Pressure group set up by Black and Asian media professionals.

The Guardian reported:

“Blacks in media campaign

A campaign to attract more black people into newspapers and television will be launched today by the first professional organisation of black journalists and broadcasters.

The Black Media Workers’ Association intends to lobby employers and unions in the media on questions of black employment, inaccurate reporting about race and Third World countries, and equal opportunity policies.

The association hopes to attract between 50 and 90 black journalists, broadcasters, and technicians to the one-day conference in London.

The number of black journalists working in provincial and local London papers has increased on the past few years, but the journalists on national newspapers from ethnic minorities can be counted in single figures.

The story, according to a member of the association, is much the same in television. A black journalist working in the newsroom of one television company said: ‘I’m the only black among about 100 other workers here and in the two years since I’ve been here not another black has been hired.'”

Source: Lindsay Mackie, ‘Blacks in media campaign’, The Guardian, 28 Feb 1981