Katie Hopkins & the need for an independent media complaints commission
We were absolutely horrified by the racist rant written by Katie Hopkins but published in the Sun. This article should never have been published. A responsible media would not have published an article likening migrants to cockroaches and referring to them as a "plague of feral humans"*. Frankly, a responsible media wouldn't publish most of the stories on migrants in the mainstream media (including the Daily Mail, BBC, and those supposed liberal papers: the Guardian and the Independent), which are always short on fact and large on hyperbolic myths and derogatory statements about migrants.
We understand that Hopkins has been reported to the police for hate crimes. We would hope that any hate crime investigation would include not only Hopkins but her editors and other high-level management who would have given the ok to such a piece. Hopkins only had a platform to spew such vile hatred of migrants because of senior management at the Sun. They too should be held accountable.
This is also why we need an independent press complaints commission with actual power to hold media accountable for perpetrating hate crimes. Free speech does not include the right to publish racist statements exhorting the deaths of millions of migrant workers who are leaving their homes because of the destruction caused by unfettered capitalism. Poverty is rife throughout much of Africa as a direct result of ongoing colonialist, white-supremacist practises perpetrated by our governments and multi-national corporations.
Katie Hopkin's article was vile, but it isn't the only racist screed published in the UK media on a daily basis. We need to stop consuming these media outlets, but ignoring them isn't a useful tactic. We must hold them accountable in the criminal courts and via a press commission that has the authority to penalise media.
*The link is to an article in the Independent, not the Sun.
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I personally don`t believe we should give katie hatekins any more publicity than necessary, but she does need to be prosecuted by the law like anyone else would for her comments, I don`t think she actually believes most of what she says, it`s just for effect & to get her work/publicity,these so-called newspaper & tv programmes should be ashamed, plus any other guests on the these tv shows should refuse to appear or speak with her.
There is a direct correlation between this type of violent language, and institutional violence being perpetrated against groups of people, and we have seen this time and time again. (And not just in 20th century Europe). As has also been noted, the governments own policy is, in effect, to let the immigrants drown and as has also been noted, that policy does not stop the people whom this affects from trying to leave their countries and situations to find safety and a better life.
We need to tackle both the institutionally racist media who give Hopkins and her ilk a platform – and address why so many in our society believe these myths and lies about human beings who are dying because of them.