Joseph Harker: Laughable to say British press not racist

There is a "tradition" of racism in the British press, Joseph Harker, deputy opinion editor at the Guardian has said.

Mr Harker, who is also a former publisher and editor of Black Britain told BBC World News it was a "laughable claim" to suggest the press was not racist in the UK.

"You can look at any number of front page stories from any number of the UK tabloids and many of the so-called quality papers and see there is racist story after racist story," Mr Harker said.

He criticised the "knee jerk" reaction from the Society of Editors who had said the newspapers were not bigoted after the Duke of Sussex had said racism from the tabloid press had filtered into the rest of society and was a "large part" of why he and his wife left the UK.

The board of the Society of Editors has recently said it will “work towards being part of the solution" after coming under fire for its initial reaction to Meghan and Harry’s interview.