After two years, the No More Page 3 campaign is the closest it's ever been to victory

Rupert Murdoch finally seems prepared to bring The Sun into the 21st Century

Protest against Page 3 outside The Sun’s offices in east London (Getty Images)

Following two promising Tweets from Rupert Murdoch this week, I’m not the only one who’s confident that Page 3 will be meeting its end soon. And, after two years of campaigning, and 203,000 signing a petition for it to be dropped, it’s about bloody time.

This week Murdoch tweeted: “Brit feminists bang on forever about page 3. I bet never buy the paper. I think old fashioned but readers seem to disagree.” He then went on to say, “Page 3 again. Aren’t beautiful young women more attractive in at least some fashionable clothes? Your opinions please.”

In my opinion, Murdoch seems to have completely missed the point. We’re asking that women be valued for their actions rather than their physical appearance. We’re not interested in commenting on the “attractiveness” of women in the news. We’re asking that women be treated the same way as men. However, despite still being annoyingly sexist, Murdoch does seem to be reconsidering the value of the Page 3 image. And that’s a huge step towards victory for the campaign.

As someone who regularly has The Sun in their household, I am fed up of seeing Page 3. My parents have bought the paper ever since I was a kid and they still buy it now. They don’t like Page 3; I don’t like Page 3; my grandparents, who also buy The Sun, don’t like Page 3.

It’s not difficult for people to access pornographic images of women. There are specialist magazines, books, TV channels, and an abundance of free content online, if you're so inclined. Page 3 never should have had a place in a “family” newspaper, but now we're in the digital age, it existence seems even more unneccessary. As more and more people are recognising the need for greater gender equality, Page 3 is looking ridiculous, sexist and representative of an era we’re all trying to move forward from.

The No More Page 3 campaign is supported by a massive range of organisations, including Girl Guiding, UNISON, Mumsnet, Breast Cancer UK, The Scottish Parliament, Rape Crisis, and the UK’s 4 biggest teaching unions, to name a few.While The Sun loses popularity, No More Page 3 is gaining more and more momentum.

The petition is rapidly gathering signatures and all the pressure seems to be getting to Murdoch. Sales of The Sun have dropped 26% since 2011. Of course, this is a time when all print circulations are falling. Yet The Sun's closest rival, the Daily Mail, has only suffered a 17 per cent fall in its circulation over the same period of time.

There’s no way to prove that The Sun’s dramatic drop in sales has anything to do with people getting fed up of Page 3. But if the campaign wasn’t such a threat to the paper's circulation, Murdoch wouldn’t pay the slightest bit of attention to us.

But he is. We’re bothering him. His tweets are an indication that the issue of Page 3 really is on his mind. With Murdoch in a muddle, we’re reaching the final stages of the campaign. There may have been Page 3 today, and there will still be tomorrow, but thankfully, I don’t think we’ll be seeing it for much longer.