Giving Britain’s Black Communities a real Voice

December 18th, 2006

I went to my first Christmas party on Friday, at the GV Media Headquarters, home to the Voice Newspaper, which reports on issues of importance and interest to Britain’s African, Caribbean and Black British communities.

I’ve been reading the Voice since I was little so it was really great to visit its headquarters and have a snoop around the newsroom.

The highlight of my visit was hanging out with Dominic Bascombe (pictured with me above) – the best journalist in the world! In the past, the Black press has been been criticised for over featuring pages of celebrity news and sports gossip, with very little focus on politics or current affairs. Dominic, who is the Chief Political Correspondent of the Voice, is a visible symbol that those days are over.

Dominic is a joy to speak to. He’s always interested in writing stories about UK political issues and gives a real voice to UK Black politicians – local, regional and national – who are do not have “old boy network” connections into the “Westminster Village” and therefore would not have the chance to share their views with a wider audience otherwise.

Myself and other Black Labour party members are always lobbying the leadership of the Labour party to cultivate newspapers like the Voice in the same way they do the Independent and the Guardian, because in many marginal parliamentary seats all over the country the Black vote will decide whether it is Labour or the Tories who return the next MP at the next General Election.

Offering superb journalists like Dominic more interviews like this excellent recent interview with Gordon Brown would go some way to reassuring Black Labour party members and our communities that the Labour party is not taking our traditionally rock solid support for granted.

To read the Voice Newspaper, go to www.voice-online.co.uk

Posted in: Media