The phone-tapping scandal is the beginning of a popular movement for a free Press, Labour veteran Tony Benn told a packed public meeting last week in London (see previous post), writes Chris Youett.

Speaking at a meeting organised by the NUJ and pressure group Defend the Right to Protest at Conway Hall, former BBC current affairs journalist Benn added: “The influence of Rupert Murdoch is so baleful.  He has been a very negative force in British politics.  He is the most powerful man in the world.

“Governments don’t want us to know anything about what they did for 30 years – and the phone-tapping scandal is the beginning of a movement for a free Press.”

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Journalists at the Observer will ballot for industrial action in the event of any compulsory redundancies, the chapel has pledged.

Joint father of the newly-merged Guardian and Observer chapel, Brian Williams, told tonight’s hugely-successful Stand Up for the Observer public meeting that NUJ members would fight to save jobs at the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper.

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There’s a reason why the Daily Mail has traditionally paid its staff relatively well – and it’s not because it’s a benevolent employer.

Reporters know that in working for the Mail you hand over a little piece of your soul when you file your copy.

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Guardian Media Group activists in Manchester have launched a petition as part of their campaign to save their jobs and newsrooms.

Management at the Manchester Evening News group want to make almost 80 journalists redundant and close all the offices of its Greater Manchester weekly titles.

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