Britain's Largest Black Newspaper Barred from Olympic Stadium

`The Voice' silenced: Britain's largest black newspaper barred
from Olympic Stadium

by Kunbi Tinuoye

The Grio (NBC News)
July 17, 2012

http://thegrio.com/2012/07/17/the-voice-silenced-britains-largest-black-newspaper-barred-from-olympic-stadium/

Black Britons have expressed outrage that Britain's longest
serving and biggest black newspaper, The Voice, has been
denied accreditation to the Olympic Stadium.

In an interview with theGrio, Sports Editor Rodney Hinds says
staff at the paper "are stunned by the decision" and the
"outpouring of support from our community has been
overwhelming."

The paper's managing director George Ruddock said "he was
extremely disappointed The Voice will not be inside the
stadium," despite the high number of black British athletes on
the national team.

The 2012 Olympics is taking place in East London's
multicultural community and one of the key themes behind
London's Olympic bid was celebrating the diversity of London
and the UK. However, when The Voice applied for accreditation
they received this reply.

"After careful consideration by the Media Accreditation
Committee, we regret to inform you that your application
accreditation for the London 2012 Olympic Games has been
unsuccessful," it wrote in a letter to the paper.

The British Olympics Association (BOA) said it only had space
for 400 journalists and told The Voice it would go on a
waiting list. "we've known about the decision for a while but
with the Olympics just days away we can only assume we've been
sidelined," says Hinds.

Hinds says the decision was taken by the board of the British
Olympics Association and "to his knowledge there are no black
people on that board." He says it important for The Voice to
get access because the stadium is the main venue for track and
field.

An online petition has been launched on behalf of The Voice,
with most saying the decision by the British Olympics
Association is "shocking" and a "disgrace." The story has also
been trending on social networking sites.

According to an article on The Voice website, the paper "has
been inundated with messages of support from readers, MPs,
campaigners, celebrities and journalists who started their
career at the newspaper."

Simon Woolley, chief executive of Operation Black Vote, told
The Voice, "I hope that the games authorities will rethink
their position. Without The Voice there, there is no black
British perspective on the games. The Mirror, The Sun and The
Guardian will not report the same story."

Hinds says the paper is now reaching out to black Members of
Parliament and high-profile minority individuals to support
their campaign to reverse the decision.

The Voice was founded in 1982 by Jamaican-born accountant Val
McCalla. Over the past 30 years, it has been an important
training ground for minority journalists, where novice writers
are given the opportunity to cut their teeth and develop
before landing coveted Fleet Street or broadcast journalist
jobs. High-profile black British journalists, such as Rageh
Omaar and Dotun Adabayo, have all passed through the paper.

The Voice offices are in London's Docklands, just a stone's
throw away from Stratford's Olympic stadium. The paper is the
only national weekly black weekly newspaper in the UK.

TheGrio attempted to contact the BOA but received no response.

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