By Lucy Britten and Margaret Fry Former students of journalism at City University, London A GIRL runs into a police station shouting: 'Rape, rape, I've raped.
"Did you see who it was?' asked the policeman. 'No', replied the girl, but they members printers' union? 'How do you know that?' asked the policeman. she said, 'they made me do all the work.' This "joke? went down well with the port and cigars at the dinner of the Newspaper Society; it came from one of the managers of our only liberal daily newspaper, and it was so funny that it eventually reached classroom of a post-graduate course ingournalism. It was passed on by a -lawyer specialising in press law as a Tight-hearted introduction lecture the Sexual (Amendment) Act of 1976. Nobody laughed; two women in the class objected strongly.
Lawyer The lawyer took little notice. It did not occur to him that the joke might be offensive to women case are merely good spoil for a spot -of union bashing. customary sexism those who run the oress.
As an exercise our class was taken to the Old Bailey to report on a rape Our tutor for the day was a freelancer whose agericy most of the crime Condon papers and some to the "nationals. One of us wasn't happy about using a rape trial as her first experience of serious crime reporting 'Nonsense, my dear', she was told, it witt be very exciting.' Exciting? Was it boredom she was worried about?
The fight started later. student was told to rewrite the first paragraph of a story which began: The Old Bailey today heard the evidence of allegations of another sick •Sad rape case." The freelancer crossed this out and wrote:
reporting.
emphasis. "This been of the haired, said... 'Well', the first paragraph.? Temper temper and said, the enormous penis...
attack. The Offences students.
our editors'.
day now that Page Three, to the pin-up. - who in this This unthinking.
powder.
supplies celes conv to local thought.
Advertising suggestion of violence and does not report the facts of rape attack' (his is a real human interest story', he commented, and went on to write: "An attractive 18-year old giri told an Old Bailey jury today she was brutally raped after a man threatened to attack her with a wrench (deleted) broom handle. The girl, slim and dark ' He stopped. "Dia he tear her clothes off? That should go in At this point the student lost his What you want is: "An attractive dark haired girl with enormous tits, only 18 years old, was raped by a huge bearded black with an woman student joined in the newspaper totally amazed, and finally told the present that "this attitude would get us nowhere with Sadly he was right. Rape reporting is used to sell newspapers. It is a rare Five and Seven do not carry a rape report next Larry Lamb, editor of the Sun, told us in his lecture to our course: 'We're selling a product in the same way, I suppose, as one might sell soap He speaks of sales figures when one asks about Page Three of the Sun. His only doubt about Page Three is whether the pin-ups do really mally copied was once often blatantly PAGE DOOR!