ABSTRACT
Every day there are thousands of meetings throughout Britain. Many are private,many are open to the public, but only a few are covered by the press. An under-lying news value system operates to determine which meetings are covered, which are ignored. Some meetings, such as those of parliament, local councils and their various committees, occur on a regular basis and are covered routinely. Details are logged in news-desk diaries and they are often covered by specialists. Many peace organisations (focusing on nuclear weapons, Iraq, Kosovo or East Timor) hold regular public meetings (and occasional conferences) throughout the UK but these are not usually covered on any routine basis, given their relatively low status in traditional news values.
