Skip to main content

Wapping: The Workers' Story

Help us make it happen Donate to FoD

In partnership with the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom (North)

Wapping: The Workers' Story is a powerful film which tells the inside story of what happened at Wapping in January 1986. When Rupert Murdoch moved production of his newspapers from central London's Fleet Street to Wapping overnight, 5,500 men and women lost their jobs and he provoked a year-long dispute.

The film helps us to understand how Murdoch began his remorseless rise to global media power as a result of Wapping. After the film there will be a short discussion session with Ann Field of the News International Disputes Archive and Mirror Journalist Paul Routledge, a Wapping 'refusenik' in 1986. The session will be chaired by MediaNorth editor Granville Williams.

Ann Field was at the centre of the Wapping dispute in 1985-86 and played a key role in creating the exhibition and News International Dispute Archive for the 25th anniversary of the strike.

Paul Routledge now writes for the Daily Mirror, but worked for The Times when the Wapping dispute started.

Granville Williams edits MediaNorth.

The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom is an independent voice for media reform. We work to promote a diverse, democratic and accountable media.

Part of our 2021 festival strand

Putting Citizens in the Lead