Budget Day is also the third day of the Real Media campaign's Anti-Daily Mail Week, created to highlight that 80% of the British press is in the hands of five billionaires who filter the news in their own interests.
In the real world, Real Media argues that the effects of austerity and growing poverty should be on top of the news agendas...
"The billionaire media will not report on the devastating wealth disparity we are experiencing in the UK, because they are owned by the people gaining from it" says Kam Sandhu, spokeswoman for Real Media "Inequality and savage, unjustified cuts are pushing people into destitution. Instead of reporting on this, the media encourages discrimination against marginalized groups, who are often bearing the brunt of these cuts.
"The media" she adds "is hugely complicit in the maintenance of the status quo where ordinary people suffer at the hands of an unjust economy, while the wealthy accumulate more and actively campaigns against initiatives which could create a fairer or more sustainable system, from the Scottish Referendum to coverage of renewable energy sources."
While property prices and stock markets are currently booming, only 1 in 7 people in Britain say they can feel the economic recovery according to the Financial Times. In other words, six people out of seven don't feel the economic recovery. The use of food banks increased five-fold between 2010 and 2013, and has kept rising, with more than a quarter of children now living in poverty. Yet, in the mainstream press, these issues go unreported, campaigners say.
Real Media also points out that austerity has a disproportionate impact on minorities: according to figures released last week by the Labour Party, the number of unemployed young BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) people has increased by 50% under the ConDem Government, while women are also hit disproportionately by austerity - a combination of cuts in services and a widening gender pay gap.
Women are overrepresented in public sector jobs that have faced the hardest cuts.
But instead of reporting how the top earners' wealth is increasing as a result of austerity, corporate press keeps blaming the economic downturn on already marginalised groups, which distorts the public's views: in 2013, an Ipsos Mori Poll found that the public thinks that £24 of every £100 spent on benefits is claimed fraudulently, when the real estimate is £0.7.
Today also sees an anti-austerity protest in the City of London which will focus on the impacts of austerity both in Britain and abroad...
"Not only are our politicians protecting the interests of the financial sector at the expense of the public in Britain, London-based banks also have a long history of reckless lending around the world" explains Fanny Malinen from Debt Resistance UK "Debt crises have destroyed economies in the global South since 1980s through very similar mechanisms that are now impoverishing the people of Greece, with British banks wielding power as creditors.
"Of course we do not hear this from media whose interests are tied to those in power they are far too busy trying to make us think the economic hardship is the fault of immigrants" she adds "We need to join the dots between these crises to understand that austerity only serves the interests of the 1%."
In Salford, austerity and rising house prices has meant that fifty per cent of families in the city can't even afford to buy a low cost house, while thirty per cent of people can't afford to rent privately (see previous Salford Star article click here). It's meant Council transport being taken off disabled adults (see here) and services about to be taken off disabled children (see here). It's seen some of the highest rates of sanctions in the country crippling those on benefits (see here) and safely nets for the most vulnerable being axed (see here).
In Salford everyone has a story of how the ConDem Government's austerity has affected their family but the mainstream press just isn't reflecting this. Hence the need for Real Media.
Anti-Daily Mail Week...still to come...
Thursday 19th: privatisation of healthcare and other public services
Friday 20th: the arms industry's interests driving the war on terror
Saturday 21st: human rights
For more details see the Daily Wail Online click here
Real Media campaign click here
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