British media’s coverage of Corbyn: Balanced or biased?

On The Listening Post this week: The UK’s left-wing Labour Party is facing down a right-leaning British media with just weeks until the election. Plus, the media black hole in Sinai, Egypt.

Balanced or biased? British media coverage of Corbyn

With just over two weeks until Britain heads to the polls, the opposition Labour Party and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, have been savaged by newspapers that lean heavily to the right. Even in broadcast media, critics argue, the ruling Conservatives have journalists fighting their corner.

Contributors:
Andrew Pierce, journalist, Daily Mail
Aaron Bastani, co-founder, Novara Media
Peter Catterall, professor of history and policy, University of Westminster
Annabelle Sreberny, professor of global media and communications, SOAS University of London

On our radar:

• The cycle of murder and impunity against journalists continues in Mexico, as yet another prominent reporter Javier Valdez pays with his life.
• Chelsea Manning walks free from US prison, while Sweden drops rape charges against WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange.
• At least six people are killed and a further 24 injured after ISIL attacks Afghanistan’s state-owned broadcaster, RTA. 

The silence in Sinai

For the past three years, Egyptian forces have been fighting an ISIL offshoot in the Sinai peninsula and all the while, the government of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has kept a tight lid on the story.

Having already jailed dozens of journalists, Sinai has become a black hole for news. Reporting that deviates from official government information has been criminalised under an anti-terror law leaving the sole remaining narrative one of military success and heroism trumpeted across all forms of pro-government media. 

Contributors:
Joe Stork, deputy director for MENA, Human Rights Watch
Sherine Tadros, Head of UN office in New York, Amnesty International
Maged Mandour, Egyptian writer and researcher
Nancy Okail, executive director, Tahrir Institute for Middle Eastern Policy