Moral outrage for Advertiser?

Word reaches lovecroydon that certain groups in Croydon are not overly impressed with the front page of this week’s Croydon Advertiser (is anyone ever?).
The source is anonymous so perhaps we should take this with a pinch of salt, time will tell. They claim that local politicians and a group that campaigns against human trafficking – particularly in the sex trade – are ‘very unhappy’ about the expose of a brothel in West Croydon.
We are yet to see any public pronouncements about this, of course, but we think it merits discussion.
After ‘making his excuses and leaving’, Advertiser reporter Gareth Davies labelled it sinister and raised the question of how it could be allowed to operate – next to Help the Aged of all places!
The source of the indignation is said to be the apparent contradiction in a newspaper that carries classified ads for prostitutes in the back pages railing against brothels on the front.
But there’s more to this than meets the eye.
The group – Croydon Community Against Trafficking – launched a campaign some years ago to try and get both local newspapers to drop sex ads it claimed were linked to human trafficking.
After some persuasion and pressure from big knobs like Andrew Pelling the Croydon Guardian dropped them.
People will always be willing to pay/sell sex but CCAT established beyond doubt, and the police backed them up, that some of the ads were for establishments that used women who were there against their will.
The Croydon Guardian was rightly congratulated for taking a stand, and a loss in revenue from the lucrative advertisements (they pay more than your average ad rates).
Unlike the Advertiser, which held firm in the face of criticism which has never really gone away.
It will be interesting to see if the Guardian takes the opportunity to have another pop at its rival and to raise the issue again.
Davies will probably (rightly in our opinion) say that he had little choice but to investigate. Imagine if he’d ignored the story because of the ads in the back of his paper which he has no control over? He’d be accused of a cover up.
lovecroydon can see both sides, but is eagerly awaiting any developments of this yarn, particularly if people are as miffed as our anonymous source claims.

For more on human trafficking, check out CCAT’s website http://www.theccat.com/home.html here

Do you think the Ad was right to print a story about a brothel while taking advertisements from sex workers? Tell use what you think by commenting below