The NUJ in the newsby Dave Crouch
We are living through the worst economic crisis for 60 years. No one has any idea how it will pan out or when it will end.
Unemployment is soaring. Yet where are the unions? We should be battering on the doors of parliament.
This time next week, journalists on Trinity Mirror’s titles in the midlands are likely to have staged a strike in defence of jobs and journalism in the region and be planning their next move.
After a massive vote in favour, the members at the Birmingham Post and Mail, Coventry Telegraph, Sunday Mercury and Midlands Weekly Media titles plan to walk out on Thursday 30 July.
Two events are being held next week to show solidarity with our colleagues in Gambia.
On Monday 20 July journalists in Glasgow will hold a vigil in support of the seven journalists facing trial for sedition.
News today that NUJ members in Middlesbrough are to ballot over threatened compulsory redundancies brings the total of Trinity Mirror chapels currently considering industrial action to five.
Members at the Evening Gazette are particularly angry that they are facing more cuts after jobs went six months ago, the NUJ reports.
Three big stories that in recent months have dominated the news, and will continue to do so for some time to come, bolster the union’s case that there is no substitute for well-resourced quality journalism.
When in April Ian Tomlinson died after being hit by a police officer during the G20 protests, it was professional journalism that turned a citizen’s shaky video footage into an investigation that is still turning up stories.
Chapels in dispute will get another helping hand as NUJ activists stage another Stand up for Journalism comedy benefit.
Following successful events in London and Glasgow earlier this year, tomorrow’s event will be in Stockport, chosen because the Guardian Media Group has abandoned the area by closing offices.
“We will not be used by the BNP to spread their propaganda,” says Eileen Short, a former Tower Hamlets council PR officer who helped organise a campaign to expose and isolate the BNP’s first elected councillor Derek Beackon.
As part of that campaign, Eileen compiled a list of 10 questions every journalist should ask themselves before reporting on the BNP or other racist and fascist parties.
Following the success of our event in London in April, a Stand up for journalism gig is to be held next month in the north west.
Stockport has been chosen as the venue because MEN Media has removed all the journalists from the local office where the Stockport Express, South Manchester Reporter and Trafford Metro News staff were based.
The ruling today that Suzanne Breen will not have to hand over her notes to the Police Service of Northern Ireland has rightly been hailed by the NUJ as a “landmark victory for journalism and civil liberties”.
At Belfast recorders court, Judge Thomas Burgess refused an application by the PSNI, which would have forced Suzanne, northern editor of the Sunday Tribune in Dublin, to hand over notes, computer equipment and other material relating to the Real IRA.
NUJ Left is calling for mass action to support local authority press officers who refuse to work with BNP members if any are elected as councillors in this week’s elections.
Union guidelines already call on every member not to sensationalise the activities of racist organisations, including the BNP, and to challenge and expose their views.