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.”

Murdoch wrecked lives

Benn added:  “We also need to end the purchasing of the police and strengthen the Labour Party so that it doesn’t need to go to the likes of Murdoch for support.”

Meeting chair David Crouch ( Financial Times) said that the chickens had come home to roost for Murdoch, adding: “He won’t go easily.  So many peoples’ lives have been wrecked by the Murdoch media.”

NUJ General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet pointed out that in just three weeks the incestuous relations between politicians and the police have been exposed.  “The Cameron sound bites about ‘appropriate discussions’ sound just like President Clinton denying that he has sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky,” she added.

“The tentacles of Murdoch’s power have gone too far.  His apologies are particularly hollow.  MPs have been too afraid to expose Murdoch for fear that his papers would publish details of their peccadilloes.

Trade unions uphold journalist ethics

Stanistreet said: “The NUJ has been locked out of Wapping for 25 years – and Murdoch was rewarded with anti-union laws. There is a clear link between banning trade union collective bargaining and the drop in reporting standards. Ethics are not an add-on.  We have long argued for a conscience clause in all agreements to protect journalists.

She was critical of Prime Minister David Cameron’s attack on the BBC, adding: “We want an immediate renegotiation of the licence fee deal. The BBC has announced 20% cuts.  Members are being made compulsorily redundant.  Local newspapers are having the life sucked out of them by greedy employers.

“National titles shouldn’t be at the whim of one man or woman – and the NUJ wants media regulation on our terms.  This is another Wapping moment,” Stanistreet said.

How Murdoch broke the unions

Tony Bug, Assistant General Secretary of Unite, was involved in the Wapping dispute 25 years ago.  He accused Murdoch of starting the race to the bottom, adding: “Murdoch sacked over 5,000 workers.

“Wapping was never about new technology but Murdoch’s world-wide aims.  He planned to break the unions.  He bought the Wapping site in 1979 – and claimed in 1985 that it was being used to produce a new London evening paper, The Post.

“Under the new terms, there was to be no union recognition, no negotiations, no strikes and the ‘right’ of management to sack workers on the spot.  He then bought in a rogue union (the EETPU) and the resources of the Metropolitan Police to get his titles out.

“Murdoch’s executives behaved like the rules of a banana republic,” Bug pointed out.

He praised Labour MPs Tom Watson, Chris Bryant and Ed Miliband for standing up to Murdoch – and called for the abolition of the PCC and the setting up of a Commission on Enquiry to look into cross-media ownership.

Many people had wondered how Murdoch had been allowed to get away with his non-union stance.  Bug pointed out that the Blair Government quietly slipped in a clause in the Fairness at Work laws to allow company-controlled staff associations instead of independent trade unions where they already existed.

Bug said: “This is why Murdoch set up NISA at Wapping.  To get rid of it, News International employees would need to start a derecognition ballot.  We must make sure that Wapping never happens again.”

Reform the media and police

Many in the audience supported calls for a big trade union demonstration on Wapping.

One Liverpool supporter who witnessed the Hillsborough disaster and The Sun’s lies about it being caused by Liverpool supporters said that even mentioning the name of The Sun still made him feel sick and angry.  He added that the reporting by the Murdoch media caused revulsion throughout Merseyside.  Even to this day, many people up there refused to buy or read a Murdoch title.

Darren Burke, FoC of the South Yorkshire Press, said that even a few weeks ago he never thought that he would be leading a strike.  Some of the papers in dispute are in Labour Leader Ed Miliband’s constituency.  The owners had a Chairman on £1 million a year while trainees received as little as £12,000 a year.  He added: “I want journalists’ pay discussed in any inquiry into media ownership”.

Lawyer Matt Foot said he would be representing the many students who were facing court over recent protests over tuition fees in London.  He added: “The resignation of Sir Paul Stevenson as Metropolitan Police Commission is supposed to be about his integrity.  He enjoyed five weeks free hospitality worth £12,000 at a health spa.

“Retired Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick said that this was strictly against the rules.  Sir Paul was wined and dined by News International on six occasions as well as finding time to go into The Guardian’s offices and berate its staff for their coverage of his police force.

“Sir Paul also said that his policy was to take a professional and restrained approach to student demos.  More than 60 protestors were injured, compared with 20 police officers. More than 200 students were arrested on minor charges – yet they were dealt with by the counter-terrorism police,” Mr Foot said.

The TUC is hosting an exhibition to mark the 25^th Anniversary of the Wapping dispute at Congress House.  Two printers have just published their memoires of the dispute.  One said that he hoped it would help bring down Murdoch.

The hacking scandal has revealed News International’s influence at the top of British politics, its corruption of police and illegal pursuit of stories that harm ordinary people. The Murdochs have enriched themselves at the expense of others’ misery and used their powerful media empire to attack trade unionists; support illegal wars; fuel racism, sexism and homophobia and demand that governments carry out free market policies at the expense of our welfare services.

Tony Benn, NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet, campaigning lawyer Matt Foot, and Merlin Emmanuel from the Justice for Smiley Culture  (who was killed in police custody), will address the meeting with plenty of time for contributions from the floor about how to reveal and fight the corruption of the press, politicians and police and what sort of media we want.

All welcome.

Tuesday 26 July at 7pm, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R (nearest tube Holborn).

The student demonstration was the largest daytime demonstration for a generation and the biggest student protest for many years. It showed the real anger with the Con-Dem proposals to increase tuition fees.

Bad press

The witch-hunt is part of a campaign against other workers who have been in dispute. The firefighters (FBU), tube workers (RMT) and even NUJ members at the BBC have been the subject of bias reporting, wilful exaggerations and untruths.

Their legitimate grievances in disputes have been ignored, instead we have stories about firefighters striking for £10,000 more (untrue, the dispute was never about pay), tube drivers standing in the way of progress (when the dispute is about safety and staff working at stations) and BBC staff striking to defend gold-plated pensions.

We also note that prominent members of the NUJ have been attacked in the Sun newspaper for their trade union work.

These students and workers are under attack because they have fought back against the Con-Dem government and its supporters.

Role of journalists

The NUJ Left recognises that journalists have many different political views and work for a variety of media outlets. However, in the face of government, police and even employer pressure there is a danger that journalistic independence becomes compromised, particularly in the eyes of the mass of people who support the protesters.

It is therefore important to maintain:

1)   Fair and accurate reporting with both sides of the story being reported fairly.
2)   Reporting of facts rather than hearsay or rumour.
3)   Interviews, reports and footage of events are the personal property of the journalist. Legally, the police need a court order to obtain film of photos of events and such material should not be handed over without one. However, Furthermore, the NUJ code of conduct says: “A journalist protects the identity of sources who supply information in confidence and material gathered in the course of her/his work.”

The NUJ strongly advises journalists not to hand over any material and will defend any journalist who refuses, any journalist who is asked should seek the advice of the union.

The London Photographers Branch has put out guidance on defending sources and material.

Journalists have also successfully challenged an editorial line on occasions. Please contact the union if you feel uncomfortable with what you are expected to write, edit or sub.

Defence of trade unionism

There will be many more disputes and demonstrations in the next few years and it is important that journalistic quality and standards are maintained when reporting them.

We would also encourage media workers to meet with strikers or demonstrators who are attacked in the press to find out their side of the story.

We will also defend any union member who is persecuted for carrying out their union duties such as supporting industrial action, striking or given support to other workers.

There will be a protest in support of Charles from 9.30am onwards at the courts, and a solidarity picket in Manchester outside the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal offices, Moseley Street, Manchester, M1 4AH.

Charles will also be speaking at the NUJ Left meeting on Saturday afternoon in central London.

Below is the press release from Waltham Forest Trades Council in support for Charles.

WALTHAM FOREST UNIONS SUPPORT JOURNALIST FACING DEPORTATION

Waltham Forest Trades Council formally gave it’s support to Charles Atangana, a journalist and NUJ member fighting deportation to Cameroon two days before his case goes before a High Court judge.

Investigative journalist Charles Atangana, a thorn in the side of the Cameroonian regime, fled to the UK six years ago after being imprisoned and tortured for his exposes of government corruption. Having continued to receive death threats from the regime while in exile, he is seeking a Judicial Review of the Home Office decision to send him back.

Last night (October 5th) Charles spoke at a meeting of Waltham Forest Trade Union Council – just the latest in a round of visits to trade unionists nationally. Charles has received solid support from east London trades unionists since he was moved by the Home Office to a hostel in Barking. It’s the third place he’s been told to live since he was released on bail from detention at the Dover immigration removal centre in August.

Dave Knight, President of Waltham Forest Trades Council said: “We are very pleased to help Charles in his fight to avoid deportation to a country where his life could well be under threat. He has been resident in the UK for four years now so surely the only sensible thing to do is for the courts to let him stay.”

Charles’ friends and supporters will be demonstrating outside the Royal Courts of Justice in The Strand this Thursday calling for Charles to be allowed to stay in the UK.

Dave Knight, Waltham Forest Trades Council. 020 8496 4703, Sarah Kavanagh, NUJ. 020 7843 6381

More information on Charles’ case.

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear (second from left) leads a delegation to the Ukrainian Embassy, London, in 2008 on the anniversary of the murder of journalist Gyorgy Gongadze. (Marc Vallée, 2008)

Campaigners in the UK will mark the 10th anniversary of the abduction and be-heading of Ukrainian internet journalist Gyorgy Gongadze this week by demanding answers about the investigation into his death.

A delegation from the National Union of Journalists will visit the Ukrainian embassy at 60 Holland Park, London, W11 3SJ, at 11am on Thursday September 16.

The NUJ has been at the forefront of the international campaign to bring the instigators of Gongadze’s murder to justice, and supported the founding of an independent trade union for Ukrainian media workers.

The importance of the campaign to bring those who ordered Gongadze’s killing to justice was grimly underlined in recent weeks by the disappearance, and feared murder, of investigative reporter Vasily Klimentyev in Kharkov, Ukraine, on August 11.

Impunity of Ukrainian elite

Simon Pirani, and NUJ activist who specialises in covering the former Soviet Union, said: “The Gongadze case is a classic example of the impunity of powerful people who instigate violence against journalists.

“The instigators of Gongadze’s murder were at the very top of the Ukrainian political pyramid. Former president Leonid Kuchma, current parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn and some of their cronies discussed harming him – shortly before he was kidnapped, beaten, strangled and beheaded by a gang of policemen.

“The gang leader, Aleksei Pukach, is now awaiting trial, and three of his accomplices are serving prison sentences – but the instigators of the crime have never been brought to justice.

“The conversations in Kuchma’s office about harming Gongadze are known to the world, because Mykola Melnychenko, a former presidential bodyguard, released tape recordings of them two months after the murder.”

Latest revelations

In the last few days it has been reported that chief suspect Pukach claims he was ordered by internal affairs minister Yuri Kravchenko to kill Gongadze.

Kravchenko is alleged to have shot himself – twice – in March 2005.

Simon said: “This information raises more questions than it answers. Can it credibly be claimed that no one else within the internal affairs ministry was involved? What relationship did the Gongadze case bear to other illegal activities by groups within the internal affairs ministry at the time?

“On whose authority and with whose knowledge did Kravchenko give such orders? Does this information not necessitate a re-examination of the extremely strange circumstances of Kravchenko’s own death?”

Disappearance of Vasily Klimentyev

In the 10  years since Gongadze’s murder, Ukrainian media has grown to operate relatively freely – particularly on the internet, where Ukrainska Pravda, the site he founded, is leader among many high-quality news sites. Even TV has a greater variety of reporting than in Russia.

But the disappearance nearly three weeks ago of Vasily Klimentyev, 67, editor of Novy Stil (New Style), a muckraking local paper in Kharkov, is a sober reminder of the dangers facing journalists who try to expose corruption in high places.

The International Federation of Journalists, the Gongadze Foundation, the Institute of Mass Information and the NUJ have produced four reports on the Gongadze case, which can be downloaded here: http://www.ifj.org/en/articles/joint-statement-on-ninth-anniversary-of-gyorgy-gongadze-s-death <http://www.ifj.org/en/articles/joint-statement-on-ninth-anniversary-of-gyorgy-gongadze-s-death>

There is also the importance of safety for journalists reporting from conflict zones. Health and safety issues are also one of the main reasons why people join trade unions. A well organised union with safety reps can help reduce injuries at work.

That is why trade unionists should consider becoming health and safety reps. The NUJ has produced this web page that has links to material about health and safety at work and how to become an effective rep on the issue.

There was also the seasonal crystal ball gazing which included:

twitter predictions from industry types at Journalism.co.uk

115 predictions for the media and magazines in 2010

what 2010 has in store for social media and so more on social media and business to business publishing

The Los Angeles Times on what might happen to the media in the US

that’s just a taste but there are plenty more predictions, mainly focusing on social media.

Meanwhile, the NUJ Left’s five predictions for 2010 and beyond are:

1) The Tories (if they get in) will outlaw raising your eyebrows ironically at a bosses’s unfair request

2) The Large Hadron Collider will reveal the Murdoch clan to be physical manifestations of the Higgs Bosun particle

3) Any photographer within 10 miles of the police will be slammed in jail and made to wear a heavy iron mask just like in the Alexander Dumas novel

4) Boshtosh Five, the new social media networking tool which facilitates handshaking, plutocracy, the novels of HP Lovecraft, online scrabble playing and world domination will conquer the globe unknowingly. It will replace everything, everywhere and at the same time but differently. Social media commentators will develop buboes with the excitement of it all

5)  Media workers will suffer even more job losses, pay freezes, erosion of job satisfaction and some will fightback and win

I am banking on one of them

Happy holidays and a good new year and in if your in the NUJ then please join the NUJ left

Meanwhile at the BBC, the NUJ branch has secured pay rises for six members of staff who had been historically underpaid for the jobs. The victory may lead to more cases of staff who are acting up or underpaid for their job winning pay rises. More here

The meeting starts at 12 noon in Lecture Room 1 in Queen Mary & Westfield College, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS [map].

Speakers include Tim Gopsill, who’s leaving the post of editor of the NUJ’s magazine, The Journalist, after 21 years, will talk about radicalism in the history of the union and how changes in the ownership of the media have impacted on journalism.

Human rights journalist, Donnacha DeLong, will talk about how activists can improve their presence in the media. Simon Saunders, who’s worked for the Evening Star and more recently the Morning Star, will compare working for such fundamentally different types of newspapers. Other speakers may be added before Saturday.

Unfortunately, Pete Lazenby, who has been advertised as speaking at the event, had to pull out due to an important union meeting closer to home.

NUJ members might also be interested in the big debate from 4-6 on “Capitalisms present crisis – how will it end?” featuring Paul Mason, BBC Newsnight and author of Meltdown; John Holloway, author of change the world without taking power; and William Dixon, Mute magazine contributor.

The London Anarchist Bookfair is an annual event that is a combination of stalls, talks and workshops organised by anarchist and other radical groups.

NUJ member Arifa Farooq, who used her sister’s name to apply for jobs, helped to uncover malpractice by companies caring for elderly people at home.

The necessity of this kind of work is shown by the fact the Scottish parliament’s local government committee has been investigating the issues around elder care raised by the Panorama progamme that Arifa worked on.

While there should never have been any threat of prosecution, Arifa and her BBC and NUJ colleagues deserve our praise for their resolute defence of quality journalism.