This ban has not been put in pace yet, but has been reported on since October 2007.
This issue looks to be mainly about pay because the government want to limit the pay of all public sector workers.
The problem could also have arisen because the Prison Service may want to strike because their working conditions are getting worse. For instance, Prison Officers have also been complaining that prisons are overcrowded which causes unrest with the prisoners and makes the Prison Officers job more difficult and dangerous.
The government is taking action now because prison overcrowding is getting worse. Prison Officers are more likely to strike and the government haven’t got enough money to pay them to compensate for the poor working conditions. If they pay Prison Officers more money they may end up paying all public sector workers more money.
In 1994 the Conservative Home Secretary, Michael Howard, removed the right to strike from Prison Officers but Prison Officers gathered public opinion in their favour to force the Labour Government to give them the right to strike problems have failed. They called it a voluntary no strike agreement meaning they hoped they would only strike after all negotiations to resolve a problem had failed. At the time, the Labour Government wanted to show they supported workers.
My research involved searching the Internet for newspapers articles to see what different types of reporting styles where used.
Whilst looking through the material I came across other articles that compared the right-to-strike for Prison Officers with that of the Police Service.
The Police Service lost their right to strike a long time because their job is considered too important. If they went on strike the crime wave would increase dramatically overnight. The government would not have enough time to react to a strike and the chaos of a crime wave could make the public vote out the government.
As compensation for losing the right to strike the Police Service were offered a pay deal that meant their pay level would be set fairly by an independent body.
In one article I found it said Police Officers are furious with Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith’s decision to limit their pay to 2.5%. They don’t agree their pay is being set fairly and they are trying to get their right to strike back.
In the Derby Telegraph on Jan 24th 2008 it was reported that more than 200 Police Officers from Derbyshire had joined a group of over 22,000 in a march on Government to make their case. They have a snappy slogan “Fair play for Police”.
Both Prison and Police Officers are trying to get the public on their side to make the government change their mind.
During my research I looked at articles on the Internet from the BBC News, The Times, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Derby Evening Telegraph. Some of these media report the issues the same way for across the country but others are written with reference to the local area.
For my assignment I choose the three types of media that provided the most differences in the way they reported the issue.
The following sections give a more detailed description of each media.
Times 22/10/2007
The Times is a privately owned old-fashioned broadsheet newspaper. Its target readership is well-educated people who have professional jobs. It is generally considered to favour the Conservative Party. They sell most of their papers to business people. They cover all the major world news arts and sports events but most of their articles are about political or business issues that affect businesses and peoples’ wealth. Therefore the audience for this source is business owners and/or self employed people. The report talks a lot about liberty, freedom and legal rights. The report says that “jailers” (Prison Officers) are claiming the right to strike by forming a case against the government under the EU Treaty. The Ministers say that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights does not give the prison service new rights. It puts the point that Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, will lose face because he is promoting the EU treaty but the Prison Officers will use it against him. The article also talks about the Prison Officers Associated building a war chest to fund legal actions, setting the scene for a big fight ahead.
BBC News 7/1/2008
The BBC News is transmitted over the radio and television but they also have a web site for people to read and comment on. It is funded by the government from peoples’ taxes but its rules say it must report all the news fairly and without bias. It is news targeted for the general public. It therefore gives information that is informative and understandable to the average person. The report given about the prison strike ban, not only contains quotes from other people but video and audio interviews. The report sees both sides of the augment from Jack Straw and the Prison Service. The article shows the seriousness of the problem to the country and contrasts it with the situation in Scotland where a no-strike deal is still in force. The article is different to the other articles because it covers what each of the political groups and the Prison Officers say. It also illustrates better the seriousness of the situation to the public across the whole of the country.
Some notable quotes are:
- Tories say it is a humiliating u-turn.
- You can’t actually allow industrial action.
- Very serious – Prison Officers Association will not be bullied by politicians.
- Last strike in August caused damage of £22,000 in young offenders institution.
- Brain Caton, general secretary of Prison Officers Association says claims about cost of damage were absolute rubbish and we will not be bullied or intimidated.
- Lib Dems, David Heath accused Labour of creating a problem of trust.
The Daily Mail 8/1/2008
The Daily Mail is a tabloid paper targeted at middle class families. It is privately owned and generally favours the Conservative viewpoint. It covers world and local news and sporting events. It has more general interest and less business articles than the broadsheet papers. Although this report is 2 months after the Times it still follows on from the same issue. This report, unlike the Times focuses on the actions of Jack Straw who is the Justice Secretary. The report starts by stating that Jack Straw plans to pass the law to ban prison officer strikes in May. This has caused prison officers to consider striking against the ban while they can. The Police Service is also planning to march through London in protest of their cut in pay rise. If the prison service strikes, the police service has been lined up by the government to take over. This report states all the major facts and issues that have already happened in an impartial way. It shows all sides of the issue and doesn’t seem to favour any side.
The article had a Bloggs section with 12 comments from the public. It was noted that all the Bloggs sided with the Prison Officers and were against the Labour Government.
Conclusion - Differences and similarities
Although The Times and The Daily Mail are known to generally favour the Conservative Party I found no evidence in the articles that they were biased. Both articles emphasised the seriousness of the issue to the public. It was noted that all the Bloggs in the Daily Mail were strongly against Labour and showed the readers who were bothered to write were Conservative. The comments are not likely to affect the opinions of many of the public because not many people use the Internet to read the news.
The Times used the words Jailors instead of Prison Officers this could be to make Prison Officers look less important or it could be to make the report more informal. The article was much shorter than the other articles and it was more about political rather than social issues.
The BBC News covered the issues in the broadest and fairest way. Perhaps this is because the articles were obtained from the Internet and the BBC use this more than the papers because they are there to inform the public of the facts and don’t need to make a profit from selling papers.
All three articles showed the facts fairly and in many cases they reported exactly the same facts in the same way.
I’ve found that although their were some differences in the way the issue was presented in each report most of the articles didn’t seem to support one side or the other. They seemed to explain the reasons without bias on the arguments of the Government and the Prison Service.
I think the reports were unbiased because they don’t know what the public thinks yet and they want to wait until they have a better idea of which side the public favours before they support one particular side.
Another reason could be that most of the UK Media is self-censored but they report the unbiased facts because it is illegal to report lies and they may be sued for a lot of money if they did so.
Three contemporary issues and how they will affect the public services
Issue 1
The Police are having a cut in their pay rise per year. This is likely to caused outrage in the police service. What makes it worse is that they can’t strike in a firm of protest. It is likely that the police will attempt partitions and other forms of public support in order to remove the pay cut. The media can help by expressing the opinions of police employees and the general public. How ever they must present a balanced argument by expressing the governments opinions and explanations.
I think the police will try to form peace full process without striking. I also think that many police employees will complain to their local MP and have their views passed on to the Home secretary.
Issue 2
The Ministry of justice is introducing a strike ban on the prison service. The prison service may see this as the robbing of their right to strike. They may also feel that they are being treated the same as the police service. They may also feel that the government no longer trusts the prison service and that the government don’t have the recourses available in the event of a strike. The strike ban has not been put in place so the prison service may strike while they still can.
I believe that the government may be planning to cut prison service pay rises just like the police service. The passing of a strike ban is to ensure that they, like the police, can’t strike. I believe it is a bad idea to pass a strike ban because many see it as a civil right.
Issue 3
The BBC announced that prisons are becoming over crowded. Therefore the government is planning on building three new supper sized prisons. This will open more job opportunities in the prison service, which in turn will require more training staff. Most of this training staff will either be former prison officers or former police officers.
In my opinion I think that this announcement emphasises the fact that crime levels are increasing. It also emphasizes the fact that some criminals can’t be held long in police cells because some prisons are full.
