TV enters row over Lawrence murder
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.THE media campaign against five men last week publicly accused by the Daily Mail of the murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence went a stage further last night.
Channel 4 brought forward a documentary on the killing, originally due to be televised on 1 March, which claimed to show at least three of the five making obscene racist remarks and demonstrating violent stabbing moves with combat knives.
The scenes were taken from a surveillance video made by police trying to establish a motive for the killing and were captured by a camera hidden in the home of one of the five.
C4 executives made their last-minute decision to show the documentary, The Stephen Lawrence Story, at a meeting on Friday morning. A spokesman for the channel said the programme was brought forward out of a feeling of public duty, rather than as a response to the front-page coverage in the Daily Mail that day.
"Our programme is a measured account of the way the Stephen Lawrence case has developed over the last four years. We do not want to be bracketed with the Daily Mail," he said.
"We did show the video and we did name the individuals who were the subject of the public prosecution, but we are not screaming 'Murderers!'"
The programme-makers will not reveal exactly how they acquired the police video, but they stand by their decision to include the footage, although it is impossible to be certain of the identities of all the men in view.
"In the light of the inquest this week, I think it was important and correct to show this footage," said the producer of the documentary, Peter Lee-Wright.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments