Salford Star closure – how Salford council tried to block and discredit the Star

The Salford Star has shut down. This article is a warning to others who may follow, on the pitfalls of founding a genuine publication that aims to give the community a voice and hold public bodies up to account. They will try to discredit you, block information and shut you down.

Here the Salford Star editor, Stephen Kingston, looks at how democracy perished badly under the Salford mayoral system.

Loughinisland massacre: journalists arrested, killers remain free

The Northern Irish police told grieving families of the victims of the Loughinisland massacre that there would be “no stone unturned” in their pursuit of the paramilitary killers who gunned down six innocent men in 1994. The police lied. What followed was a cruel charade of an investigation, characterised by police collusion with paramilitary informers, […]

Save the Salford Star CD released

After 13 years and over 5,000 articles, the Salford Star is in danger of closing for good, as the company will run out of money at the end of November. The Salford Star gets no funding and only exists thanks to donations from readers. Now, the Sounds of Salford radio, which began with a feature […]

The Meteor Explores: Homelessness in Manchester

To see all the articles in this series, click here. Homelessness is a visibly growing problem in Manchester. When asked what concerns Mancunians have about their city, homelessness was one of the top issues mentioned. The Meteor has subsequently covered a range of stories relating to homelessness over the past year and have now been […]

Manchester 1, Tories 0: Take Back Manchester Festival outperforms conference in the rainy city

“Get off your arse and do something..” sang the Commoners Choir on Saturday night, at a Partisan pre-protest party entitled ‘Fuck the Tories’. The following day, an estimated 50,000 people got off their collective arse to demonstrate outside the 2017 Conservative Party Conference, under shared slogans of ‘No More Austerity’, ‘Scrap the Pay Cap’ and […]

‘The Meteor Has Landed’ – and wants to hear from you

The Meteor: Manchester’s Alternative Media held its first public event on 24 Feb 2017. Bringing people of Manchester together around films, spoken word and music, the night blended both ancient and modern forms of storytelling to explore media related issues from global to local. A counterweight to mainstream media The Meteor, which is the official […]