[Bluestar]

Poles accuse 'Daily Mail' of defaming community

By Emily Dugan
Saturday, 15 March 2008

Poles in Britain have accused the Daily Mail ofdefaming their community in a letter of complaint to the press watchdog.

Many articles published on Polish migrants were likely to foster racial tension, the Federation of Poles in Great Britain said. The federation, the largest group representing Poles in Britain, says that of 80 articles published on the subject by the Daily Mail in the past two years, fewer than five were positive. Headlines such as "Are young Polish workers robbing their country of its future?"; "Britain is country of choice for many 'feckless' Poles" and "Polish Borat claims groping women is normal in eastern Europe", are among those that have caused fury.

The federation accused the newspaper in its letter to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) of being unacceptably racist. "If the subject had been Pakistani or African immigrants, such a string of article headlines would have been considered blatantly racist and probably subject to a court summons," the letter said.

"This kind of shock reporting, week-in week-out, serves only to exacerbate the tension", the federation added. "They are slingshots aimed at Europe and the Government which rebound against Poles and other central Europeans in street abuse, fire-bombed homes and mob attacks, while the Daily Mail washes its hands of all responsibility."

The PCC confirmed it had received the complaint, but said it was not in a position to make a full assessment until further documentation was filed.

Wiktor Moszczynski, of the federation, said the full documentation would be sent within a week.

"It will take us a while", he added. "The full text of what they've written about us would fill a shopping bag; it's a gigantic pile."

The Daily Mail was accused of continually trying to "eke out a negative story wherever possible". In the letter, the federation compared the coverage of a government report on migration released on 17 July last year with that in The Independent.

While the Daily Mail headline said "Influx of immigrants costs every UK household £350 a year", an equivalent article in this paper, based on the same report, was headed "Home Office: migrants work harder, earn more and pay more taxes than Britons".

The executive managing editor of Associated News & Media, Robin Esser, told the federation in a letter that the Daily Mail was "not in any way anti-Polish", and the sometimes violent reaction of Britons to Polish migrants was "worrying", but "not the fault of the Daily Mail".

A spokesman for the Daily Mail said: "If you take the balance of articles published by us, the 'Polish Migrant' has not been identified as a 'hate figure' and we have often and continuously drawn attention to the benefits Britain has and does derive from the skills that immigrants bring us."

[zzze]

assalamu alaykum

the daily mail is very racist, homophobic and islamophobic. My nan reads it

[roberto]

[quote=Bluestar;105278]Poles accuse 'Daily Mail' of defaming community

Tut, Tut, the thread title should be the Daily Mail is accused of being racist

[Bluestar]

That's precisely why it's in quotation marky things

[Hanbali]

Originally Posted by roberto

Tut, Tut, the thread title should be the Daily Mail is accused of being racist

Defending your primary source for news? Figures.

[roberto]

Originally Posted by Bluestar

That's precisely why it's in quotation marky things

Glad you agree, keep on reading it so as to form an opinion

[roberto]

Originally Posted by Hanbali

Defending your primary source for news? Figures.

Do you always answer your own questions?

[Bluestar]

Originally Posted by roberto

Glad you agree, keep on reading it so as to form an opinion

Keep on reading what?

[roberto]

Originally Posted by Bluestar

Keep on reading what?

Sorry forgot you live in cave

[Bluestar]

that's very observant of you roberto

I don't like the Daily Mail, i see no point in reading it, since everytime I do, I wonder how stupid the journalist/reporter is.

[roberto]

Originally Posted by Bluestar

that's very observant of you roberto

I don't like the Daily Mail, i see no point in reading it, since everytime I do, I wonder how stupid the journalist/reporter is.

So you don't read it yet you condemn it, surly not on my heavily bias selection,

[Bluestar]

what basis could i condemn it if i have not read it ever? I have read it many times, for the sake of my sanity and intellect (however little it may be) i choose not read it on a daily basis, unless of course, i feel in dire need of some instant humour.