Last
updated: December 2006
On-line
campaign to ‘save’ paper wins mass support
Journalist’s
who walked out from a student newspaper because of a recently appointed
editor have launched an on-line campaign to ‘save’ their
publication from ‘corrupt and incompetent leadership’.
Manchester paper Student Direct has been in turmoil since the senior
editorial staff walked out stating that new editor Sajid Rafiq is using
it to forward his personal political beliefs. Mr Rafiq was appointed
to the sabbatical position in March despite never having written for
the paper before. Student Direct staff claim that he won the position
because he had the backing of the 1000-strong Islamic Society.
As well as the walk out Mr Rafiq sacked two senior staff members via
text message. They claim that they were sacked because they disagreed
with Mr Rafiq’s editorial position on certain topics.
The popular Student Direct website has also been shut down by the new
editor.
James Clarke, former Opinion editor and one of the sacked staff said,
“It was the last thing I expected. I had put a huge amount of
work into the paper and had made every effort to work with the new editor,
so to be sacked by text message is not only rude but extremely upsetting.”
“Every section of the paper that has politicising potential is
now heavily influenced by the Islamic Society. Student Direct no longer
represents the whole student population by any stretch of the imagination,”
he added.
A story in a recent issue of the paper outlines the suffering of Lebanese
and Palestinian citizens, while allegedly ignoring the Israeli side
of the conflict in the region. Staff fear this is presenting a biased
and often restricted view of current events. Concerns have been raised
that such one-sided reporting has the potential to influence the student
body with a distorted viewpoint, particularly those who are not familiar
with the full debate.
The ex-senior editorial staff are campaigning to remove Mr Rafiq from
the position and have set up a website savestudentdirect.co.uk to inform
people of developments in the story. They have also set up a ‘Save
Student Direct’ page on the Facebook website to drum-up support.
This page calls for the paper to be saved ‘from the clutches of
a corrupt and incompetent leadership,’ and for the return of a
paper accessible to ‘everyone, regardless of their political and
religious views.’
Membership for the page stands at well over 2000, highlighting the strong
support from Manchester’s student body against the changes at
the paper.
However, some students support the new editor urging the former editorial
staff to give him the opportunity to produce more than a few issues
before embarking on a witch-hunt.
In response Mr Clarke said, “I was totally willing to work with
the new editor this year. I didn’t agree with the way he was voted
in but I was ready to work with him nonetheless. The reason that I and
others are no longer working with him is because he is lazy, incompetent
and an awful, awful journalist.”
“Don’t insult my intelligence by telling me that I am not
working there because of preconceptions and bitterness,” he added.
The editorial team believe Mr Rafiq gained the position because of ‘the
slate voting system’ in operation at Manchester and believe that
he was elected by an Islamic Society block vote, suggesting that most
society members had him as their first choice.
A letter detailing the concerns of staff and students at the university
has been handed to the general secretary of the Manchester students’
union, Rob Owen. It was intended that if Mr Rafiq did not comply with
the letter’s stated demands he would be asked to attend an emergency
general meeting demanding his immediate dismissal. The meeting was abandoned
to protect the hard-work of writers still involved with the paper.
Mr Rafiq was unavailable to comment.
