or beyond criticism for the culture of violence to which they have contributed. We call upon the film and broadcasting regulators to urgently review their film and programme policies, their codes and guidelines and ensure that the depiction of the use of firearms and other offensive weapons is curtailed forthwith.

We welcome the emphasis now being placed by politicians upon family life and good role models. However, this must extend to film and television programme makers who must play their part in sustaining citizenship and civil society rather than setting models of behaviour that contribute to society's problems and undermine attempts to deal with them.

"We also call upon the Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham MP, to take steps to ensure that the terms of the Communications Act 2003, which states that "material likely to encourage or to incite to crime or to lead to disorder is not included in television or radio services", are properly enforced in the public interest."

Our petition to the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, calling for less violence and swearing on TV closed on Thursday 10 January 2008 with 2112 signatures

The following mediawatch articles relate to this subject:

ASBO for TV

Public Health Approach

Include media violence in Bill

Spring 2007 newsletter

WHAT THE NEWSPAPERS HAVE SAID ON THIS ISSUE......

Three Point Plan to Tackle Gun Crime After a gun crime summit at 10 Downing Street, the government announces anti-violence plan. Home Secretary John Reid has announced a three-point plan to tackle gun violence, and to keep teenagers from falling in with violent gangs. The main elements of the plan are: tougher punishments for those who use other people to hide or store weapons; improved technology that can link weapons to crime; more funding to community groups working in underprivileged areas. Home Office News Release 22/2/2007

Just a Click Away From Your Child's Computer Violent street thugs are posting chilling gang recruitment' videos on the Internet. They use the YouTube and MySpace websites - favourites of millions of schoolchildren - to show themselves brandishing guns, taking drugs and racing along suburban roads in powerful cars. The disturbing clips can easily be viewed by young children in their own hom es as they use the sites to catch up with their friends or interests. Both websites ban footage which is deemed to be threatening or offensive', but regulation is difficult with tens of thousands of videos being uploaded each day. Daily Mail 22/2/2007

Blair Crisis Summit on Teen Gangs Tony Blair is to announce urgent measures to break up teenage gangs amid the continuing wave of gun violence in British cities. As another man was shot dead in London yesterday and three others were injured in tow shooting incidents in Manchester, the prime minister called an urgent summit and ordered a review of gun laws, promising to root out youths who are terrorising housing estates.

Downing Street announced an immediate review of legislation relating to the possession and use of firearms and pledged to rush through new powers for the police. A minimum five-year jail sentence for the

possession of fire-arms, which at present applies to those aged 21 and over, will soon be imposed on over-18s. No 10 also announced an emergency meeting of ministers, police and community leaders to discuss how to respond to the gang killings.

In a feature article entitled Born To Kill? Richard Woods examined how family breakdown has allowed gun culture to corrupt children. Mr Woods observed: "Rap music is often blamed for glorifying violence but now violent films and computer games have become the norm beyond black culture."

In another feature article entitled We can disarm the gun gangs the Reverend Nims Obunge said: "what is increasingly true is that turf wars built on gang culture are fast becoming the basis for retribution in the inner city. The existence of street role models' and gangsta rap artists and the role of the media in glamorising crime have also been a growing negative influence on young people. The recent teenage killings show that this is no longer a black concern alone." Sunday Times 18/2/2007

Just Two Hours to Buy a Deadly Weapon It took the Daily Mail just two hours yesterday to discover how easy it has become to buy or even rent a gun on the streets of Britain. The ease with which a deadly weapon can be obtained was all the more shocking for the matter-of-fact way the deal was discussed. We were directed to a Central London phone box at which we were contacted 20 minutes later. Our caller calling himself Billy explained what was on offer: I can let you have a 9mm automatic for 1,500 and that comes with ammunition. I would estimate there are a hundred guns on estates like the one you have visited - in all the major cities in Britain. Kids are using guns like fashion accessories.' Daily Mail 16/2/2007

Extract from mediawatch-uk Article 'A Matter of Taste' Violence in entertainment, too, is a matter that broadcasting regulators seem unwilling to control. Indeed, the absence of any regulatory intervention in this regard suggests that this aspect of programming is of no concern despite the fact that the viewing public regard violence on television as a major contributory factor in the rise of violent crime, disorder and delinquency.

Our monitoring of films show, along with other research, that portrayals of violence involving the use of firearms is by far the most common followed by violent assaults and use of offensive weapons. It is no wonder that criminal violence where firearms are used is increasing alarmingly and guns have become a fashion accessory among teenagers. A senior police officer recently warned that it will not be long before a youngster is shot by armed police attempting to maintain order.

PTC Calls for More Responsibility Over Violent Content The Parents Television Council called on the Fox Broadcasting Network to show increased responsibility over the time of day it airs programmes like "24" which new PTC research revealed has a frighteningly high number of torture scenes. PTC News Release 14/2/2007

Children Add to Gun Crime Only two years ago, gun crime was still relatively rare on the streets of London, but as it has become more commonplace, the number of children carrying guns has risen alarmingly. As recently as April 2005 officers from Operation Trident, which investigates gun crime among London's black community, had not charged a single suspect younger than 20 with murder. In the past 20 months:

16 teenagers have been charged, including one of 14.

Between January 2005 and September last year Scotland Yard charged 244 suspects under 18 with gun crime.

Last year 31 per cent of Operation Trident's victims were teenagers, compared with 16 per cent three years ago.

The worry is shared by forces in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. Both forces have seen children as young as ten involved in gun crime. The Times 7/2/2007

From 'Promoting a Culture of Violence 3'. We publish again the conclusions of Dr Susan Bailey, a forensic psychiatrist, interviewed in a Panorama programme entitled 'The Killing Screens', screened in February 1995.

Introducing Dr Bailey, Vivian White said: "Amongst the professionals who work with Britain's young offenders the view that screen violence does help to cause real life aggression is gaining ground. Susan Bailey has met and interviewed Britain's most violent young criminals, those who have killed."

Dr Bailey said: "In the early 80's I encountered, over a 5 year period, 20 youngsters who had murdered. A quarter of that group presented me with descriptions of how they had watched violent and pornographic films in the weeks leading up to their offence of murder they described very vividly the films they had watched and how that had influenced their final act."

In January 2004 Professor Robert Winston posed this important question in the remarkable BBC1 TV series 'Child of Our Time': "The average British 3 year old is glued to a TV or computer screen for nearly 5 hours a day and almost half of all 3 year olds have a TV in their bedroom. Suddenly the outside world is coming into these children's lives. So does what they watch influence their behaviour?" The series is following the progress of a number of children born in 2000 and Professor Winston examined the external influences that shape the children's lives.

He said: "Most scientists now think that TV can encourage violent tendencies. At this age our children's ability to learn from the world around them is expanding rapidly. Experiments show how dangerous seeing the wrong kind of lessons on TV could be on a child's developing idea of how to behave".