Stop Funding Hate is a blueprint to enable everyone to become an upstander against hatred; to ensure we can all live in a world that respects diversity and difference. We know that without the work of Stop Funding Hate supporters the damage from hateful rhetoric to communities would be significantly worse. We are proud of what we have achieved together in a short space of time.
From the outset, Stop Funding Hate has been committed to challenging all forms of hate within the media.
However, it has become clear that our current legal status constrains us from performing this role effectively.
When Stop Funding Hate first launched in 2016, anti-migrant sentiment in the UK press was heavily driven by particular newspaper editors – in particular at the Daily Mail, Sun and Daily Express. The primary motivation for this was – at least in part – often commercial. By 2018, the volume of anti-migrant front pages had fallen dramatically – with both the Daily Express and Daily Mail publicly committing to moderating their approach in order to assuage advertisers’ concerns.
But in recent years, this problem has begun to re-emerge in a new form. Amid an increasingly heated public discourse, a large proportion of the inflammatory front pages we’ve seen in UK newspapers have directly referenced a comment from a politician, or a heavily-contested policy:
Stop Funding Hate is proud to be a non-partisan campaign which draws support from across the political spectrum.
It is nonetheless vital that we are able to call out all forms of hate within the media – including when a problematic message within a particular newspaper headline originates with a politician. The lines are further blurred with professional politicians employed as presenters on GB News and TalkTV.
As a Community Interest Company (CIC), Stop Funding Hate is governed by rules which limit us from doing anything that could be seen to either support or oppose any government policy, or which might affect support for a particular political party. We are effectively unable to tackle media content quoting toxic rhetoric coming directly from politicians.
This has meant that Stop Funding Hate has been unable to call out many of the most problematic headlines which have appeared on UK newspaper front pages in recent years.
Stop Funding Hate supporters are right to expect that we campaign against media hate without fear or favour.
This is all the more important at a time when hateful rhetoric within UK public discourse is again escalating.
We need to change to effectively tackle these issues that are causing real problems to individuals and damaging community cohesion. The Stop Funding Hate campaign will now be taken forward by a new legal entity, which holds non-profit status as a Company Limited By Guarantee (the same status held by groups such as Led By Donkeys and the Good Law Project), but is fully independent, and is not constrained by the rules relating to either Community Interest Companies or UK charities.
Our climate-focussed spin-off campaign, Stop Funding Heat, is already run by such an entity, Reliable Media. Our plan is that Stop Funding Hate and Stop Funding Heat be brought together under the Reliable Media “umbrella”, with a combined Board overseeing both campaigns. There is common ground for both organisations including the promulgation of misinformation and conspiracy theories to mislead and damage communities.
Stop Funding Hate is above all an idea – and a community of people committed to taking that idea forward – rather than being tied to a single organisational entity or structure.
By bringing Stop Funding Hate and Stop Funding Heat together, we will be able to consolidate our resources and campaign more effectively across the full range of hate and misinformation within UK public discourse and beyond.
Our mission and core values will remain the same, the same people remain involved, we will remain avowedly non-partisan, and our Board is now expanded to include expertise in climate change and hate crime. We believe the work is now more important than ever – the issues more pressing and the dangers more critical. We can now campaign against all forms of hate within the UK media – and beyond – without fear or favour.
One thing has not changed – Stop Funding Hate needs your support and energy. Together we have made a real difference and we want you to be part of this next stage in our journey. We need you to be pro-active now and sign up to our e-mail list to ensure you are kept informed.
We would also encourage you to forward this update to friends and family. The bigger we are the more potent we can be – together we can challenge lies, hatred and prejudice.