Misconceptions and Misrepresentation: Challenging UK Media Reports of Recent Visits of UN Special Procedures

Author(s):  
Rhona Smith

Abstract With headlines referencing ‘U.N.ACCEPTABLE Clueless UN official’, ‘“loopy” UN inspector’ and ‘UN meddler’, it is clear that UN special procedure mandate holders can be subjected to negative national press coverage when visiting the United Kingdom. Indeed, some media outlets border on vitriolic in their coverage of mandate holders’ visits and reports. This paper argues that a number of misconceptions and misunderstandings explain some of this media coverage. UN special procedure mandate holders are not employed by the UN, nor are they dispatched by the UN to investigate the UK. Rather they are independent and receive no payment for their time or work. Actual visits are funded from the UN general budget and the UK is not alone being examined and critiqued. In explaining some of the misconceptions and misunderstandings, the paper clarifies the role of special rapporteurs and the contribution they make to the UN.

Author(s):  
Karla Perez Portilla

This article is a theoretical analysis aimed at articulating the harm caused by media (mis)representation, and at showing existing ways in which this harm can be contested. The approaches analysed are largely from the United Kingdom. However, the issues they raise are not unique and the models explored are potentially transferable. The examples cover a range of media, including British right-wing press, television and Facebook; and characteristics protected by equality legislation in the UK such as sex, sexual orientation, race, religion and mental health stigma. Crucially, all the initiatives presented demonstrate the group-based nature of media (mis)representations, which cannot be understood and, therefore, cannot be addressed through individualistic approaches. Therefore, the article concludes that the role of groups as the targets of media (mis)representation and as potential claimants should be fully acknowledged and enabled.


Author(s):  
Andrew Ashworth ◽  
Julian V. Roberts

Sentencing represents the apex of the criminal process and is the most public stage of the criminal justice system. Controversial sentences attract widespread media coverage, intense public interest, and much public and political criticism. This chapter explores sentencing in the United Kingdom, and draws some conclusions with relevance to other common law jurisdictions. Sentencing has changed greatly in recent years, notably through the introduction of sentencing guidelines in England and Wales, and more recently, Scotland. However, there are still doubts about the fairness and consistency of sentencing practice, not least in the use of imprisonment. Among the key issues to be examined in this chapter are the tendency towards net-widening, the effects of race and gender, the impact of pleading guilty, the use of indeterminate sentences, the rise of mandatory sentences, and the role of the victim in the sentencing process. The chapter begins by outlining the methods by which cases come before the courts for sentencing. It then summarizes the specific sentences available to courts and examines current sentencing patterns, before turning to a more detailed exploration of sentencing guidelines, and of the key issues identified above. The chapter addresses two critical questions: What is sentencing (namely who exerts the power to punish)? Does sentencing in the UK measure up to appropriate standards of fairness and consistency?


1988 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 281-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. D. O'Brien ◽  
W. C. Shaw

The role of dental and orthodontic auxiliaries in Europe and the United States is reviewed, and the advantages of their employment in the United Kingdom are discussed in terms of increasing the cost-effectiveness of orthodontic treatment provision. A three-stage programme for the evaluation of Orthodontic Auxiliaries in the UK is proposed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-130
Author(s):  
John Hatchard

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (the OECD Convention) entered into force on 15 February 1999. As at 31 May 2017, there were 41 State Parties (the Parties) comprising the thirty-five OECD member countries and six non-member countries.The United Kingdom (UK) ratified the Convention in 1998. The OECD Convention is supplemented by the Revised Recommendations of the Council of the OECD on Combating Bribery in International Business Transactions (the 2009 Recommendations),Annex I of which contains “Good Practice Guidance on Implementing Specific Articles of the Convention.”In March 2017, the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions (the WGB) published its Phase 4 Report on the United Kingdom’s implementation of the OECD Convention (Phase 4 Report).Having provided a short background section on the scope of the OECD Convention and the role of the WGB, the following section will review some of the key recommendations contained in the Phase 4 Report. In the final section, an assessment is made as to how well the UK is doing with regard to the implementation of its OECD Convention obligations.   


2020 ◽  
pp. 205943642098007
Author(s):  
Xiaoling Zhang ◽  
Gareth Shaw

This article addresses one question: how is the coronavirus outbreak and its management in China reported in the UK media in general, and on the Internet in particular? It does so by examining how the online versions of the BBC, the Guardian and the Daily Mail reported on the coronavirus outbreak in China, but more importantly, on how China handled it, over a 20-week timeframe. The sentiment analysis and thematic analysis show that although the selected media are of different types in the United Kingdom, the themes and topics are not substantially different from each other. This implies that the general media-consuming public in the United Kingdom would regard China’s handling of the virus as largely negative or neutral. However, the ways of discussing and presenting those topics were subject to variation between the publications, which in turn is reflected in the attitudes and perceptions of their readers.


2021 ◽  
pp. 611-639
Author(s):  
Nick Barlow ◽  
Tim Bale

This chapter examines the United Kingdom’s sole post-war coalition government and how it interacted with the Westminster Model’s assumption of single-party government. It looks at the issue from two perspectives: firstly, how much the usual processes of single-party government changed to accommodate two parties in government, and secondly, how David Cameron’s Conservatives and Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats worked together as parties in government in ways that fitted with the expectations of the Westminster Model. It examines this single example of coalition government in its political and historical contexts, exploring why a coalition occurred in 2010 and how it managed to continue in office for a full parliamentary term. The chapter begins with the comparatively swift process of negotiation through which the coalition was formed, then proceeds to look at how the expectations of that negotiation survived contact with the actual processes of government. It concludes by examining what the procedural and political impacts of the coalition on the UK have been, including the role of the coalition’s Fixed-Term Parliament Act on the stability of it and future governments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 321 ◽  
pp. 01006
Author(s):  
Martin Jackson

The paper presents highlights of the titanium alloy research developments since Ti-2015 (San Diego). The review underlines the strong and collaborative fundamental research conducted at UK universities through strategic government sponsored programmes. The role of advanced characterisation and modelling techniques in order to better understand the effects of deformation, fatigue loading and environment on titanium alloys continues to be world leading. Researchers in the UK are also continuing to develop a range of new alloys, methods of extraction and emerging near net shape processes via casting, powder and wire-fed routes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Fracalossi de Moraes

ABSTRACT In 1964, the UK government imposed an arms embargo on South Africa, which it maintained until the end of the white minority rule. What explains this embargo? Using mainly archival evidence, this paper demonstrates that domestic political dynamics in the United Kingdom mediated the influence of the transnational anti-apartheid and anti-colonial struggles on the British government. The United Kingdom imposed and maintained this embargo due in part to a domestic advocacy network, whose hub was the Anti-Apartheid Movement. The paper provides a comprehensive explanation of an important issue in British foreign policy, the anti-colonial struggle, and Southern Africa's history. There are theoretical implications for foreign policy analysis concerning the role of advocacy networks, interactions between local and global activism, the role of political parties’ ideology and contestation, the effects on foreign policy of changes in a normative environment, the effects of norm contestation, and normative determinants of sanctions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-65
Author(s):  
Charles Nicholas Athill

This article explores attitudes in the United Kingdom towards male dress, grooming and lifestyle choices, in relation to concepts and accusations of pretentiousness.  Taking the recent and broadly defined phenomenon, the ‘hipster’, as a case study, I analyse discourse in the last decade from a range of media that feature hipsterism. Nearly all media coverage of hipsters has focused on men, reflecting gendered cultural prejudices about styles that require a certain level of both cultivation and maintenance. I investigate how parody conveys cultural distaste, which I contend, mask anxieties about the subversion of norms regarding gender and class. I consider the question of classification with regard to hipsters and the role of stereotyping. By drawing on Dan Fox’s (2016) defence of pretentiousness as a catalyst of cultural innovation, I consider taste in relation to authenticity and pretentiousness with regard to what is represented as male hipster adornment. I propose that while attitudes to gender and class have been reformulated, media critique of styles labelled as pretentious reveals entrenched, if repackaged, cultural prejudices and insecurities. 


2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
HOWARD GLENNERSTER

AbstractThe distribution of wealth is widening in many countries and with it the growing importance of inherited wealth. In 1974, a Labour Government came to power in the United Kingdom committed to introducing an annual wealth tax. It left office without doing so. Using the official archives of the time and those of a key advisor this paper traces both the origins of the policy and its fate at the hands of the civil service. It explores two related questions. What does this experience tell us about the role of the civil service in the policy process in the UK and what lessons might be learned by those wishing to tackle the issue of widening wealth disparities today?


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