Anti-capitalism campaigners distribute spoof edition of Financial Times

March 27, 2009

Anti-capitalism campaigners in London have published a spoof edition of the Financial Times today as Britian prepares to host next week's G20 summit in London.

The 12-page paper, complete with the slogan "We live on Financial Crimes" – a parody of the FT's advertising strapline "We Live in Financial Times" – was handed out to commuters from dawn today at London's Waterloo station.

A full-colour replica of the "Pink 'Un", the paper features spoof British and international news. A pdf version, photos and videos are available at www.ft2020.com.

The front-page splash announces that "Civilisation is 'more or less unlikely to collapse this century', world leaders warn, despite the inconvenience to companies from global carbon rationing".

"Tens of thousands of copies were printed – almost as many as the FT sells here daily," anti-capitalism campaigners said in a press release handed out with the spoof paper at Waterloo.

"This coup was aimed at everyone's excuses for apathy. Unless we change the way we live radically, we'll make our world uninhabitable within decades. It's time for drastic action, and if governments won't take it, we have to do something ourselves."

"Journalists frame public debate, and the City frames public policy," said Raoul Djukanovic, who edited the fake FT. "If they reframed their thinking, they could help build a different world instead of conning us with lifestyle porn and bubbles."

Djukanovic told MediaGuardian.co.uk he completed the project largely on his own after teaching himself to use the computer programs InDesign and Photoshop.

"I think it is to encourage journalists to think about what they can do to promote constructive solutions," he said. "It's their job to support facts and not opinions, but a lot of what's reported as facts are actually the opinions of powerful people. If the prime minister says something, it's news. If I say something, it's not news."

In a statement on the website, they state:

This special edition of the Financial Times is brought to you with 2020 hindsight.

It was written by the Editor and his Chief Correspondent, and published with assistance from unnamed others.

The print edition was laid out in a trial copy of Adobe′s InDesign CS4, and the website built on Wordpress. Neither of these organisations support us.

Everyone worked for free, and it′s all cost us thousands of pounds more than we can afford. So if you like it, please chip in. Any surplus will go to Not Stupid.

Our efforts were inspired in part by The Yes Men, The Age of Stupid and Ed Miliband, who says it′s our job to tell him to do his properly.

We hope this inspires you to do something.

The spoof is online at http://ft2020.com/


For more information contact:
ft2020
Email: newsdesk@ft2020.com.
Website: ft2020.com/

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• Advocacy Groups
• Capitalism
• Journalism
• Media Analysis and Criticism
• News
• News Coverage
• Newspapers