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).

That private investigators employed by the News International-owned tabloid could hack the phone of a murdered teenager (giving her parents false hope that she might still be alive and potentially obstructing a criminal investigation), and do likewise to victims of the July 7 bombings, to the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, and to the families of soldiers killed in action almost beggars belief.

But this is more than a story about bad journalistic practice, it is an example of corporate power unchecked, of where rampant profiteering, vicious union-bashing and political manipulation leads.

Murdoch: union buster

Rupert Murdoch derives his wealth and power from his assaults on organised labour, starting when he drove unions out of his company at Wapping in the 1980s.

To break the print unions, and undermine the NUJ, required political support and police assistance. Murdoch received both willingly during the 1986-87 dispute and so cemented a cosy relationship between News International, police and government that has now brought us the latest toxic revelations.

The reluctance of the police in acting over the initial phone hacking allegations – the payments made to individual officers by News International – and the failure of every government since the 1980s to stand up to Murdoch makes sense. It is a case of unaccountable corporate power assisted by government and in cahoots with the police.

This is what “democracy and a free press” in 2011 looks like.  What does this all mean for NUJ members and journalists?

Quality requires strong NUJ

The scandal demonstrates the urgent need for union recognition at News International and all media workplaces. At News International, journalists have no effective source of redress for any concerns they may have about ethics and intimidation (the compliant union at the NOTW the News International Staff Association – NISA – is an ineffective company tool).

By contrast, when the Daily Star tried to run a racist ‘Daily Fatwa’ page early in 2007, the NUJ chapel, led by the now general secretary Michelle Stanistreet, took action to have the page removed. For several years the union has been running its Journalism Matters campaign pointing out that excessive profiteering in the industry goes hand in hand with driving down standards and putting skilled workers on the dole.

NUJ members are bound by the union code of conduct, which stipulates that a journalist “obtains material by honest, straightforward and open means, with the exception of investigations that are both overwhelmingly in the public interest and which involve evidence that cannot be obtained by straightforward means”, and “does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest”. What’s been going on at the News of the World flagrantly breaches those clauses.

Strong unions can make a difference over standards. It is no coincidence that the phone-hacking story was broken by NUJ members, working for a paper, The Guardian, where the NUJ has a strong chapel.

NOTW scandal threatens free press

But there is a danger that the NoTW scandal will be used by government to bring in statutory regulation in order to muzzle the media and stamp down on genuine investigative journalism.

In this, it is helped by the toothless Press Complaints Commission, which has proved to be useless over the phone-hacking scandal and other instances of media bullying. It is run by right-wing editors and political appointees who do nothing to criticise their powerful friends such as Rupert Murdoch

The NUJ’s recent Delegate Meeting in Southport called for the replacement of the PCC with a genuinely independent and democratic regulatory body with teeth. This must now be a priority campaign – unions and the public need a say on a new industry watchdog.

Alternatives to big corporate control

This is a crisis of media control and accountability, not of journalism in general.

The NUJ has been arguing for some time that we need alternative forms of media ownership, that are more accountable, less obsessed with narrow profiteering and give media workers control over the process of production. The union should step up its support for co-operative, mutual and other democratic models, that fully respect union rights, should be stepped up. Whether at News International or Newsquest, the old corporate model fails journalists and the public.

Solely calling for a public inquiry into these allegations of criminality is inadequate. Inquiries usually change little.

We need to campaign for:

• Newscorp’s bid for BskyB to be rejected out of hand. By standing by the former NoTW editor Rebekah Brooks, on whose watch the worst offences took place, Murdoch is showing himself to be not fit and proper to control a major broadcaster.
• Immediate recognition of the NUJ at News International and at other Murdoch-owned workplaces. Full unionisation throughout the entire media. Only strong unions can effectively combat overbearing and unethical managements.
• The NUJ’s code of conduct should become statutory.
• A proper debate and inquiry into media ownership to promote plurality and the interests of media workers and the public

The best response to this crisis is to campaign ever more forcefully for strong unions and journalistic standards.

Statement by Tom for NUJ Left 7/72011

Leaflet for meeting

The provisional agenda is:

1) NUJ disputes.

2) 30 June, the day the civil service union, PCS, and education unions have proposed for  co-ordinated strike action over cuts and pensions.

3) Union matters.

4) Election for post of deputy general secretary of the NUJ. We will hopefully be running a hustings for this post. If any prospective candidate would like to address the meeting them please contact the NUJ Left.

5) AOB, elections for NUJ committee.

There will be a pooled fare where people in London help subsidise travel costs of those from outside London. NUJ members wanting to attend the meeting can join on the door (Joining fee £6, equivalent to six months subs for the NUJ Left).

A map of the venue and directions can be found here

More details will posted nearer the time and the agenda finalised.

Order paper one

The delegate meeting (DM) narrowly voted down a motion to force the NEC to hold annual conferences by 74 votes to 63.  All previous attempts by the NEC to change conference frequency from annual to bi-annual had been heavily defeated in the past. Conference also instructed the NEC to look at ways of increasing the diversity of delegates and preserve trade union culture and to consult branches, national committees and geographic councils.  The NEC is to report back to the next DM.

Order paper two (Broadcasting)

Conference agreed to measures speeding new members into membership and to give branches better information on those who are planning to leave or be lapsed. Conference passed a Motion of No Confidence on BBC Director General Mark Thompson.  Journalists throughout the British Isles at the conference were fed up with his giving into governments, making bigger cuts than Prime Minister David Cameron expected, and trying to close the final salary pension scheme. Delegates were also concern over government threats to the future and quality Welsh language channel, S4C.  The NEC was instructed to campaign with other broadcasting unions and elected representatives to retain staffing levels and programme quality

Order Paper 3 (Equality).

Conference roundly condemned the rise of the Far Right.  In particular the apparent one-sidedness of the police where there are counter-demonstrations.  Journalists, particularly photographers, were increasingly targeted, equipment seized and serious charges brought which were later quietly dropped.

The NEC was instructed to look for ways of improving gender balance, particularly in DM delegations.  It was ordered to report back to the next conference.  There was also concern over the lack of robust government data about working disabled people – and NEC was instructed to campaign for better representation.

Order Paper 4 (Trade Union rights).

Conference passed a joint Fleet Street-Brum & Cov branch motion on trade union rights.  This included instructing the NEC to campaign for the full implementation of Articles 2, 4, 5 & 6 of the European Social Charter, which sets out trade union rights of all European citizens.  A copy of this was circulated. Trinity Mirror Group Chapel’s motion on condemning the increasing use of management contracts to exempt staff from collective bargaining agreements was passed.  The NEC will produce a model policy for all future chapel negotiations.

Oxford Branch’s motion on joint deals with other unions was also passed.  This opposed “sweetheart deals”, endorsed the use of the TUC for arbitrating disputes and extending the hand of solidarity to other workers in the media, including those in Unite.

Order Paper 5 (Discipline)

The NEC is to carry out a review of the union’s disciplinary procedure as the current rules can delay justice being given.  This will include complaints sent to the Ethics Council.

Order Paper 6 (Finance)

Conference instructed the NEC to modify to union’s rules covering members working in the Euro zone.  This is to stop them being unfairly penalised due to changes in the value of the Euro.  The union’s investment policy will also be revised so that it can be used to promote the core values of the NUJ.

Order Paper 7 (Government policies)

A long composite motion was passed condemning government policy and encouraging all trade unionists and their families to oppose the cuts.  Conference agreed that it was wrong for the poorest members of society to pay for a crisis caused by greedy bankers – and that the NEC should lead the campaign against the cuts.  This included a call for a one-day general strike (most likely 30 June). Conference heard that research by the public sector union, PCS, showed that up to £120,000 million of taxes were unpaid and uncollected.  A 20% tax on the nation’s millionaires would enable the National Debt to be paid off in one year.

Conference was very critical of the UK Border Agency’s disgraceful treatment of Charles Atangana (Cameroon, Charles has now one his case), Alieu Ceesay (Gambia) & James Fallah-Williams (Sierra Leone).  All three had sought exile in the UK because they faced death at home.  The President invited all three to address the Delegate Meeting.  The NUJ was one of the first unions to campaign against forced deportations – and will continue in its work and will fight appeals and ensure that exiles are properly represented at a tribunal system that often skimps on British Common Law rights.  The NEC will continue its campaign to let exiles work via the wider labour movement – as well as campaigning for better control of private security firms such as G4S and the bringing to justice of the killers of Angolan refugee Jimmy Mubenga.

Order Paper 8 (Ethics)

There was much concern from conference over the way the European fiscal crisis was being covered.  Media outlets tended to ignore calls for more effective tax collection, whether the cuts were necessary or the impact on the poorest members of society.  Conference also called for an end to attempts by Trinity Mirror to introduce call centre culture via the back door, blogging networks should conform to the Code of Conduct, the need for more impartial coverage of immigration and asylum issues and whether the media should give the Far Right a platform.

There was much anger over the failure of the Press Complaints Commission to deal with the News of the World bugging scandal.  Owner Rupert Murdoch has allocated £80 million to settle cases out of court.  Conference was also appalled that former NoW Editor Andy Coulson was subsequently appointed as No 10′s Director of Communications.  He has since resigned.  There was also the question of his firm’s relationships with the Metropolitan Police who are supposed to be investigating alleged illegal bugging by the paper’s staff and agents.  The NEC is to initiate debate within the union about the future of media regulation and whether the PPC should be spiked and replaced with a more independent & effective regulatory body.

Delegates also urged all members to stand up for balanced reporting standards, particularly where disabled people are being portrayed as “scroungers”, violence by a small minority of protesters at recent demonstrations against the cuts and ignoring the alleged treatment of protestors Alfie Meadows and Jody McIntyre.

Order Paper 9 (Relations with other organisations)

Delegates voted to make it easier for branches to affiliate to their local trades councils. An initiative from members from Ireland to encourage fellow trade unionists & their families to stay at unionised hotels was welcomed.  This is the Fair Hotels Campaign.  Web: www.fairhotels.ie.   It instructed the NEC to encourage UK members to do the same. The Woodcraft Folk was also commended for promoting trade union values.

Order Paper 10 (Organisation)

Much time was spent debating the union’s structure, the make-up of the NEC, whether industrial councils had any relevance or should they be increased, and how to make branches more active with the NEC given the task of looking into ways of reviving branch structures. There was also a call for a Welsh organiser and backing for members over the age of 60 to get involved with the National Pensioners’ Convention.  DM also debated a long composite motion to force all branches to elected a membership official who would be encouraged to attend organising and recruitment courses, ensuring that chapel officers received regular updates on leaves & lapsers, anyone supporting candidates in national elections should publish their membership numbers on election material.

Conference expressed its displeasure that Minutes of NUJ national bodies were still not being posted on the password-protected section of the union’s web site within six months.  There was also concern over the breakdown of relations between Thompsons Scotland and the membership in North Britain.

Order Paper No 11 (International)

The session opened with Colombian journalist Claudia Julieta Duque talking about being a trade unionist in the world’s most dangerous country.  More trade unionists are killed in Colombia each year than in any other country on the planet. There was widespread condemnation of the Israeli Far Right towards attacks on journalists and attempts to stop humanitarian aid getting to Gaza.  This included attempts by Israeli officials to seize material from international journalists so that only the official version could be published.

The Federation of African Journalists was thanked for its work in putting the safety of its members at the heart of the peace and conflict resolution agenda.  There was concern over the Republic of South Africa’s attempts to use laws of the apartheid era as the foundation for its media and information bills.  Conference also condemned attacks on the media in Iran, attacks on civilians in Western Sahara by the Moroccan government.

Conference applauded the work of US unions to oppose attempts by the state legislatures in Wisconsin, Ohio & Indiana, etc to strip public sector works of their collective bargaining rights.  It also warmly applauded the Egyptian workers for forcing Mubarak from office and condemned attempts by the state to close down the media and Internet – and violent attacks on media workers.  The NEC will be working with our sister union in Egypt to improve training for local journalists and help set up an independent broadcaster.

Order Paper 12 (Wages, Payments & Conditions)

A long debate on pensions rejected the main conclusion of the Hutton Review into public service pensions that public sector workers should pay higher contributions.  There was widespread anger over suggestions that most public sector workers enjoyed gold-plated pensions.  In reality, most earned under £25,000 a year, which was was reflected in their low occupational pensions. Trinity Mirror Group Chapel proposed that the Hutton Report’s recommendations should apply to all, not just public sector workers.  This includes a new “double liability” rule to link bonuses to exceptional performance plus better disclosure in annual reports.

Conference endorsed Irish calls for the new government in Dublin to restore full collective bargaining rights to Irish freelance journalists.  The Republic’s Competition Authority banned such rights years ago.

Delegates condemned moves by employers such as Northcliffe Media and Johnson Press for making unnecessary cuts while introducing “bleeding edge” computer systems such as Atex, which often do not deliver the benefits quoted in the sales literature.  However, the Limerick Leader chapel was able to successful defeat such a proposal.

The Delegate Meeting noted with interest the growth in “pay walls” as this showed that good journalists are a high-value commodity.  It re-asserted that both staff and freelance journalists should share in the profits from such ventures, as was the case in Sweden.

The NUJ will also try  regulate so-called “internships” to ensure they were giving benefit to students, rather than being used as free labour.

Conference agreed to help members in the academic & scientific publishing sector fight off-shoring and out-sourcing of work.  This followed the successful public meeting organised by Oxford Branch that shewed there was widespread concern in academia about declining standards of editing.  This was pushing extra workloads onto the shoulders of stretched academics.  This industry is unusual in that most publishers get their copy for almost nothing and then sell it back in book form for very high margins.

The final motion on this Order Paper was to instruct the NEC to campaign for a public commission of inquiry into the future of the BBC.

Order Paper No 13 (Media Freedom)

DM instructed the NEC to work with the Campaign for Freedom of Information to oppose any attempt by the UK and Irish governments to introduce charges for the supply of information, changes to any Acts that would impose limits on the numbers of requests for information and redundancies among those currently employed to respond to requests for information.

Conference expressed wide concern over the continued growth and influence of the Murdoch media empire.  In November, 2010, News Corporation notified the European Commission that it intended to bid for the remaining shares in BSkyB.  A number of media employers have publically shared the NUJ’s concerns. The NUJ will continue to support calls by Will Hutton and others for a Media Commission to examine UK media ownership rules, campaign against further expansion via Westminster and work with organisations like 38 degrees and the Campaign for Press & Broadcasting Freedom (CPBF) for tougher & clearer rules on media mergers.

News International owner Rupert Murdoch pays little or no tax in the UK and has “special arrangements” with the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) that are only given to the very rich.  These largely untaxed profits are used to service the bank loans that finance the rest of his world-wide empire.

The DM welcomed the highly-successful campaign by the union’s photographers “I’m a photographer, not a terrorist” campaign to stop the growing trend by the police to treat all media photographers as potential trouble-makers.  Too often they are targeted via blanket bans under Section 44 of Anti-terrorism legislation.  Photographers are regularly stopped & searched at ports and airports with film and equipment seized.  Conference was shown a short film highlighting the issue.  The campaign’s web site and other social networks has now attracted 28,000 supporters throughout the UK.  The union’s lawyers were also commended for their help is resolving these cases.  There is also a growing trend to try to force photographers to pay for permits to film on the public highway and council-owned land.  Bristol City Council was a particularly bad offender.  Conference believes that photographic access should be free.

The union is to organise a Press Freedom Day on 3rd May, 2011.  This includes issuing a NUJ-Home Office “credit card” giving rules of engagement to all constables. The rules for the issuing of Press Cards will also be tightened up to ensure that only bona fide journalists are issued with them.  This will include a new photograph being supplied with every application.

On the issue of “net neutrality”, conference congratulated whistle-blowing sites on their work but was disappointed that the UK minister responsible, Ed Vaizey, has abandoned these goals.

Order Paper No 14 (Quality of Journalism)

Conference said it regarded local news services as important and highlighted the union’s successful “Stand up for journalism” campaign as playing a key role in ensuring democratic accountability.  It also welcomed the creation of a new training course on reporting the NHS. It attacked Tory Party chairman Eric Pickles for trying to get rid of local authority newspapers.  There was no evidence that they were diverting advertising revenue from existing titles – and most publications were printed on Newspaper Society presses.  The NEC will be campaigning to defend quality journalism in council newspapers.  Conference also commended the work done by the quality in publishing campaign.

Order Paper Nos 15 & 16 (Training, Health & Safety and Copyright)

Conference reiterated its support for high quality training for journalists and decided that the NEC would only endorse courses that are delivered by qualified, unionised members and take steps to ensure that publically-funded courses did not undermine them. Brum & Cov motion on poor training on handling heavy equipment such as camera bags was passed.  The NEC will be surveying photographic members and was empowered to take legal action against sloppy employers.

Stress in the workplace was a major cause of sickness and poor productivity.  So the NEC will be campaigning for the government to prioritise the well-being of the UK’s workforce and share good practice to safeguard the mental health of members.

The government is looking to further relax copyright protection for creators along US lines.  This includes the legal fiction that there are so-called “orphan works”.  Union policy is now to campaign for better rights for creators such as writers, photographers, authors, film makers and playwrights.

Order Paper No 17 (Membership)

The NEC will examine whether the current rule that requires someone to earn at least 50% of their income from journalism as a condition of membership is realistic.  It will present its report three months before the next conference.  Measures to make it easier to recruit student journalists were passed.  Similar measures were adopted for recruiting internet-based journalists. Conference agreed to measures speeding new members into membership and to give branches better information on those who are planning to leave or be lapsed.

Abuse by members to NUJ staff had been a problem for years, especially at Annual Delegate Meetings (ADMs).  NUJ rules are to be changed to make this a serious disciplinary offence.

The Editor of The Journalist was also encouraged to visit more branches.  Conference regretted that the union’s newspaper had forced London Freelance Branch to pay for an advert to promote its “Cashback for Interns” campaign.  Since the current Editor had appointed a new advertising agency, revenues have tripled.  Conference welcomed plans to upgrade the NUJ website and implement a new publishing system.  This should include a greater presence for The Journalist.

The new President will be Donnacha Delong and Michelle Stanistreet is the new general secretary.

She will take up the position on 1 July after the retirement of Jeremy Dear, who has been General Secretary for two five-year terms.

Michelle will be speaking at an  NUJ Left meeting at the union’s delegate meeting this week in Southport.

The meeting is on Friday in the main conference hall after the close of business in the evening. So if you want to hear her views about the union and question her on her policies then please come along.

There will also be an NUJ Left meeting on Thursday 7pm at the Lakeside suite.

Osborne however is continuing with the ConDems fiscal tightening, which will lead to more job losses and cuts. Hundred of thousands of people will join the TUC demonstration and march for an alternative to cuts and job losses.

The NUJ will be assembling at the Embankment with other trade unionists from 11.00am onwards. Come along on Saturday and march with your union.

For more information go to the NUJ website

Lorraine on the bus – About 26 March

From the Freelance Switch website in the US. The problems are the same everywhere it seems…

Peppiatt wrote a letter to the Star’s proprietor Richard Desmond pointing a finger at the newspaper’s lying coverage as a factor in racist violence. “You may have heard the phrase, ‘The flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil sets off a tornado in Texas.’ Well, try this: ‘The lies of a newspaper in London can get a bloke’s head caved in down an alley in Bradford.’

“If you can’t see that words matter, you should go back to running porn magazines,” Peppiatt said. “But if you do, yet still allow your editors to use inciteful over insightful language, then far from standing up for Britain, you’re a menace against all things that make it great.”

Peppiatt also wrote about how he and others made up stories, cut and pasted from the Daily Mail, how staff were underpaid and the newspaper understaffed.

The Star has responded by saying that the “Daily Star editorial policy does not hold any negativity towards Islam and the paper has never, and does not endorse, the EDL.”

In 2006, journalists on the Daily Star prevented the publication of an anti-Muslim page. NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said at the time: “This was an outrageous and hugely irresponsible idea which fortunately our chapel courageously resisted and in so doing protected both the paper and its staff from possible serious repercussions.”