Racist headlines? Daily Mail addresses UK Filipinos

LONDON – Filipinos in London gathered in front of the Daily Mail’s office on Deery Street in Kensignton on May 30 to protest what they called “racist” headlines and irresponsible journalism.” The protest drew about 300 health workers and other community supporters.

They demanded a public apology from the tabloid for “besmirching the reputation and character of Filipino workers in the UK.”  

The organizers said that they believe Chua’s nationality should be irrelevant.  “We would accept a reference to Chua being of Filipino ethnicity within the body of the story, however the Daily Mail referred to Chua as a ‘Filipino serial killer’ in the title of the news article is uncalled for.”

It wasn’t quite a public apology, but by June 1, the Daily Mail e-mailed the organizers, saying that they were “sorry if offense has inadvertently been taken by some Filipino people.”

Charles Garside, the Daily Mail‘s assistant editor added, “I am therefore pleased to assure you once again that we had no wish to cause any offence to Filipino and should we be considering further articles on the matter will bear your comments in mind when composing headlines.”

The Daily Mail covered the trial and conviction of 49-year-old Victorino Chua.

The nurse who worked at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, was found guilty of murdering two patients and poisoning 20 others from 2011 to 2012.  

According to investigators, Chua poisoned patients by injecting insulin into medical products like saline ampoules and bags. He was sentenced to life in prison in May.

But Garside said that he does not believe his publication’s reporting was biased by referring to Chua as a “Filipino nurse.”

“Had he been Nigerian, Dutch, or Scottish,” Mr Garside said in a letter addressed to one of the organizers, “the use of a ‘shorthand’ word to indicate his [ethnic] background is standard journalistic practice.”

It really does not imply to readers that “all Filipino nurses are likely to be poisoners and murderers, just as it would not have been a smear on all Nigerian nurses or nurses from Scotland.”

The other headline, a story titled “NHS still hiring Filipino nurses,” questioned the credibility of the health workers. Protestors said that the published story suggests that “there is something intrinsically wrong with the UK’s National Health Service employing Filipino nurses.”

A Change.org petition which circulated on social media demanded that the Daily Mail not post stories “generalizing” Filipino nurses. The petition reached its goal of 7,000 signatures as of this posting.

A Filipino nurse at the protest told Rappler that many nurses and other Filipinos have experienced racist remarks after the Daily Mail published those stories, and they believe that their reputation has been tarnished.  

Rodd Matamis, a charge nurse at The Royal Free Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London, has been working in the UK for 14 years.  

He told Rappler that while he has not personally experienced any discrimination, he is very much aware that it does exist in the UK.

Experiencing shortage of health care workers in the 1990s, the UK’s National Health Service began recruiting workers from the Philippines to fill the void.  

In January alone, the Philippine Labor attaché in London received about 220 nursing job orders in 3 hospitals in the UK. According to to the Philippine Embassy in London, there are now at least 200,000 Filipinos in the UK.  

Seventy percent of  Filipinos in the UK live and work in Greater London area and across England. Others live in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.  – Rappler.com