Jeremy Dear

Support the strikers

2010-11-01T17:25:00.002Z

We are gearing up for strikes at the BBC - I've been doing reps meetings and drafting strike leaflets and bulletins most of today.

Here's some of the appeal that's gone out to NUJ branches

Support NUJ members fighting for fair pensions at BBC

Can you afford to simply give away £100,000, £25,000 or even ‘just’ £10,000? Of course not.

But those are the kinds of sums every journalist faces losing under the BBC’s latest pension proposal.

It’s unfair and unacceptable. For all BBC staff it means paying more, working longer or getting significantly lower pensions. In some cases, all three!

BBC journalists are not asking for higher pensions. They are not even saying they wouldn’t consider paying more or working longer for a fair pension settlement.

That means a deal based on the real deficit in the scheme, not speculative and questionable figures.

It means a pension which does not lose a significant part of its value every single year for the rest of their lives – which is what will happen under the current proposals.
And it should be a deal that means what has been promised to them - which they have already paid for - is protected.

The current offer fails those tests and it
fails BBC staff.
That’s why they’ve been left with no choice but to take
industrial action on 5 and 6 November and 15 and 16 November. They can’t afford
not to…and they need YOUR support

How you can help:
Make a donation. Make cheques payable to NUJ (marked on back BBC Strike hardship fund) and send to General Secretary, NUJ, Headland House, 308 Gray’s Inn Road,
London WC1X 8DP.
Send messages of support. Messages should be sent to campaigns@nuj.org.uk
Join the picket lines – visit your local BBC centre to join the picket on 5 and 6 November.
For further details of picket times/places contact campaigns@nuj.org.uk
Invite a speaker – contact your local BBC rep or campaigns@nuj.org.uk to arrange a speaker for your next meeting
Keep up to date on developments – see www.nuj.org.uk for the latest news of meetings and action.

As part of the mobilising I did a rally in Manchester on Saturday and spoke to the 300-strong Education Activists Network conference in London on Sunday

I also found time to speak out about David Cameron's latest jibes at BBC journalists.

This morning I visited an FBU picket line to offer my solidarity with them and wrote my Tribune column about media attacks on striking workers.

Red Ed?

2010-10-27T08:37:00.003Z

Not content with calling the BBC workers threatened strike "irresponsible", Ed Milliband is now having a go at the firefighters threatened strike action on 5 November.

Instead of attacking the FBU maybe "Red Ed" should speak out more to denounce the threat of mass sackings of firefighters - how much more irresponsible can any employer be.

Away from disputes ( and we await the outcome of the consultative ballot of BBC members tomorrow) I've been to the TUC General Council, spoke at an excellent meeting of the London Photographers Branch last night, met with the union's legal firm, Thompsons and have been planning some of the activities to oppose the BBC cuts along with activists from the World Service Branch.

A welcome intervention from shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis today who is calling for an investigation in to what he calls the "dodgy deal" that led to the licence fee settlement - and which now will inevitably lead to significant cuts in jobs and services.

Hold on tight this could get bumpy...

2010-10-20T07:47:00.003Z

So the big day is here - George Osborne and his fellow millionaires in government will tell us we've all been spending too much and begin the great welfare slash and burn programme they've been itching to deliver since the election.

490,000 public sector jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs in the private sector which are reliant on the spending of either public sector organisations or workers, communities facing devastation, services cut - the toll looks grim.

For our members at S4C, BBC, World Service and Monitoring the news is alarming. A last minute deal between BBC management and will see the BBC licence fee frozen at the current level of £145.50 for the next six years, a 16% cut in real terms.

The BBC has also agreed to relieve the Government of funding for a range of services and take on the burden themselves.

Among the extra commitments the BBC has signed up to are to fund the World Service and Welsh-language broadcaster S4C out of the licence fee from 2015. The BBC has also agreed to take over funding of BBC Monitoring.

In addition it will provide £150m a year for the rollout of superfast broadband to rural areas from 2013 and £25m a year for local TV and online content. A further one-off capital investment in local TV and online services of £25m will also come from the licence fee and the BBC will also underwrite the rollout of the digital radio network nationally.

In total, the BBC has committed to spend an extra £340m of licence-fee money to fund all these undertakings by 2014-15. Government expenditure from central taxation will fall by an equivalent amount.

Initial estimates suggest that more than 3500 jobs will be at stake and that some BBC services will have to be cut. As Bectu General Secretary Gerry Morrissey said last night this is the BBC doing the Government's dirty work.

We are led to believe there is no alternative. That's bollocks. The Tax Justice Network and unions have set out a clear alternative. The problem for the Government is that doesn't fit with their ideology.

Yesterday I went to the TUC's rally in Westminster Hall, a good start to the campaign against the cuts. Today I'll be speaking at 3 rallies in Parliament, at Downing Street and at the start of a feeder march in Lincoln Inn's Fields. Saturday there are demonstrations in different parts of the UK. It's gonna be busy.

In between times I'll meet the BBC to hear more details of how the cuts will impact and attend the TUC General Council to discuss the campaign with other unions.

Yesterday we briefed MPs in our Parliamentary Group about these issues and the campaign for Charles Atangana, the Home Office's Rapid Review of Terrorism Powers (which includes Section 44), the threat to council-run information services, the Home Affairs Select Committee Inquiry in to phone-hacking and the likely bid by Rupert Murdoch to take full control of Sky.

A brief respite from the BBC

2010-10-11T19:45:00.003Z

Back from Brussels where I was at a meeting of the EFJ's Labour Rights Expert Group where we discussed union organising at Sky, lobbying in Europe over labour laws and a mapping project for the European new media industry.

I also had a useful meeting with IFJ General Secretary Aidan White.

Prior to that it has been BBC, BBC and a bit more BBC.

I've been in negotiations (more tomorrow), done member meetings across the UK, had reps meetings, done dozens of media interviews and tried to answer dozens of questions from members and reps about the BBC's latest offer.

The unions are now consulting members on the latest offer - all indications are it will be rejected and strike action will follow.

And in between it all we've had the National Executive Council, I was on a panel with BBC journalist Jonathon Charles, former ITV News head Clive Jones and media academic Nathalie Fenton talking about international journalism in the 21st century. Hope we didn't put too many students off!

Today we've also launched our new campaign to stop the exploitation of interns. Read all about it here.

Mark Byford to go...?

2010-10-11T19:41:00.003Z

Rumours abound tonight that BBc Deputy Director General Mark Byford is to go. Mark is a friendly and likeable man but his alleged £400,000 p.a. pension, his decision to spend £5000 going to South Africa for the World Cup while the BBC was facing cuts and his poor response to the Hutton report when the BBc was facing a political crisis mean few union members will be sad about the news.

I understand they will not be replacing his post - good.

More massive votes against BBC pension proposals

2010-09-22T12:27:00.002Z

Done three BBC pensions meetings with members at Television Centre and Millbank in the past three days - and there is a continuing overwhelming rejection of the BBC's pensions latest proposals. Not a single person has spoken up for accepting what is on the table. Back in to negotiations tomorrow with a clear set of demands from the meetings of members. There have also been unanimous or overwhelming votes for strike action at big meetings at White City, Monitoring and Bristol.

Busy preparing the strike materials - posters being printed, leaflets drafted and stickers on order.

Manchester (United)!

2010-09-16T15:19:00.002Z

Back from the TUC Conference in Manchester tired but inspired - and it's not often you can say that. The inspired by TUC Conference bit, not the tired bit.

With the shackles of the "we can't do anything in case it damages the New Labour government" shackles thrown off a real fighting spirit emerged. Co-ordinated industrial action against cuts is firmly on the agenda. Major demonstrations and lobbies are planned. The defence of pensions is at the heart of the agenda. There is an alternative!

Of course at this stage it's words - and we need to turn it in to action but there felt a sense of purpose and determination across the unions on a whole range of issues.

The NUJ delegation did an excellent job. The TUC backed our condemnation of Johnston Press and their use of the anti-union laws, supported our photographer members facing the misuse of s44 stop and search powers, applauded our stand against the BBC's pensions robbery and welcomed the work we were doing with journalists unions in countries like Zimbabwe.

If it's war, we didn't start it...

2010-09-16T15:02:00.002Z

There I was, 6.30am, heading to the BBC studios in Manchester to do an interview when i popped in to a newsagent to grab some juice. BBC UNIONS' WAR ON TORIES screamed the front page of the Daily Mail.

Apparently, the decision of BBC workers to strike over the Corporation's pensions robbery, is a declaration of war on one part of the Government.

Press Gazette have helpfully run my entire speech to the TUC Conference later that day in response.

The planned strike dates - 5 and 6 October and 19 and 20 October have received widespread coverage and there is a clear attempt in some of the more hostile sections of the media to blame the victims of the BBC's pensions robbery rather than the thieves.

93.4% of NUJ members voted for strike action. More than 90% of members of the 3 unions - NUJ, Bectu and Unite - did so. There is a clear mandate for action - and there is a determination to protect pensions. Many people have saved for years in the expectation that they would receive £x on retirement. It was a promise. Now that promise is being broken.

The BBC took a partial contributions holiday over 13 years - put that money back in. Cap pensions so no-one walks away with a six-figure annual pension. Use a small portion of the profits from BBC Worldwide each year. Some or all of these can help to ensure the pension scheme is sustainable over the long term.

No-one wants to stop coverage of the Comprehensive Spending Review. No-one (well, most) don't want to go on strike. But they will to stop the unacceptable, unfair and unnecessary pension changes.

Lucky 13?

2010-09-10T16:55:00.002Z

The blog has risen one place in this year's Tigmoo guide to the top union blogs - it now stands at number 13. Note to self - must do better.

It's been the first day in weeks I've not had to spend most of it dealing with the BBC pensions dispute so instead I've spent it dealing with the NUJ pension scheme and attending our Finance Committee. Good decision to back Ken Capstick's legal action against the NUM over his unfair dismissal. Good to see too that we've won over £350,000 for members in the last few weeks. It clearly pays to be union.

Finance Committee also had a long discussion about rule changes to enable our Group Chapels (groups of workplace reps all owned by the same parent company) a greater role in the democracy of the union. These are the industrial activists of the union and we need their voice at our conference and at all levels of the union. No-one disagrees with that, the big debate was over voting systems. Do we say you can only vote by a show of hands at a physical meeting or do we enable active participation through Skype, text voting, video conferencing or any other form of voting. The traditionalists held sway. I think it may be another matter at the Executive next month.

Having to delay my departure to TUC conference because of the BBC dispute. Meeting with BBC followed by emergency reps meeting on Monday. Deal or no deal? All will be revealed on Monday....

Shhhh..it's confidential

2010-09-08T16:53:00.003Z

Negotiations, emergency reps meetings, more negotiations - the BBC pensions dispute has become all-consuming but since everything is confidential it makes for boring blogging!

In the minutes between BBC meetings I spoke at NUS media conference, spoke at a TUC round-table on civil liberties and attended the union's Development Committee - oh, and passed my driving theory test (50 out of 50 since you ask...).

Now, back to BBC negotiations....

93.4% say Yes to strike action...

2010-09-01T17:30:00.002Z

Here it is...the massive vote for strike action.
The ballots across the 3 unions averaged around 90%. In the NUJ the vote was 94% in favour of strike action and 97% for action short of a strike.

Next week's negotiations should be a lot more constructive!

'Nuff said...

2010-09-01T11:25:00.000Z

Massive vote for action expected in BBC ballot today

2010-09-01T08:40:00.004Z

After the weeks of touring the UK doing meetings union reps from the NUJ, Bectu and Unite will today get the result of the ballots for strike action over pensions.

We expect to make an announcement between 3.30pm and 4pm today after our reps have had a chance to consider a report back on the latest talks with BBC management and what we expect to be a massive vote in favour of action...more later.

Thompson comes out fighting - time to concentrate on the right targets

2010-08-27T19:46:00.005Z

So Mark Thompson has finally delivered his MacTaggart lecture and I'm sure it is being trashed by many newspapers but there is much to be applauded in the speech. It is a strong defence of public service broadcasting and the BBC and a clear rebuff to the nonsense talked by James Murdoch at last year's event. Particularly welcome is the case made for a retransmission levy - which the NUJ has long been campaigning for - which would see those who rebroadcast public service content but pay nothing for its creation pay a charge to enable more investment in original content. There were also some welcome comments about the need to tackle executive excess at the beeb.
But the speech also failed to address some real current concerns - like the threat to staff pensions which has sparked a revolt inside the corporation. You cannot make great programmes without great staff. They are fundamental to what makes the BBC so popular. Yet they are demoralised and undervalued by a management which has rewarded itself and is now undermining their pay and conditions. The BBC would stand a much better chance of fighting off it's enemies if it was united itself. To rebuild that unity staff want the DG delivering more robust defences of what they do and less waging war on their pensions. When the unions declare their ballot results next week all that is good about tonight's speech will be lost amidst the headlines over strike threats and pension robberies. It's not too late for the BBC management to stop that happening. Stop the pensions robbery!

Crunch time for BBC pensions dispute

2010-08-24T10:01:00.005Z

I am heading over to BBC World Service later today to do the next of our BBC pensions dispute ballot update meetings - a chance to bring members up to date on negotiations, progress of the ballot and make sure we turn out the vote and keep recruiting.

Yesterday I did a similar meeting at TV Centre - and it is clear that a massive majority will vote yes in the ballot. We're talking North Korean election proportions here!

TV Centre is plastered in posters, stickers and leaflets. In the corridoor leading to the newsroom the photos of each of the BBC's high profile news presenters have had a BBC Pensions Robbery sticker added to the jacket lapels. Very tasteful.

The UK specialists team have gone a step further!

Since the ballot was announced we've had 3 sets of negotiations with BBC management -they've been constructive but nowhere near enough progress has been made and there's a lot of hard talking to be done still. That's why it's so important we keep up the campaign...and are ready to take action if the BBC do not agree to stop the pensions robbery.

Next talks take place tomorrow.

Save public libraries

2010-08-17T15:28:00.003Z

The Mirror is reporting today the threat to public libraries from the ConDem government's proposals to get shops, charities and volunteers to run them. NUJ Deputy General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet has stepped in to support the campaign to save our libraries. We're working with Unison to oppose library closures.

Wirral recently closed 11 of its 23 libraries and closures are happening all over the place. Spending on books is already massively down before the latest round of cuts. If these plans go ahead another 1000 could go. Time to unite library staff and users to save public libraries.

Charles' (union) family welcome him..

2010-08-13T12:50:00.003Z

It was great to sit and have a meal with Charles Atangana last night after his release from Dover Immigration Removal Centre. Today I welcomed him to the NUJ's headquarters where we are busy planning the next stages of the campaign to stop his deportation.

There's information on how you can get involved here

Charles is free! Now step up the fight to stop the deportation

2010-08-12T15:07:00.003Z

Charles Atangana has won his bail hearing - and he's on his way from Dover to the NUJ headquarters now. It's brilliant news. Thanks to everyone who helped!

(c) Guy Smallman - Speaking to protestors outside Charles' bail hearing

But this is just the beginning. Now we need to step up the fight to stop his deportation. Ideas for action here - and keep your eyes on the NUJ website for more activity.

Free, free Charles Atangana!

2010-08-12T14:45:00.002Z

Been out protesting against the threatened deportation of Charles Atangana at his bail hearing. Expect some more news shortly...but for now here's the vice-president's blog on the demo.

Giving up...

2010-08-10T14:36:00.004Z

How is BBC Director General Mark Thompson going to survive on just £670,000 a year - that will be all he's entitled to once he gives up his pension bung and his temporary plan to forgo a month's pay.

Of course it's welcome that he is at last reacting to the public and staff outcry over management greed - but let's be clear this is being done in response to the unions' campaign against the pensions robbery going on and to the fact that the pension top up payments made to senior managers have hit the headlines.

And it is too little, too late. The BBC have had pensions holidays, underpaid over a number of years and put millions in to executive pensions - now they are asking staff to pay the price. The BBC must guarantee the value of staff pensions already earned or face the prospect of co-ordinated strike action.

It's no coincidence the BBC will put forward new proposals on 1 September - it's the day the unions' ballots close and a day before our reps meet to decide the next steps. Be warned - there is so much anger people cannot be easily bought off by tinkering with the current proposals. Take them off the table and sit down with the unions and negotiate. That way we can avoid the need for strike action and work towards a fair solution.

We're on our way to Europe

2010-08-06T12:22:00.003Z

The NUJ is to challenge the UK's anti-union laws in the European Court of Human Rights.

Alongside the RMT, John Hendy QC is preapring a case for the the NUJ to seek a ruling that UK employment laws contravene freedom of association rights.

The full story is here

Government cuts make journalism more elitist

2010-08-05T13:02:00.002Z

Access to becoming a professional journalist has become ever more restricted in recent years as first grants were abolished, then fees shot up and unpaid work experience became the norm.

Submissions to the previous Government's Panel on Fair Access to the Professions showed that more than two-thirds of those entering journalism now came from households where the main wage earner worked in a professional or senior managerial occupation. Under 10 per cent of new entrants came from a working class background, with just three per cent coming from homes headed by semi or unskilled workers.

Now things are set to get worse. Government cuts mean lecturers are being sacked and subsidies for courses being withdrawn. The NCTJ pre-entry course at Warwickshire College is to close. The withdrawal of subsidies meant the course fees more than doubled to £3700 and unsurprisingly too few students signed up. The only NCTJ-accredited photojournalism course at Sheffield was also facing closure but has been reprieved, but only at the expense of increased fees.

The government talks of social mobility - but its cuts are having the exact opposite effect. It is bad enough with the lack of enforcement of the National Minimum Wage allowing employers to get away with exploiting new entrants and breaking the law without students from poorer backgrounds being priced out before they even begin.

Stop the Deportation of Charles Atangana!

2010-08-04T09:10:00.003Z

NUJ member Charles Atangana is facing imminent deportation. If he is deported his life is in serious danger. The union has secured a temporary reprieve whilst seeking judicial review of the decision to deport him to Cameroon.

But the situation is still urgent. Get sending letters to your MPs to get them to take the case up with Theresa May.

All the information about Charles and the dangers independent journalists face in Cameroon are on the NUJ's website. MPs, Lords, trade unions, the local community in Glasgow where Charles has been based and many others have taken up his case but we still need to up the pressure. Keep fighting for Charles to stay!

Media bosses break the law

2010-08-03T09:04:00.003Z

Cor what a shocker!

Media companies are breaking the law by using unpaid interns to fill staff shortages.
The NUJ has been saying this for years now - good to see others backing up our view.

Guidelines are great, reports useful - now we need to see some enforcement of the law. You can be sure if it was about 'bogus' asylum seekers, benefit cheats or striking tube workers much of the media would be calling for the full force of the law to be brought to bear on those who flout the legislation. Most of them seem strangely silent on this kind of law-breaking.

Be a BBC fraud buster...

2010-08-03T08:03:00.004Z

Union members at the BBC could have a lot of fun with the current fraud-busting exercise on the BBC's intranet.

Senior management are launching a drive against fraud in the BBC. Apparently they've realised that there are people engaging in "behaviour resulting in personal enrichment through deception" or who are guilty of "abuse of position" or the "deliberate misuse or misappropriation of BBC resources or assets”.

There's a highly entertaining course on Gateway and if you are aware of anyone who has - oh I don't know - tried to defraud BBC pensioners or taken a jolly to see a football match on the other side of the planet - business class - and then charged that to the licence fee payer you're supposed to go to the Anti Fraud Framework and hit the red button marked Report Fraud Here.
Go on, you know it makes sense....it's a public service!

Kicking off today by making sure BBC ballot material gets out to reps in advance of mass leafleting and desk drops on Friday. It means there's lots of envelopes to stuff, stickers to distribute, posters to get up - as the battle against the BBC Pensions robbery hots up. The BBC keep saying they want to carry on talking - so do we but it's pointless them repeating the same mantra over and over again. What's needed is for them to guarantee the value of pensions already earned, take the 1% cap off the table and start serious negotiations about alternative means to tackle the deficit.

Making the media an election issue

2010-04-19T09:22:00.004Z

Tackling the crisis in local media is not a question of resources it's a question of political will - and that political will was largely lacking when candidates from the four main parties in Wales appeared on a panel at the NUJ's conference on media issues in Cardiff on Saturday.

In the conference's opening session I set out in my speech the union's call for an economic stimulus plan alongside speakers from Bectu, Professor Bob Franklin from Cardiff University, Tom O'Malley from the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom and others. Then it was the turn of the politicians (or wannabe politicians) to respond. They tried but on the whole they failed. Occasionally they touched a chord but the best performance was from the Labour candidate - and that was only because he started every answer by distancing himself from what the UK government had actually done. But I at least congratulate them all for tuning up, taking the questions and responding. Which is more than lots of politicians have done with our Make Your Vote Count campaign - many simply write back saying they don't respond to people asking them to sign up to pledges. Nice.

Well done to our members in Wales for taking the initiative.

Thursday and Friday were dominated by NEC sub-committees - policy and development. We had important discussions on our election strategy, the campaign against cuts at the BBC, recruitment in the new media sector, the upcoming International Federation of Journalists conference and much more. Now to try and do all the work that came out of those committees.

He's behind you...

2010-04-14T09:10:00.005Z

Spoke at the excellent Hostile Reconnaissance pre-election rally last night organised by the London Photographers' Branch and I'm A Photographer Not A Terrorist campaign. There's a good report of the meeting on Jon Slattery's blog.

Calls for prospective parliamentary candidates to back rights for journalists also form an essential part of the union's Make Your Vote Count campaign which we launched yesterday. Get involved and question those candidates. Make them work for your vote.

Yesterday morning I was one of four judges for the periodicals category of the Amnesty International Media Awards. Once again the entries were excellent but we've picked some excellent winners. Who are they? You'll just have to wait and see on 1 June like everyone else.

Saturday I was MC for the rally to defend public services and the welfare state organised by the National Pensioners Convention in Trafalgar Square. Thanks to Jonathan Warren for this pic.

I've also sent the official ballot letter to Johnston Press, have had meetings with the International News Safety Institute, the Federation of Entertainment Unions and a phone conference with unions from the International Federation of Journalists as well as a host of internal meetings to plan future campaigns and activities. Look out for an announcement on one of them in the next 48 hours...

What a disgrace

2010-04-07T18:02:00.004Z

A rep just sent me this link. At a time when there is a pay freeze, jobs have been cut, offices closed, titles axed and the final salary pension scheme is being closed Sly gets another massive hike in her rewards. His words were...what a disgrace. Couldn't sum it up better myself. Journalists and local communities are being forced to pay for the crisis their failed policies created.Read it and weep, then get angry, then get organised, then act...! See you at the shareholders meeting and AGM - let's see how they justify this!

Hostile Reconnaissance

2010-04-06T16:52:00.004Z

With the general election now called, it's time to put civil liberties centre stage in the election debates. There's a chance to begin to do just that next week. Come along and hear the arguments and get involved at the Hostile Reconnaissance rally next week.

For too long, too many in the trade union movement have sat back and believed that infringements of civil liberties do not affect law-abiding workers. Wrong. Our right to protest, our right to dissent and even our right to work are increasingly under threat. Leading civil liberties campaigners will set out a clear case for union action to defend our rights.

Self-harm - there should be a BBC website about that. Part 2

2010-03-29T16:26:00.002Z

You know when you get so angry you get a temporary bout of Tourette's. It's just ****ing happened to me. First we have the BBC Trust scuppering yet another BBC initiative as they prostrate themselves before the commercial sector. This time it's smartphone apps, last time it was BBC Local - what next? 6Music, Asian Network, half the website? That surely is too far fetched.

Talking of the BBC's web offering it's Eric Huggers blog that makes me really angry. Apart from a comical lack of detail, Eric appears to think managers and staff can be kept in the dark over plans that potentially threaten their jobs. Nothing that comes out of the strategic review around these proposals actually adds up.

They are going to cut 25% of staff - and yet every time they are asked which sites and which staff, they refer to mothballed sites, links that just redirect or pages that haven't been updated since 2006. So we ask the question again - come clean. Which sites and which staff are to be axed. You are paid lots of money. You've had months to come up with the plan. So tell us. Or do you intend to wait until the consultation is over, then spring it on staff and readers.

What a ***king mess.

New work experience guidelines welcomed after NUJ campaign

2010-03-25T14:48:00.002Z

New guidelines on work experience, internships and apprenticeships are published by Skillset. We've welcomed them. They could be tougher but they are a welcome first step towards giving us the tools to eradicate the exploitation of young people trying to get in to journalism.

I've written an article welcoming the launch here and more details of the union's campaigns around the issue can be found here

Following hot on the heels of the launch was the announcement that the Low pay Commission has recommended that the Government produces, in conjunction with interested parties, sector specific guidance on the National Minimum Wage for the entertainment sector. We gave evidence to the Low Pay Commission calling for just such a move.

Not such good news from the decisions on naming the preferred bidders for the government's Independently Financed News Consortia pilots in Scotland, Wales and the north-east of England.

Skilled and dedicated staff at the ITV regions which failed in the bids will rightly feel badly let down today. We will continue to fight their case.

Tuesday night I was down in Oxford doing a recruitment evening at the Oxford Mail - went well and we've a good crop of new young members as a result.

Yesterday I met with union reps from the Morning Star and with the General Secretaries of Bectu, the Musicians Union and Equity as well as attending the PCS picket line at the British Library. Today I met with the BBC's new employee relations head - Diane Dumas amongst other meetings.

Save the BBC. Stop the Cuts or Drinking Albanian Lager with MPs

2010-03-23T14:48:00.002Z

Sounds like a Half Man, Half Biscuit song - which is strangely appropriate given we co-hosted a Parliamentary reception last night to oppose the proposed BBC axing of 6Music, the Asian Network, BBC Blast, the halving of the website and the likely sell-off or part-privatisation of BBC magazines.

Almost 200 people, including a number of MPs from across the political spectrum attended. The event was a protest but also a celebration of public service broadcasting and the BBC's role in it - one it is vital we defend in the light of attacks from commercial rivals and some politicians in the run-up to the election.

This morning I was at the TUC Executive where we discussed a range of disputes from British Airways Cabin Crew to the PCS dispute. I also did an interview for a project on the abuse of work experience placements, wrote to the Pakistani authorities about threats to an NUJ members' family over articles he has written, sent a message of support to members in Blackpool involved in industrial action and took part in a meeting of our reps at Johnston Press where industrial action is looking more likely both over the continued pay freeze and the implications for jobs, quality and health and safety of the introduction of a new editorial system.

Tonight I'm off down to the Oxford Mail for a chapel social/recruitment event.

Michael Gove's Militant Tendency

2010-03-19T10:52:00.003Z

I was going to deny I was the source for this expose of Michael Gove's militancy but ok, hands up. I done it!

What's even more worrying though than his speech is the latest Tory threat to undermine the Union Modernisation Fund and Union Learning Fund which have helped hundreds of thousands of people gain new skills.

The NUJ has received funds from both - here's some evidence of the benefit to working people from the fund.

Democracy? Not in my name...

2010-03-18T12:40:00.006Z

So the EDL, protectors of English democracy that they are, have now resorted to threatening journalists who expose their members' dodgy racism. How easily the mask slips. First it's the off-the-cuff seig heil and before you know it their members are threatening freedom of speech - all in the name of protecting English people like me from who knows what. To coin a phrase - not in my name!

A number of our members have been directly targeted by EDL thugs and now they are planning an 'email avalanche' campaign against the union too - for supporting our members right to cover their demonstration and not get the shit kicked out of them for doing so. Not just racists, not just thugs, not just enemies of media freedom but anti-union too.

If you can get to Bolton on Saturday and show your contempt for these narrow-minded bigots.

Rant over.

Yesterday we co-hosted a hugely successful event at Parliament - Democracy Without Journalists - which set out some real challenges for politicians who claim they want to support local newspapers and local and regional TV news. Jonathon Warren has done an excellent job documenting it on his blog

Earlier this week I did an interview with Press Gazette for their next issue, met with the union's legal service providers Thompsons and chaired a Justice for Colombia public meeting about the mass graves uncovered in La Macarena, which I visited in December.

Have also had meetings this week about BBC cuts, the future of ITV local/regional news, recruitment campaigns and a meeting with staff reps at the NUJ about the staff pension scheme.

Government must not give up on IFNCs

2010-03-10T14:32:00.009Z

Supporting PCS strikers - with PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka and NEC member Zita Holbourne

Just back from a series of meetings in Parliament discussing NUJ campaigns and activity - especially around the future of ITV and the Independently Financed News Consortia and the Digital Economy Bill, as well as liaising over public service cuts - like those at the BBC - with other unions.

The Digital Economy Bill is reaching a critical stage - and there is a fear the government will jettison the IFNCs in return for Tory support on copyright infringement and superfast broadband roll-out. We will oppose attempts to kick the IFNCs in to the long grass.

Yesterday I joined the PCS strike march and spoke at the rally in Westminster - an inspiring event - at which I was able to draw parallels between the attacks on the BBC and the wider public service - spending cuts, attacks on pensions, services between cut or privatised.

Also had fruitful discussions with a number of campaign groups about the lobbying against BBC cuts - and plans are being hatched. Watch this space. More than 100,000 people have now signed the petition and momentum is building.

Victory to the PCS strikers

2010-03-08T10:45:00.005Z

Thawing out after spending a couple of hours on PCS picket lines at the British Library and British Museum this morning. Low paid civil servants face losing out massively as a result of the scrapping of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme. Apparently we can't afford it any more - we can however afford to bail out the banks, spend billions on war and protect MPs pensions. Good luck to all PCS members!

A busy end to last week with our National Executive Council meeting on Friday and Saturday morning and then a conference of the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group on Saturday afternoon.
The NEC set out a campaign strategy to tackle the BBC cuts as well as lobbying priorities over the Digital Economy Bill as well as giving backing to a national ballot for industrial action at Johnston Press following an overwhelming vote for action in a consultative ballot.

The TUCG conference - bringing together delegates from 8 national unions - an opportunity to plan practical action inside and outside Parliament as workers - public and private sector - face an incxreasing attack on jobs and conditions. Greater co-ordination, practical solidarity and a fight for a more proactive, campaigning approach from the labour movement as a whole are essential if we are to be able to resist such attacks.

Later today I'm meeting the union's lawyers to discuss a number of current cases/issues, before chairing a meeting of the TUC's Trades Councils committee and then on to a couple of International Women's Day events at the Colombian Embassy and this evening at the TUC.

Self-harm - There should be a BBC website about that

2010-03-03T08:24:00.003Z

You may have read about it in the press, seen it on TV or heard it on the radio - the BBC is axing two digital radio services, halving the size of its website and threatening hundreds of jobs. It's another bout of self-harm in anticipation of enforced spending cuts by a future government at the behest of their backers - commercial media organisations.

It's like the perfect storm. If the BBC does too much it needs to be cut down to size, if it does too little it is poor value for money and the licence fee comes under threat.

The axing of 6Music and the Asian Network as well as web cuts and the possible sale of parts of BBC Worldwide are political decisions designed to appease the BBC's critics. And those critics aren't satisfied with just these sacrificial lambs, many of them want the whole flock.

I've spent almost the past 48 hours in TV studios, radio studios or giving quotes to print and web journalists and liaising with the various protest groups that have sprung up - from this petition to a number of facebook groups. Rallies, protests and more activity is planned throughout the consultation period which will run for the next 3 months.

Today we have our first face to face meeting with BBC Director General Mark Thompson and will set out our opposition to the cuts as well as our commitment to ballot for action in the event of any compulsory redundancies affecting our members.

I have also manage to fit in meeting with union reps at NUJ head office to discuss the staff pension scheme, write a column for The Journalist, attend the FCO Freedom of Expression Panel where I was able to raise issues about journalists facing threats in Colombia, Zimbabwe and Somalia and I have tried to keep up with emails - but failed. Sorry if I haven't answered yours!

Cor what a shocker

2010-02-24T08:45:00.003Z

It’s a shocker. The PCC has got it wrong. Again. The problem with such failings by the PCC is that it gives ammunition to those who want to introduce statutory controls. The NUJ stands firmly in favour of self-regulation – but in the public interest not in the interest of newspaper proprietors. The PCC needs drastic reform (like with the Labour Party there are those who argue it is no longer capable of reform) and as long as it is incapable of imposing meaningful sanctions it will remain toothless in the face of the commercial interests of media companies.

But the biggest news today is not that but the victory of union members at the Financial Times over the threat to force a group of specialist Chinese journalists to return to China and take a pay cut. The move has been withdrawn after members at the company voted to ballot for industrial action.

Inspiring. The launch of Expose the BNP last night was also inspiring. Journalists, media workers, students came together to hear Peter Hain MP, NUJ Deputy General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet and others set out the need for journalists to be vigilant and forensic in exposing the racist nature of the neo-Nazi BNP in the run up to the election. The meeting welcomed the launch of the NUJ’s new website reportingthebnp.org

I also attended part of the new London Photographers Branch last night to discuss the Digital Economy Bill and its impact on photographers in advance of a meeting at the TUC later today on the passage of the Bill.

Earlier in the day I’d spoken at a rally in support of striking workers at the National Gallery involved in a dispute over pay. I rushed there from the TUC Executive where the economy and the budget submission were the main items on the agenda. I had the chance to raise the disgraceful blackmail of staff at The Independent in advance of its expected sale.

Election threats

2010-02-19T10:18:00.003Z

A few glimpses of what life might be like under a Tory government - changes to balloting legislation to make it harder for unions to take industrial action and far from stamping out the scourge of the exploitation of young workers through unpaid work experience it appears they are only too happy to auction off work experience placements. Work for free - but pay for the privilege of doing so. It's a pity Jeremy Hunt cancelled his meeting with the NUJ and Bectu this week, I'd have welcomed the chance to challenge him on this.

As the election campaign hots up we've launched a new website, Reporting the BNP, to help journalists with more resources and information about the far-right party's policies, leading lights and much more. Alongside the launch of Expose the BNP, a campaign of journalists, media workers and students, these are important steps in the unions' confronting the threat to freedom of expression posed by the BNP and their fellow travellers.

Could do better...

2010-02-15T08:15:00.003Z

So far the New Year's resolution to do better at updating the blog has been a miserable failure. If only there were more hours in a day, days in a week and weeks in a month i'd be fine.

So what's been happening? Last week kicked off with a meeting with senior BBC mangers catching up on a number of major issues coming over the horizon - pay, pensions, the strategic review which is likely to throw us in to another battle over jobs.

On Tuesday I then spent 5 hours being grilled by the BBC's lawyers in a tribunal case involving one of our members who I represented in her disciplinary process before rather ironically heading off to Parliament to make the case for the BBC with Secretary of State Ben Bradshaw. Actually the meeting with Ben was more about the Independently Financed News Consortia and the outstanding questions which remain. It was the most constructive meeting we've had - maybe ever! Not an election on the horizon is there or is that just me being a cynical hack?

Wednesday was yet more BBC - this time the M/FoCs meeting to draw up the pay claim followed by a joint meeting with Bectu's and Unite's BBC reps and officials to agree the joint union claim.

Thursday morning I chaired the AGM of Justice for Colombia before dashing back for the union's Finance Committee, heading out for lunch with Rod Alexander, the newly-appointed Senior Campaigns and Communications Officer - and then back to Finance Committee before an early evening meeting at the TUC.

Friday was taken up with an all-day meeting of the Trustees of the NUJ Staff Pension Scheme.

Today we're interviewing all day for the Campaigns and Communications Officer job - we've 10 candidates to see so it's going to be a long, long day...

Making the case for public intervention

2010-02-04T08:53:00.007Z

Back from annual leave to a whirlwind of meetings, travel and 1004 emails.

Spent all day Monday interviewing candidates for the Senior Campaigns and Communications Officer post - and after all that it was so close we've decided to do 2nd interviews later today. In every spare minute I tried to catch up on emails and correspondence. Sorry if I haven't got round to answering yours yet - I will.

Monday night I headed to Brussels to prepare for a conference at the European Parliament on journalism and democracy early Tuesday morning. Made the case for public intervention in support of public service media which provoked a good debate. Most of the MEPs there were broadly in support - the representative of the Media Task Group for the Commission was dogmatically free market and seemed to believe that the market would eventually solve the crisis. What bollocks.

A summary of the arguments I put is in the article I've done for Red Pepper this month.
Back Tuesday evening to race through another pile of emails (down to 400 by now).

Wednesday it was back on a train - this time to Liverpool - to be the guest speaker at Hope College - speaking to lecturers, journalism students and representatives from civil society about the threat to democracy posed by cuts in media organisations. Went down well - and I'm hopeful the college will organise a Stand Up for Journalism week later this year. Quick catch up with NUJ President Pete Murray who filled in for me at a meeting with the Home Office about the threat to journalists posed by Redwatch yesterday.

Today, it's meeting upon meeting starting with our European Federation of Journalists representative John Barsby, followed by the Training Department staff, Policy Committee, NEC member Pierre Vicary, the Journalists Copyright Fund followed by the 2nd interviews for the Campaigns and Communications role.

In for a Pennie...

2010-01-12T14:06:00.002Z

Congratulations to Pennie Quinton who has won a stunning victory in the European Court of Human Rights against the abuse of stop and search powers.

I've documented here the political campaigning we've been doing against the abuse of this law and how photographers in particular are being stopped from properly documenting protest and dissent.

Pennie's victory should lead to the scrapping of Section 44 or at the very least severely restricted powers for the police to stop people without a real suspicion. I know from talking to Pennie today what a stress the whole case has placed on her and her life but she's done civil liberties and journalism a real service - and we thank her, and Liberty, who supported the case.

This week I've also organised a major meeting with the union's legal service providers to review the operation of our services, chaired the TUC's trades councils consultative committee, met with a photographer about a case they are pursuing, with the staff at Justice for Colombia and met another of those tendering for the redesign contract for The Journalist. I think the editor, Christine, is nearing a decision on who to appoint.

I've also provided MPs with a number of possible questions about public service broadcasting and the Independently Financed News Consortia for DCMS questions later this month. I also did an interview about the threats against journalists from neo-nazi website Redwatch.

This afternoon I've meetings with Bectu and with our broadcasting organiser to talk about BBC pay and pensions.

Aint'cha just sick of it....

2010-01-08T16:38:00.003Z

Sick of yet another snow story? I know most of our members are which is why the Daily Mash spoof is doing the rounds of many newsrooms.

More shocking news with the revelation that News International broke its own employment practices in unfairly dismissing Clive Goodman in the wake of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. As Roy Greenslade points out today - we are slowly getting at the truth, but there's a way to go.

But back to serious business. Spent much of the last two days with Christine Buckley the new editor of The Journalist hearing pitches from designers seeking the contract to redesign the magazine. It's been fascinating and she will have a hard job making the decision next week.

I also wrote to Johnston Press expressing concern about the undue haste they are trying to implement the changes across South Yorskshire and Derbyshire by centralising production, spoke to members at the BBC and at Setanta.

This morning I attended the Federation of Entertainment Unions meeting and handed over the chair for the next 12 months to Gerry Morrissey, the General Secretary of Bectu. Also had a meeting with him and officials from both unions about a new recruitment campaign we are planning at a major employer..more soon!

Also more soon about Club Union @ Union City - an exciting new cross-union venture I'm involved with showing unions aren't just about dull meetings. Keep your eyes peeled for the first night...it'll be worth it!

We're all in this together..

2010-01-04T17:05:00.004Z

The financial crisis is a time for us all to tighten our belts and share in the pain. Isn't it? Not apparently at the Daily Mail and General Trust.

First news reaches us of Paul Dacre raking in a tidy £1.63m last year - just one of five directors earning more than £1m. Dacre's basic salary - if £1.13m can be called basic - rose 3% (nice work if you can get it) and he received a cash allowance for his pension as well as help towards his accommodation and benefits in kind. If only MPs could get such allowances. His pension now stands at a cool £583,000 a year. MPs have a lot to learn from greedy pigs like Dacre.

But even Dacre's whopping wad is but mere lose change to Padraic Fallon, the group's highest paid director who received £3.46m. Viscount Rothermere had to make do with an 87.4% rise in his pay to £1.32m.

Meanwhile over at the Leicester Mercury - also owned by the DMGT subsidiary Northcliffe - the prize for the crassest seasonal email goes to editor Keith Perch who managed to offend virtually the entire newsroom by lamenting the cuts and axing of around 50 journalists from the group's staff and ending with the following 'joke' - what's the definition of optimism? A regional newspaper journalist ironing five shirts on a Sunday.

Still. Just remember. We're all in this together...

Another side of Yemen

2009-12-30T10:16:00.005Z

Season's greetings - and here's hoping the new year is prosperous. Although things don't look so good on that front with Johnston Press extending their pay freeze for another 6 months. Our reps across Johnston Press will get together early in the new year to co-ordinate their response.

Just back from Yemen - and probably just in time given the bombing raids across parts of the country aimed at alleged Al-Qaeda training camps and the revelations about the plot to blow up a US airliner. Ironically my hotel was actually located on Al-Qaida Street!

The first raid while I was there sparked some street demonstrations in the regions after it became clear there were women and children killed and that the US government had provided intelligence and possible weapons for the attack.

But I was lucky I also got to see another side of Yemen and in particular the Yemeni people - they were warm, generous and when we walked in the souq or visited the magnificent old city of Sana'a there was only a wish to engage, never a hostility. It is those people who we must remember when the demonisation of the country starts and the threat of more widespread bombing campaigns becomes a reality.

I went to Yemen on behalf of the International Federation of Journalists to help run a series of seminars/workshops on collective bargaining and trade union organisation as part of a solidarity programme with the Yemeni Journalists' Syndicate.

The union is vibrant and one of the most active in the Middle East. Like Yemen itself it has its internal divides - the political Islamists, the socialists and those who back the western-supported government - and the media in Yemen in largely government owned and run. Despite this the union doesn't shy away from speaking out on the human rights abuses and attacks on media, including the closure of a number of independent media and the arrest of 'opposition' journalists.

The workshops were fascinating. The union reps from across Yemen who attended were nothing if not passionate with at times 8 people on their feet trying to speak over the guy with the microphone! It's a union with lots of external problems and internal issues to resolve but from the little I saw it is a union with a fantastic spirit and committed reps which has the potential build its strength and be one of the leading journalists' unions in the region. It needs to develop its democratic procedures, involve its activists more in the running of the union and sort out its communications but it is a young union, developing and no-one can impose a particular way of working on it, it needs to be supported in finding its own path to building the union. But I was pleased to have the chance to help contribute to that process and hope to be able to help in that work again in the future.

I flew from the sun of Sana'a to the snow of Scotland. Now that's a culture shock!

Happy new year to everyone. Thanks as ever to all the union's reps and activists who have been magnificent in a really tough year and never get enough thanks for all the work they do for the union's members. Thank you.

Blow the whistle

2009-12-10T22:34:00.004Z

A few years ago Press Gazette ran a feature about the most powerful people in newspapers. The shocking conclusion was that not a single editor made the top 10, edged out by commercial managers and finance directors. Now, we've taken the next step.

Johnston Press' decision to axe yet more sub-editors isn't an editorial decision, it's not even a decision made by commercial or finance directors, it's a demand direct from the company's bankers.

Let's stop trying to dress such decisions up in the phony cloak of "serving communities better" and dare to utter the truth. Whilst the public may be kept in the dark, some of Johnston Press' local managers are at least telling their staff the truth. More should come and blow the whistle. We won't tell...

In other news - I handed a letter calling for Government action over the massacre of journalists in the Philippines to Foreign Secretary David Milliband on Tuesday night at a TUC dinner at the Foreign Office, met today with the trustees of the union's staff pension scheme, had a meeting of our Union Modernisation Fund project team, met with John Hardie, the Chief Executive of ITN to discuss plans for preserving regional news on ITV and met BBC Deputy Director General Mark Byford.

I also had a telephone conference with our broadcasting team and tried to speak to colleagues at the Colombian journalists' union via Skype - but their electricity was out, they were working in the dark and so we're saving that chat for tomorrow.

At least they had a reason for being kept in the dark - for Johnston's subs there's no such excuse.

Justice for Colombia

2009-12-08T12:29:00.009Z

Back from Colombia safe, sound, tired and inspired.

I was there last week as part of a Justice for Colombia human rights delegation. Colombia remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for independent journalists and trade unionists. I was joined by MPs, senior trade unionists and labour lawyers. During our 7-day visit we saw things which disgusted us, shocked us and inspired us.

The grave of one of hundreds of unnamed civilians at La Macarena

Here’s the text of the statement issued by the delegation at the end of the visit but there are some more personal reflections below it.

A delegation of British Parliamentarians, senior trade union leaders and labour lawyers visited Colombia from 29 November to 5 December.

We met with trade unionists, government officials, politicians, political prisoners, peace campaigners, farmers’ leaders, relatives of FARC hostages and the mothers, wives and sisters of the false positives scandal.
In particular we:
*Attended the FENSUAGRO conference and heard evidence of the attacks on their union, their leaders and the continued assassination of members of the union.

* Visited Soacha to meet the relatives of the victims of the false positive scandal and witnessed the impunity which continues to exist in their cases.

* Witnessed the appalling conditions for political prisoners in Patio 6 at Buen Pastor Women’s Prison, the lack of due process, the detention without trial and the inhuman removaa of children from mothers held in the prison.

* Met with the army, deputy mayor, human rights ombudsman and community leaders in La Macarena. We heard dozens of testimonies of the chilling and brutal treatment of farmers and other civilians at the hands of the army. We were deeply shocked by the hundreds of unidentified bodies in the cemetery. Despite claims to the contrary it is clear from the dates on the graves that extra-judicial executions are continuing. We saw no evidence of investment in social infrastructure.

* We discussed with numerous unions. We are deeply concerned at the continuing attacks, assassinations and criminalizing of those involved in strikes and labour rights issues. We are also concerned at plans to change the protection scheme which benefits trade unionists.

* Attended Congress and met with senators from the political opposition. We heard about the unlawful interceptions of their communications and the criminalisation of their legal activities, which undermines the democratic process.

* Met Professor Moncayo and Colombians for Peace and applaud their efforts to secure the release of hostages and promote a humanitarian exchange of prisoners as a step towards a peace process and a negotiated political settlement.

During our visit we have had a small taste of the types of harassment, intimidation and threat faced by human rights defenders, trade unionists, independent journalists and opposition politicians on a daily basis.
We were followed, subjected to intimidating photography, put under surveillance and had our personal details passed on by the police to unidentified individuals in civilian clothes.
We believe such actions were designed to intimidate us and the Colombian human rights workers and trade unions accompanying us.

Throughout, we heard detailed testimony of human and trade union rights abuses, including:
* Extra-judicial executions
* Assasinations
* Forced displacement
* Arbitrary detentions
* Mass arrests
* Disappearances
* Criminalisation of the political opposition
* Forcible transfer of land from peasant farmers to large agribusinesses and multinational corporations.

Having heard such testimony we believe that:
* The army is responsible for the majority of human rights abuses against the civilian population and a lack of government action to address the abuses makes them complicit and culpable in the continuation of such abuses.
* The abuses are systematic, widespread and continuing.
* Paramilitary activity continues, particularly in rural areas and there is evidence of continuing links with the army.
* That democratic rights and processes are undermined and negated by physical and verbal attacks on opposition.

We call for:
* Further international military aid and assistance to security forces to be stopped immediately.
* A Free trade Agreement with the EU to be blocked
* For all sides in the conflict to work towards a humanitarian exchange of prisoners as part of a step towards a peace process.
* Respect for trade union and labour rights, including freedom of association and the right to strike
Foreign aid/assistance to be targeted towards humanitarian and social projects.
* Government security forces to stop targeting civilians and stop accusing those who oppose their views of terrorism.
* Release of all political prisoners, such as Rosa Diaz, Carmelo Agamez and Liliany Obando. The rights already enshrined in law for convicted women prisoners - to be detained in a jail near their home, to be in a gender specific jail and to opt for house arrest in order to be able to stay with their children – should be upheld. The intimidation of prisoners who speak out about abuses should be halted immediately.

We will campaign in the UK and European Parliament and in the international community on all these issues as well as continuing to build on strengthening our links with individual trade unions and the CUT to help develop their capacity.

Soldiers greet our arrival at La Macarena

I think there came a point when everyone on the delegation shed a tear or two – whether seeing the remarkable dignity and defiance of the women political prisoners in the face of the overcrowded, insanitary conditions and constant harassment at Buen Pastor women’s prison or listening to the wives, mothers and sisters of those young men who had been rounded up, taken away from their homes, murdered by the army and dressed in guerrilla uniforms and then dumped in unmarked graves or paraded as enemy combatants. They weren’t, they were just vulnerable people whose lives were considered expendable by soldiers offered promotion, financial reward or time off for killing guerrilla fighters. The scandal of the ‘false positives’ as they are called was eventually exposed but the practice clearly continues despite official denials – we saw for ourselves the unmarked graves in La Macarena where more than 70 bodies had been dumped there this year alone.
But there’s so much inspiring stuff going on too – the human rights lawyers who defy the threats against them to help peasant farmers and rural communities resist land grabs, expose disappearances and forced displacements and the unions who in the face of criminalisation continue to fight for workers’ rights and economic and social justice.
I was proud to have the opportunity to address the opening session of the Fensuagro union conference.

There will be a full delegation report in the next few weeks and I’ll post a link to it here but anyone wanting more information on all the issues highlighted here can find it at http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/

Tonight I’m joining TUC colleagues for dinner with David Milliband and will use the opportunity to hand over some photos of the graves of unnamed young men at La Macarena and a copy of the statement. It’s time the UK government started to put more resources in to humanitarian assistance.

For someone terrified of flying I did 7 flights in 7 days including one in an 8-seater plane over the jungle. I never thought I’d ever do that – but hopefully I won’t have to again!

Being back in Colombia also gave me the chance to meet up again with Eduardo Marquez and Karen Cepeda from the IFJ and the Colombian journalists’ federation FECOLPER and hear about the amazing and inspiring work they are doing to build the union in Colombia and develop links across Latin America. Eduardo and Karen came to the NUJ conference in Belfast a couple of years ago and the NUJ is committed to supporting their efforts to develop a strong, independent voice for journalists in Colombia where precarious employment, corruption as well as physical threats and violence terrorise independent journalism.

It’s a pity Eduardo had to head off to Brazil for a conference but I got to see more of Karen – and discussed plans for further collaboration and strengthening links between our two unions over the coming months.

Back on Monday to reality – and a management meeting, followed by hundreds of emails, letters and phone messages.

Today I have a meeting of the TUC Executive, followed by meetings with SIPTU who represent the union’s staff in Ireland, Unite, to discuss our joint work in the publishing sector, the NUJ’s training department, to discuss staffing issues and then dinner with the TUC Executive and Foreign Office.

Conference acts to defend journalism

2009-11-23T11:06:00.002Z

The NUJ's conference is over - it's been a weekend when we've faced up to the real challenges facing members and the union as a result of both the economic crisis and the structural changes hitting our industry.

It led to tough debate, inspiring speeches and the odd moment of fun, all resulting in a mass of new campaigns, policy ideas and action to defend journalists and journalism.

It has been rigorously documented by 25 student journalists here and there's a round-up on the NUJ website and there will be more in-depth coverage in the next issue of The Journalist.

Thanks to all those who helped make the conference such a success...I'm off to lie down in a darkened room. I'll be back at work Thursday.

Resign, resign..oh, you have. Well done.

2009-11-17T14:59:00.006Z

Good decision by Alan Rusbridger to resign from the PCC Code Committee and he set out precisely why we've had so many concerns about the failings of the PCC in recent years.

"If you have a self-regulation system that's finding nothing out and has no teeth, and all the work is being done by external people, it's dangerous for self-regulation. If you have a regulator behaving this uselessly, I suspect MPs will start saying this is not regulation...I believe in self-regulation because I cannot imagine a country in which the government regulates the press, or there is statutory regulation. But the press is in a very weak position today because its own regulator, its self-regulation, has proved so weak."

Today we've also been reacting to the DCMS response to the consultation on the future of local news. There are good (no top-slicing at this stage) and bad points (still relying on that dodgy poll to say people support top-slicing) about it - but there are so many unanswered questions. And it's not as if some of them are new questions. I've personally asked Ofcom and the Secretary of State and the Special Advisers at DCMS and many others have too - what will happen to existing staff when you have pilots of the Independently Funded News Consortia, what happens if the pilots fail, what criteria are there for quality and so much else.

Now it's back to preparing for our National Executive tomorrow and writing speeches for our conference which starts on Thursday in Southport

The Journalist - the end of one era, the start of another

2009-11-16T17:30:00.006Z

Big congratulations to Christine Buckley who has been elected the new editor of The Journalist. She led from start to finish in the eight-person contest, winning by almost 1000 votes.

I've known Christine as an industrial correspondent for many years, covering TUC conference and enjoying the odd drink at Glastonbury's sorely-missed Leftfield. She'll be a real asset to the union and I'm excited about working with her to oversee the integration of our communications.

I've kept as quiet as possible during the campaign about the relative merits of candidates but I am angry at the way Richard Simcox was attacked and the union's reputation rubbished by Mark Watts. Richard didn't deserve that.

It's also a sad day for the NUJ - Tim Gopsill, editor for the past 21 years leaves today and I wish him well and hope he enjoys the retirement he deserves. I have said in the annual report that Tim wrote the union's history but he deserves a place in it himself. We've not always seen eye-to-eye - it's I suppose inevitable that the General Secretary and editor of the union's journal will not always agree - and for others it's probably a good thing, but I respect greatly the work Tim has done, particularly around press freedom issues which he has championed in the union.

Global organising....in London

2009-11-12T18:43:00.003Z

Have spent a full day with representatives from the International Federation of Journalists and unions, media and journalism colleges in South Africa, Denmark, Belgium, Canada, Australia, Spain as part of the IFJ Future of Journalism group, discussing the changes to media, jobs and union organising priorities. We are putting together a report and action plan for journalists' unions. I will present details of the first draft on Saturday morning to the IFJ Executive which is meeting in London.

Yesterday I met with our officials dealing with Trinity Mirror to plan responses to the proposal to axe the final salary pension scheme before a meeting with union leaders from the PCS, RMT, FBU, URTU and NAPO to plan a major trade union conference for early next year and discuss our lobbying and amendments around the Equality Bill, the Agency Workers' Directive and public services, including public service broadcasting.

Had a management meeting yesterday afternoon and a big run through all the details for the union's conference which takes place at the end of next week.

Another Mirror pensions scandal

2009-11-10T07:56:00.006Z

Spent yesterday morning at Canary Wharf being briefed by senior Trinity Mirror managers about their proposals to close the final salary pension scheme to all - and replace it with an inferior scheme.

The company had written to everyone late on Friday afternoon (they're all heart) saying they could no longer afford the scheme and therefore had to close it. There is a consultation until 8 January about the plans but no-one is under any illusion that this is a consultation in name only to meet legal obligations, not to really listen to the views of staff. NUJ officials will be meeting on Wednesday to plan our response. The problem we will face is years of poor decision making and returning cash to shareholders instead of saving for a rainy day mean that now it is pouring down and with a refinancing deal looming the company has little cash, despite the fact it keeps churning our profits. The problem for the company is that most people now no longer believe they have a strategy to grow the company.

Friday's news came as I was attending the seminar A Media Manifesto for the Digital Age and speaking as part of a panel which included Lord Norman Fowler, Don Foster MP, Caroline Thompson from the BBC and Natalie Fenton from Goldsmith's. A copy of my speech is available here

Saturday morning I spoke at the SERTUC Building Trades Councils' conference. A copy of my speech is available here.

Saturday evening I had dinner with Mark Serwotka and Christine Blower, General Secretaries of the PCS and NUT respectively, their partners and some friends. A very pleasant way to set the world to rights.

After yesterday's Trinity Mirror meeting I met Meic Birtwistle, NEC member for Wales and Ken Smith, chair of the NUJ's Welsh Executive Council to discuss the work there, including the prospect of recognition at the Trinity titles in Llandudno and recruitment initiatives in Caernavon before speaking at the London Magazine Branch, which ended up in a really interesting discussion about unpaid work experience and the future organisation of the union - should we be organised on a sector basis, company basis, geographical basis and should subscriptions be based on income, sector or some other factor. This is a debate which will have to be had across the whole union because the current structures and subscriptions grades are outdated and will be incapable of supporting the union's activities in the future.

This morning I'm off to the TUC Executive.

A postcard (or a1000) to Ben Bradshaw

2009-11-06T11:47:00.005Z

Had a lie in till 7am following the news that the postal workers action had been called off while talks go on. It meant no early morning picket line visit.

Yesterday afternoon NUJ Broadcasting Organiser Sue Harris and I delivered 1000 signed postcards to Ben Bradshaw's office protesting about government plans to top slice the licence fee. That 1000 added to hundreds, possibly thousands of others sent in by other organisations across the UK. But don't stop sending them in. The Queen's Speech later this month will signal the start of the parliamentary battle against top-slicing - so keep up the pressure.

pic: Jonathan Warren

The debate on the future of the media switches to the British Academy tonight where I will share a platform with a government minister, Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster, Lord Norman Fowler, Caroline Thomson, the chief operating officer from the BBC, Peter Wilby and others in an open seminar "A Media manifesto for the Digital Age". The premise of my contribution, being surrounded by so many politicians, will be that the media are failing democracy because politicians are failing the media. It will be a strong call for an economic stimulus plan for journalism not to prop up failed corporate business models but to invest in newsgathering in the public interest.

Before heading off to that I'm meeting the Latin American Workers Association and have staff meetings. Tomorrow morning I'm speaking at the South East Region TUC Conference.

It's in the post...

2009-11-05T12:05:00.002Z

Spent yesterday buzzing between meetings with Skillset, the BBC's new Director of People Lucy Adams and then did some clandestine union organising at a national newspaper (the fruits of which you will have to wait until they blossom - that sounds like a badly mixed metaphor but I can't work out what it should be).

I also finished my contribution for an International Federation of Journalists' discussion document on the future of journalism, due to be considered by their Executive which meets in London in a week's time with a final report presented to their Congress in Cadiz in May next year. Given the speed things are moving at I'll probably have to rewrite my section a few times before then!

This afternoon I'm off to DCMS to hand over 1000 Don't Top Slice the BBC Licence Fee postcards as part of our campaign to defend public service broadcasting.

In the morning I'll be off to support CWU members on their picket lines. Find out what you can do to support their action here - remember, in every dispute we have had they've supported us. You never know when you might need the posties!

Citizens, rise up...

2009-11-03T15:38:00.004Z

Last night I was at the Parliamentary launch of the Citizens Coalition for Public Service Broadcasting hosted by John Grogan MP, a brilliant defender of PSB.

He rightly ridiculed James Murdoch's assertion that profit is the guarantor of quality and independence and set out a very firm opposition to top-slicing the licence fee as part of the attempts to maintain quality local and regional news on ITV.

Carole Tongue, former MEP, set out clearly the case for levies to address the funding gap, a move supported by the NUJ and BECTU.

Levies operate in almost every other European country - and it seems logical that those who benefit from public service content should pay towards its creation. Not if you're a politician maybe, but to the rest of us it's logical. Carole also pointed out that the 5 terrestrial TV stations - BBC 1 and 2, ITV, Channel 4 and Five - are responsible for 90% of the investment in original UK PSB content. All the others put together are responsible for just 10%, despite the fact their revenues are 10 times those of the terrestrial PSBs.

John Whittingdale displayed a remarkable political arrogance in saying, despite the fact that the public had consistently backed levies over top-slicing the licence fee in Ofcom consultations, that he "didn't believe what people told Ofcom". He also said the BBC had more resources than the rest of the broadcasting industry put together. It's not true. He also signalled that commercial public service broadcasters would get a far easier ride under the Tories (and here were we thinking it couldn't get any easier!). He said: "We can't go on requiring them by law to carry on providing public service content". All hail the market!

What became clear from the civil servant from DCMS present is that mechanisms for distributing contestable funds (from top-slicing?) will be in the Queen's Speech and that there is effectively then a 12-week Parliamentary timetable to get it on to the statute books.

That means all of us who care about quality public service broadcasting, who oppose top-slicing as the thin end of the wedge, who care about the universality of PSB need to get active now. There's some ideas for action here.

If it's good enough for Robert Peston....

2009-11-02T20:55:00.003Z

Remember me?

OK, so it’s been a while..but I see even Robert Peston has had to make excuses on his blog today for a long period with no posts. He's been too busy too.

If I tried and catch up on everything that’s happened since my last post we’d be here ‘til Christmas. So instead you can get the highlights on the NUJ website including:

* news about our campaign to protect public service broadcasting

* the latest on our equal pay campaigning

* our jobs summit for journalists in the magazine and book sector

* all the activity by NUJ chapels and branches, across the UK and Ireland, who continue to stand up for journalism.

And of course there’s more: dozens of internal meetings, rallies and events. I could go on, but I won’t.

Now back to business…

More gravy...less news

2009-07-31T16:30:00.003Z

Two bits of news that sum up so much of what is wrong with the current business models in media reach us. First amidst the Guardian Media Group's poor results today is the fact that Mark Dodson, the man who has overseen dozens of job cuts and the closure of offices across Greater Manchester and the halving of staff at Channel M has been rewarded with a massive bonus, equivalent to 10% of the company's profits. What a disgrace.

Then the row erupts between Chris Bullivant and Trinity Mirror in the Midlands over the future of some of the titles shut this week. Chris Bullivant claims he could have saved them. Trinity Mirror denies this and would rather close them - and stop any competition. Whatever the merits or otherwise of Chris Bullivant's claims the fact that Trinity Mirror aren't forced to divest themselves of these titles is another disgrace.

Communities are suffering, staff are being axed but the gravy train rolls on and shares rise. Treble gins all round...

Keeping occupied

2009-07-31T14:22:00.002Z

Was looking forward to the picket lines in Birmingham and Coventry on Thursday but instead had to make do with the satisfaction of the chapels' strong stands resulting in compulsory redundancies being withdrawn and staff being redeployed. Despite the allegations that our threatened action was negligent and reckless it was effective in stopping those who did not want to go from losing their jobs...and that's what a trade union is about.

As is happening in lots of other unions there was discussion about tactics for the dispute, even occupying, sitting in and other forms of more radical action. Members have rightly ruled nothing out in fighting to stop compulsory redundancies. Occupations were once common place in the media industry, particularly for some reason in magazine and book publishing. Now that they are spreading across other industries - and there is news today of another one at Thomas Cook in Dublin - media workers are seeing such tactics can be effective. I'm sure it won't be long before we see such action in a media company. Support the Thomas Cook workers here

Today we had a campaigns meeting putting in place details of fringe events at the Labour Party and Lib Dem conference as part of the campaign against top-slicing the BBC licence fee and booked tickets for travel to far-flung places - well Manchester, Brighton, Liverpool as we prepare to take our campaigns on the road. Have also finished off and sent out a branch newsletter, welcomed the excellent victory for press freedom in Ireland (yes, another one!), had a meeting with BBC World Service management about jobs in the South Asia service, written to members of the Local Media Commission established by the union to update them on the submissions, campaigning and other activity we've been involved and spoken to MPs and the IFJ about assistance to an Iranian journalist currently in hiding.

Hope the weather's good tomorrow for a barbecue chez Serwotka. Mark is not just an inspirational General Secretary of the PCS he's a pretty mean chef to boot...

After the floods...plague and pestilence

2009-07-27T11:37:00.006Z

After the floods come plague and pestilence. Emergency planning for swine flu pandemic now well under way...two staff now gone down with it. Hopefully quick action will contain any spread - so after you read this blog, wash your hands. And don't panic - just follow the advice!

So back to last week. Tuesday I met the union's bank before heading to the Gambian High Commission in London to protest at the arrest and trial of 7 journalists. The joint TUC, Amnesty International, NUJ event was well attended and a good launch to the global day of action.

On Wednesday morning I met Brendan Barber, the TUC General Secretary before heading to the TUC General Council at which I urged wider support for the campaign against top-slicing the BBC licence fee. Joined TUC President Sheila Bearcroft to judge the TUC's awards for reps - organising and health and safety - before shooting off to Parliament to meet John McDonnell MP and the leaders of the RMT, PCS, URTU and POA to discuss joint campaigning around rights at work, public services, the Equality Bill and other cross-union issues.

We also responded to the release of Alan Milburn's Unleashing Aspirations report which took up some of the issues we have been highlighting about access to journalism and how it is increasingly becopming the preserve of those who can afford it. The report falls short of what we want, which is proper and active enforcement of the National Minimum Wage, but it is a useful tool in highlighting the issue and moving it up the political agenda.

Thursday morning I was at the BBC with Bectu General Secretary Gerry Morrissey meeting HR to discuss upcoming negotiations on the move to Broadcasting House or W1 as the project is called and raising some issues regarding BBC pensions and expenses. Later on we had an NUJ/Bectu meeting to talk about recruitment and organisation in the commercial broadcasting sector.

Friday, I had a telephone conference with reps from Trinity Mirror in advance of the strike action planned for this Thursday at titles across the Midlands. I'll be heading up to join them on the picket lines. A second telephone conference with Jim Boumelha, Pierre Vicary and Michelle Stanistreet to discuss the consultation on the future direction of the International News Safety Institute which will be considered at their AGM in Malta. A quick management meeting rounded off the afternoon.

Friday night I was at Wembley - it may be the only time Tottenham get there this year so I wasn't going to miss the chance - for the mighty Wembley Cup watching the best team in the world...play Barcelona.

Saturday morning up far too early to head to Manchester for the NUJ day school on reporting the BNP. Ian Wood the Assistant Editor of the Manchester Evening News was really interesting on the debates they had had before launching their The Truth About the BNP campaign and members from papers where the BNP have a presence on local councils provoked good debate about the nature of coverage. We also touched on the issues of terminology, the physical threats by far right activists to journalists who write about them and sorting the myths from fact around issues such as housing, immigration and so on. A stimulating day.

This morning I'm catching up with all the emails I failed to answer last week (sorry!) and writing letters - to the union's lawyers and to the BBC, putting in place early arrangements for a Jobs Summit for the union's magazine sector (10 October - save the date), and putting the finishing touches to a branch newsletter.

Then it's the dentist...is it ok if i cry now?

Flood waters rise...

2009-07-15T13:16:00.006Z

Came in this morning to the news we'd been flooded after a water cooler exploded over night and so electricity and phones were out of order - ended up having to send most staff home with the building in darkness and no access to emails, computers etc.. The worst part was no coffee.

Luckily there was coffee at the Publishing Skills Council meeting - the first one I've been to since the convoluted process to enable the union to be represented whilst pretending it is not (I'm called the employee rep or something like that). The PSC is part of Skillset, the sector skills council and it was an interesting meeting beginning to get to grips with the big discussion about the skills needs of those entering the publishing industry today at a period of such massive transformation. There's a range of views around the table but a common understanding that good vocational training and clear advice about training and careers opportunities is important.

Yesterday I spent nearly 4 hours representing a member in a disciplinary hearing before heading to my own union branch - Central London. In the morning I attended the TUC Executive which adopted a good position paper on Digital Britain and in particular in opposition to top-slicing and in favour of the NUJ/BECTU position on levies.

Monday I had been at a meeting of the BBC World Service newsroom chapel discussing some of the ideas for campaigning around top slicing and the likely funding cuts World Service may experience when its Grant in Aid is reviewed as part of government spending plans.

It is clearly going to be a very difficult time for the BBC - we had briefings at the end of last week on the situation facing the pension fund and with Ben Bradshaw on the war path jobs and programmes are going to be under threat. We understand all too well why people want to criticise BBC management - we do it every day but we also understand why many of the media have an interest in attacking the BBC's funding and it is important we distinguish between addressing poor management and action which will weaken the BBC's public service broadcasting. At the moment the cuts include environment and economics correspondents and journalists covering world news and arts. Where's the 'tackling waste' in that.

Friday was the union's National Executive Council - 9 hours of debate and discussion on topics covering job cuts across the industry, union finances, membership, motions for annual conference, policy issues as well as topics like the News of the World hacking revelations and the implications of Digital Britain.

The NEC also gave its full backing to all those resisting job cuts at profitable media companies and those defending quality in their workplaces. Authority for action was given at newspapers in Middelsborough, Newcastle, Birmingham, at Penguin, at Signal Radio in Stoke whilst the NEC welcomed the campaigning in Scotland which had resulted in MSPs criticising the impact of cuts in newspapers.

The FCO has better canapes than the TUC

2009-07-08T07:55:00.003Z

A relatively successful evening's schmoozing and lobbying at the TUC's annual reception for Parliamentarians.

First target was Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw to secure a meeting with him about Digital Britain and its implications for media workers. He's the first to arrive and I'm first in there. Job done.
Follow that up with a chat with John McDonnell about arranging a lobby of Parliament over top-slicing and then an agree with Tribune editor Chris McLaughlin to pen something about it for a forthcoming issue. Had a chat with TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O'Grady about the work of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions which is looking at a number of issues, including, thanks to the lobbying of ourselves and BECTU, the issue of the abuse of work experience. Frances sits on the panel for the TUC and has been instrumental in getting NUJ and other unions concerns on the agenda. The report is expected shortly and whilst it is unlikely to offer a panacea I am hopeful it will be another tool in trying to halt the shameful abuse of those wanting to break in to journalism and break down some of the barriers students from poorer backgrounds face in getting in to our increasingly privileged profession.
Catch up with NUJ members covering the event, like Kevin Maguire from The Mirror, communications and press officers from the CWU, Unite and others before Gordon and Sarah grace us with their presence and the PM says a few words while a few bemused tourists peer at him through the windows of Church House.

Earlier in the evening I'd been with campaigners from Colombia at a reception at Lancaster House where the new Minister Chris Bryant was due to speak. He hadn't by the time I left for the TUC event but I can report that the canapes were far fancier. But one question bugged me. It was an event about Latin America and all the serving staff were Latin American. Coincidence or cheap labour or tasteless gimmick? Answers on a postcard to.....

Today I've meetings on union recruitment followed by meetings of the National Joint Council (NJC) at the BBC with the Trust followed by a briefing on the state of play with BBC pensions.

Digital Britain dominates workload

2009-07-06T07:24:00.004Z

From meetings with BBC Director General Mark Thompson to discuss Digital Britain and the threat of top-slicing to protesting outside the Gambian High Commission over the arrest and trial of 7 journalists it was a hectic week last week - hence the late catch up on the blog.

The week kicked off with a meeting with the General Secretaries of Equity, Musicians Union and Bectu to discuss our campaigning on Digital Britain before a series of meetings with staff at the
union's HQ and an hour to draft motions for the NEC to table to the next conference. On Tuesday we had the NUJ Parliamentary Group and again Digital Britain took centre stage but we also discussed how MPs can back up the union's Freelance Month activities and whether the Iraq War Inquiry announced by Gordon Brown will have a remit to consider the killing of journalists - particularly Terry Lloyd. We also touched on press freedom issues in Gambia and Qatar. In the evening I met with around 20 Labour MPs and raised the issue of the killing of journalists and trade unionists in Colombia.

Wednesday I met with the TUC and Amnesty International to plan the activities in support of 7 journalists jailed in Gambia. I also wrote to Paul Davidson the Chief Executive of Newsquest about further threatened redundancies in the group. Thursday was spent largely at the BBC with meetings with the new director of BBC People and Director General Mark Thompson. Friday morning I chaired the Federation of Entertainment Unions when we discussed BBC and ITV activities as well as training and equality issues across the sector. From there I went to the Gambian High Commission to join the protest and hand in a letter before racing to ULU to speak in a media workshop at Marxism 2009 before heading back to catch up with emails.

3rd is the new first

2009-06-24T08:32:00.002Z

Winning would be showing off (someone tell Unite) and coming last would be embarrassing (someone tell the TSSA) so a creditable 3rd place was the perfect outcome for the NUJ team at last night's inaugral Justice for Colombia quiz night.

Held at the TUC with Brendan Barber as quiz master the NUJ line-up of Michelle Stanistreet, Roy Mincoff, Sue Harris, Miles Barter, Richard Simcox, Stephen Pearse and me proved we knew a lot about Colombia, a fair amount about food and drink, a slightly poor amount about sport and politics and bugger all about trade unions. Oh well.

Before heading off to the TUC I was at meetings with Unite discussing joint activity at Trinity Mirror and other newspaper companies and discussing issues across the publishing sector. This morning I'm at BBC meetings and in discussions with Bectu. I'm glad to see Mark Thompson has finally come out strongly against top slicing. Yesterday we set about planning the next few months of campaigning around the issue.

The final tweaks have also been made to the NUJ's 2009/10 budget which I present to Finance Committee tomorrow.

There is no alternative? Oh yes there is...

2009-06-23T10:47:00.004Z

Started the week doing an interview with Al Jazeera about the implications for journalism of Suzanne Breen's excellent victory before heading off to chair a Federation of Entertainment Unions event on funding public service broadcasting. Professor Patrick Barwise made an excellent speech setting out the case for industry levies as an alternative to government plans for top slicing. He was quoted in Polly Toynbee's article on Saturday too which took up the argument.

In his comments Patrick said: "once one starts looking at the numbers, it's clear industry levies ought to be a large part of the answer...if the net is spread widely, even a very small revenue levy can generate enough to fill the PSB funding gap. ..there will be fierce debates about the right combination of levies, spending priorities, market distortion and state aid, accountability and so on. But don't let anyone suggest that a levy is inherently difficult or impractical...only five out of 27 countries in the EU don't have a levy on the sales of new recording equipment".

There were also excellent contributions from John Smith the General Secretary of the Musicians' Union and Luke Crawley, Assistant General Secretary of Bectu.

The NUJ and Bectu commissioned a report from IPPR earlier this year about levies. A copy can be downloaded here.

This is getting embarrassing

2009-06-18T16:41:00.004Z

..and now we've been named hero of the week for our campaigning on civil liberties. cheers!

Landmark victory for media freedom

2009-06-18T16:33:00.004Z

Fantastic - Suzanne Breen has won - and convincingly. The judgement was as good as it could have been. Congratulations to Suzanne.

Here's some of the early media coverage, including Suzanne's comments outside the court and here's what our Irish Secretary Seamus Dooley had to say.

What with that and the comments of Lord Carlisle it's been quite a day.

Oh and we're under fire from the BNP - as fascists. ha, ha, ha.... The worrying thing is that so are other media and some others are so worried by the abuse they are getting they may decide not to run any more stories. That way the BNP would win. Tonight's meeting is precisely to help us organise against this kind of intimidation.

High noon on judgement day

2009-06-18T07:43:00.002Z

At midday today a court in Belfast could effectively pass what amounts to "a death sentence" on a journalist. Of course, Suzanne Breen may be given a choice - she can go to jail instead. But there is a chink of light. Thanks to the fabulous campaign she and her paper and the union have run she has massive support for the principle of protection of sources and the court could uphold that principle. Whatever the outcome today the union will support Suzanne to the hilt. She is protecting a fundamental principle of journalism. If she is forced to hand over her notes and records not only will she be placed in danger but investigative journalism will be dealt a massive blow. Good luck Suzanne.

In the event that the judgement goes against her not just the union but the whole of the media must react. It is all our rights under attack.

While the court case is going on we'll be holed up in the union's Policy Committee meeting covering our Parliamentary work, our TUC work and our international work. With the release of Digital Britain there's much to discuss. Our campaigning against top-slicing needs to be stepped up with the news that 3.5% of the BBC licence fee is to be 'shared'. So they are still planning to rob Peter to pay Paul and give a massive public subsidy to commercial organisations whilst asking little in return. The report is a failure in that it fails to identify new money to help public service broadcasting or other media - it just plans to share out the same pot even thinner putting more pressure on quality.

I met the new Culture Secretary (and NUJ member!) Ben Bradshaw last night at the All Party Parliamentary Media Group reception at Channel 4 and had a chance to urge a rethink and push the alternative he says he is interested in finding. It's called levies. And having been told by all and sundry they are difficult to deliver politically we then get a levy on the public to pay for part of the broadband roll-out. Oh the hypocrisy! Anyone interested in hearing the case for levies should come along on Monday to an event organised by the Federation of Entertainment Unions.
It's time to join the battle. It may be our last chance to save the licence fee from a future rapacious government. I also had a good chat with Don Foster MP and Austin Mitchell about Digital Britain. They have both made excellent interventions standing up for journalism in the current debate.

Apart from hob-nobbing with the media glitterati at Channel 4, I've moved office (to make room for the GFTU who move in next month), had a number of internal staff meetings and attended meetings of the TUC Executive and the unattractively named Organisation and Representation Task Group but which is actually the key cross-unions committee at the TUC dealing with employment rights issues and union recruitment. We had an interesting discussion about plans to try to reverse the decline in union membership which is particularly acute because of the recession. The pattern is uneven with some unions gaining members whilst others have suffered heavy losses. We're doing not too badly given the huge job losses there have been in our industry. Recruitment remains high but it is not keeping up with the numbers leaving the industry at the moment. Over the next few months our attention will be on breaking in to new areas and building the number of union reps we have to help build the effectiveness of the union in more workplaces.

Is there a future for journalism?

2009-06-12T08:35:00.002Z

Yes. That's the simple answer but it's taken us two days to come up with that. Well, not strictly true, it's taken us two days to set out the changing landscape of journalism and the implications of that for journalists, journalism and our unions.

I've been taking part in an International Federation of Journalists Consultative Group on the Future of Journalism with leading journalists from Spain and Belgium, union reps from Canada, Australia, Denmark and a media academic from South Africa as well as IFJ officers covering the Middle East, Africa and Europe and General Secretary Aidan White.

The brief is to map the changing landscape of journalism - both providing support and assistance to those fighting the current crisis affecting parts of the media and sketching out the changing working practices for journalists, changing models of journalism and the development of new forms of journalism and to assess how journalists and in particular journalists' unions need to respond.

It was a stimulating discussion - but now the hard work starts. We've each been given one section of the project to develop, research, write up, make recommendations on before a final report will be produced later in the year. Mine's on the changing nature of journalistic work - any contributions welcome!

Key to the work though is the actions that come out of it - there's plenty of academic reports and this one has to provide support for unions in the recruitment and organisation of journalists in developing areas of the media. Outside the conference I had the opportunity to swap ideas with Claire O'Rourke from our sister union in Australia who are facing many of the same problems and taking up the new challenges in an active way through their future of journalism project. Sharing experience, in particular where we have had successes, is vital.

Hello Jeremy, I'm Jeremy...

2009-06-09T13:15:00.003Z

I'm sat in Parliament having just had an interesting meeting on the future of local media with the Conservatives' Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson Jeremy Hunt. We covered issues about the licence fee, the future of local and regional news on ITV and how to fund and support new local media initiatives. We also gave him a copy of the union's economic stimulus plan for the media which we launched earlier today.

This morning I met with freelance journalist Stephen Grey to talk about a new initiave he's working on to support investigative journalism - it sounds really exciting and I'm keen the NUJ gets involved in the project. More on this in the coming weeks I'm sure.

This afternoon I'm meeting Mark Donne to talk about yet another new initiave - Real Fits - an online project supporting original journalism. In particular they have an exciting new project called Breaking News 2020.

It's good to see so many people looking for creative solutions to sustain quality journalism in the midst of the crisis brought about by the corporate greed of too many media owners.

Yesterday was taken up with internal meetings - first up I presented the draft budget to the union's national officers before a lengthy management meeting to discuss the relocation of offices inside Headland House in preparation for our new tenants - the GFTU - moving in and to monitor progress on implementing our savings plans.

Tomorrow I'm off early to Brussels for an IFJ round table on the future of journalism.

Victory for quality journalism

2009-06-03T14:06:00.002Z

Congratulations to Alice O'Keeffe and the rest of the New Statesman team for their victory at the Amnesty International Media Awards last night. It was a pleasure to hand the award over to Alice and the team who produced No Place for Children - and great to hear her remind everyone that human rights abuses do not just happen in far away lands. The way we treat asylum seekers in the UK and in particular their children brings nothing but shame on us as a society.

Congratulations too to Dan McDougall and Robin Hammond for their excellent Observer magazine piece on the persecution of Roma in Italy which picked up the other periodicals award.

A full list of winners is available here - well done to them all, they are proving journalism really does matter.

Before heading off to the awards I was at the rather less glamorous Civil Service Club speaking to members of Westminster Trades Council - and setting out the case for a People's Charter which the NUJ has now signed up to.

Evening meetings followed a day of negotiations with staff unions and putting the finishing touches to the draft 2009/10 budget which will be presented to our National Officers on Monday, to our Finance Committee later this month and then to our National Executive for endorsement in July.

Back to life, back to reality

2009-06-02T08:59:00.003Z

After the excitement of Baghdad, it's back to the more mundane - although that's a kind description of five hours of pay negotiations at the BBC. Given the economic climate and the fact that most members are focused on saving jobs and looking ahead to a battle to save the current salary scheme we felt we got a reasonable offer out of the BBC. No-one will be rich but at least most people will get a rise with the lowest paid benefiting the most.

Thursday was a day of BBC talks - first up an interview with Newsnight about the state of the local newspaper industry followed negotiations over BBC Sport's move to Salford. Next up it was talks with Bectu about the BBC/ITV partnerships and the likely Digital Britain outcomes before beginnning the marathon pay negotiations.

Friday I was up early to travel to Eastbourne for the TUC's Trades Councils Conference, which I chair. After a committee meeting we hosted a rally against the far right before the conference proper debated motions on the economic crisis, the environment, education, public services and much more. It must have been the warm weather and the fact we were meeting in a windowless room but we were all finished by 11am on Sunday - surely a record, which I put down to great chairing! It at least allowed me a couple of hours on the beach.

No rest for the wicked. Monday morning it's in to the office for a management meeting before trying to plough through emails and head to the TUC for a meeting.

Tonight is the Amnesty International Media Awards which I am looking forward to - I was a judge and am handing over two of the awards. Before that I've got negotiations with our own staff unions and am making a speech to a joint meeting of trades union councils in London.

Guess who's back...?

2009-05-28T07:17:00.012Z

No, not Eminem or even Slim Shady but me...and bloody glad to be so having just returned from Baghdad.

I was honoured to be part of making history, being part of the first international conference to take place in the city since the invasion and occupation began in 2003. With the rather grand title of the Baghdad Journalism Summit 2009: Iraqi Media Working for Democracy the conference brought together around 200 members of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate (IJS) with colleagues from around 30 countries to discuss issues from public service values in media to building professional solidarity, to safety issues to tackling impunity, promoting ethical journalism and media development. Organised jointly by the IJS and the International Federation of Journalists the conference was broadcast live on Iraqi TV, made all the Iraqi newspapers as well as a number of international media.

Being so high profile and a potential propaganda coup for the government or one faction or another security was beyond tight. We were met at the airport by armoured vehicles mounted with machine guns, by trucks full of armed security - police, army and private security - who led us in convoy from the airport along what Iraqi journalists told us was the most dangerous highway in the world because of the number of roadside bombings, to the Al Rasheed hotel inside the heavily fortified Green Zone.

The route was lined with high, thick concrete walls topped with barbed wire with numerous check points staffed by machine gun toting soldiers. Watchtowers with machine gunners looked over the road. Vans with explosive detection equipment swept the road. It's fair to say at this point the whole delegation looked a little pale.

The hotel was a ghost town - after all there aren't many tourists - and it had taken us nearly 2 hours to get through security. Our hotel was surrounded by high concrete walls, had an armed sentry post at the end of the drive and another at the main gates to the hotel where every time we came in and out we had to be searched by the Peruvian security force guarding the hotel. Then there was another search at the front door of the hotel. Finally we got to our rooms. Faded grandeur - in ten years it will be retro chic.

Down for some dinner and the first chance to meet Moaid Al Lami, the President of the Iraqi Journalists' Syndicate. His predecessor was murdered last year - one of more than 250 Iraqi journalists killed - and he himself was targeted in a bomb attack. He expresses to us how important a show of solidarity it is for us to come to Baghdad and speak up for journalists and journalism in Iraq and support the union.

A rather sleepless night - you can hear the helicopters flying over the hotel - before the conference opens the following morning. It's the pomp and circumstance bit. Drummers, singers and entertainers warm us up for the arrival of the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri Al Maliki whilst CIA agents and Iraqi security sweep the building. Despite the ceremony Maliki says nothing of any value and doesn't take questions but is forced to sit and listen as IFJ General Secretary Aidan White and Moaid Alami make the case for sweeping away the media laws established by Paul Bremer as the imperial power in Iraq in 2003 and for greater action on bringing to justice the killers of journalists.

On to the conference proper and speakers from Spain, the US, Lebanon join two Iraqi colleagues to talk about building independent media. It clearly is a huge issue here as journalists feel under pressure either from government or one faction or another. And that's not just pressure through strong opinions but is commercial and physical pressure too. In the afternoon we discuss a new model for public service broadcasting in Iraq.

It's Saturday night in downtown Baghdad..and we get ready to go out. Armoured vehicles - check. Lots of soldiers - check. More guns than you knew existed - check. We're ready to roll. We head through town to Abu Nawaas Street on the banks of the Tigris, famous for its restaurants. One of the bridges over the river has been shut so we are forced to take a different route and get stuck in a traffic jam. The one thing we've been told is not to stop in traffic. There's no choice and the tension levels rise again - after all it's hard to blend in in an armoured convoy. Soldiers run about shouting and pointing guns at drivers doing nothing wrong and clear a path for us to drive through. After another hair-raising journey we reach the restaurant and sit o0n the roof with the Tigris one side and the Palestine Hotel the other - the scene of the killing of Jose Couso, the Spanish journalist by US troops in 2003. As with 19 other cases where US troops killed a journalist no-one has been brought to justice for the killing - a point we make in TV interviews during the meal. Every move we make is filmed. When we eat, drink, chat there is always a camera (or several) in our faces.

The meal is late and we miss the curfew to get back in to the Green Zone and so we spend nearly two hours negotiating our way back in to the hotel through the various security checks.

Sunday morning it's my turn, speaking as part of a panel on the Ethical Journalism: The Challenges facing Journalism. I get to talk a bit about the Suzanne Breen case and protection of sources, about union action to take up ethical issues, about codes of practice, our ethics council's work, about a framework of law, about our conscience clause campaign. It goes down well and a few people ask for copies of my speech. If only I'd written it down....

Immediately after my panel I'm asked to take part in another one to report on the IFJ's work on impunity before the families of media victims joint together in a strong call for justice. The wife of Shihab Al Tamimi, the murdered former head of the Iraqi Journalists' Syndicate makes an emotional plea for her husband's killing to be properly investigated. It is a poignant reminder of just how dangerous it remains to be a journalist and trade unionist in Iraq. The lie that life is normal again in Baghdad just doesn't wash. In the three days before we got there around 100 people were killed in suicide bombings. The night we arrived an American contractor was blindfolded, stabbed several times and had his throat slit inside the Green Zone, not far from our hotel.

It's lunchtime and a small group of us are piling back in to the minibuses and joining the by now familiar convoy to head to a meeting with the Minister of the Interior. As we arrive he sits resplendent on a gold chair (some might call it a throne) and we are ushered in to sit around. Pleasantries over I am asked to say a few words on behalf of the delegation and ask the Minister to update us where they are with their investigations in to the killing of journalists and progress on ensuring journalists can work free from threat and independently. He consults with officials and answers a different question. Then he suggests lunch. Over lunch we have another go - he promised a report to us a year ago on the status of the investigations - can we have the report? He again promises it at an future date. He will email it to us. Just as Eduardo Marquez from FELCOLPER, the Colombian journalists' union, begins asking him a question the lights go down and a blaring propaganda film starts about how good has triumphed over evil and all are happy in Baghdad. Then the message is reinforced by a play all in Arabic but which is apparently very funny judging by the audience reaction.

Despite attempts to ask more questions we are ushered back to conference. On the way out we do a series of TV interviews setting out the key demands of the Iraqi journalists for better conditions, greater freedom of expression, greater transparency and freedom of information and so on. When we see the interviews on TV they have been dubbed so I've no idea how it came across - but we tried.

Back at the conference we endorse a lengthy declaration setting out an action plan for the next two years to help the IJS build its strength and to enable it to play a greater role in building an independent media, solidarity amongst journalists and tackle the huge problems of corruption brought about by lack of job security, poor wages and the pressure applied to journalists.

It's our last night in Baghdad - and as if things hadn't been surreal enough - we are convoyed to a park - where we sit in armchairs and are entertained by Iraqi folk musicians and an Iraqi cosmonaut (yes, really!). Once again TV crews broadcast our reaction - and our dinner - live. There's one slightly scary moment when the generators fail and all the lights go out and we realise we're sat out in the open, having been shown live on TV doing so, in the pitch dark. The security are obviously a bit nervous too and move in closer to protect us. But the fear is short-lived, the lights are back and the show can go on.

We understand from our Iraqi hosts that the government wanted the event broadcast because it would help show life in Baghdad was returning to normal. You could sit in a park, enjoy a meal and some music...what could be more idyllic. I'm sure the TV didn't show the fact that the park had been cleared of 'ordinary' people and that it was surrounded by tanks, armoured vehicles and heavily armed soldiers. Still, why let reality intrude.

Monday morning it's back along the airport road and through rigorous airport security, including having to empty your bag out on the tarmac just before going up the steps of the plane and soon we're on our way back to Amman. There's a real sense of relief.

So what to make of it. We all knew before going it was going to be tough, that a conference was not going to solve all the problems faced by Iraqi journalists, that the government and others would try to use the visit for propaganda purposes but at the same time we believed we owed solidarity to our sisters and brothers in Iraq - not just by passing motions in conferences in London but by coming to Baghdad to understand a little better the daily reality for them, the dangers and pressures they face and discuss in detail how we can learn from each other's experiences and build genuine trade union solidarity.

This was a start - and I'm proud I was able to be part of it - there's a long way to go- but if the courage and commitment we saw from so many ordinary Iraqi journalists is anything to go by they will struggle for their freedom and independence from the occupiers, the government and all those factions who seek to control the message.

Normally after you've been away you dread coming back to work. Today it felt good. I'm sure it won't last....

More strikes as crisis deepens

2009-04-08T07:41:00.003Z

I've been away - not on holiday but holed up in various rooms across the BBC trying to resolve the dispute over threatened compulsory redundancies at the South Asia Service. Negotiations often go quite close to the wire - but these almost went beyond. 10 hours before national strike action was due to begin across the BBC we reached a deal. The night before we'd reached a stalemate and talks broke down at 1am. It looked like the strike was on. But an 11th hour meeting set out a process for avoiding compulsory redundancies. Now we have to make sure it delivers - otherwise we have reserved our right to take strike action in the future.

The talks dragging on in to Thursday meant I had to pull out of the delegation to Colombia. At this very moment I'm meant to be doing a press conference in Bogota - instead i'm in London looking forward to a management meeting. No comment.

Apart from the BBC I've met with Johnston Press reps - where our members at Burnley have now also voted for strike action - who have drawn up plans for a couple of activities to highlight the cuts in local media in the coming weeks, sent a message of support to strikers at the Daily Record/Sunday Mail, appointed Sue Harris to be the union's new broadcasting organiser to replace Paul McLaughlin who leaves the NUJ after 10 years on 24 April, attended part of the NUJ Commission on Local Media, been to Brussels to meet with the International Federation of Journalists and answered endless emails. I've even figured out how to work my new mobile phone.

Everything at the moment is dominated by the crisis engulfing local media - from MPs and Lords saying the licence fee should be used to fund Channel 4 (an idea that simply robs Peter to pay Paul and does nothing to improve the media) to the debate about media ownership to the daily job losses hitting all parts of the industry. Every day is a mixture of providing support to members facing cuts and lobbying for changes which will help sustain and build new media in the future.

It's clear the major publishers simply have no answer but to make journalists pay for the crisis they have created through their greed and failure. Gannett, parent company of Newsquest, whilst dishing out $2m in bonuses to executives asked staff in the US to work unpaid for a week last month as a one-off. Now they have come back demanding the same this month, next month and the month after.

Here Newsquest have asked staff to follow suit. We've written to them saying we believe such a solution is unaffordable for low paid journalists - but have offered a dialogue about ways we can work with the company to tackle its debt and financial problems. The response. Nothing. Same is true of Trinity Mirror. Only a foolish government would hand money to these modern-day robber barons.

The NUJ has had its rows and its good times with Press Gazette over the years but through it all it has served our industry brilliantly. I'm very sad to hear of its demise. Yes I know Wilmington say it will continue online to be a valuable resource for journalists. How, when it is getting rid of all its journalists remains to be seen. I'm with Roy Greenslade and Jon Slattery on this one...

Standing room only..no, really.

2009-03-26T18:59:00.004Z

It's an old trick of campaigners to say there was standing room only to give an indication of just how popular the meeting you organised was. But this time it really was as we lobbied the UK Parliament over the future of local media.

pic: (c) Pete Jenkins

The debate over how to tackle job cuts and build a sustainable local media has been hotting up over recent months - in the past week it has been a very hot topic.

First the Newspaper Society, Society of Editors lobbied Andy Burnham. Then we did. Then he agreed to an industry-wide conference which we had urged him to do. Then we all trundled off to the Office of Fair Trading to give evidence on media mergers. The following day Parliament debated the cuts in local journalism. Then the NS and SoE rushed out their plan to save the media. We staged our lobby and have now secured the support of 94 MPs for our Early Day Motion.

Today the Tories have launched their media plans and on Monday our Commission on Local Media meets - with Roy Greenslade, John Lloyd, Barbara Gunnell, the Community Media Association, Keith Sutton, Nick Davies and others coming together to discuss the future of local media. That work will feed in to the union's own submission to government on how to build a plural, accountable and sustainable local media.

Some key issues are emerging - consolidation or deregulation is not the answer. More of the same failed policies does not address the problem.

Levies on the parasitic companies who aggregate news but don't produce any original content themselves (hello, Google - are you listening?) could secure widespread support amongst media workers and companies.

A debate will rage about whether councils produce 'newspapers' because of the failure of local newspapers to cover their patch or the failure of local newspapers to be able to cover their patch is down to local council papers. The Local Government Association should be brought in to the discussion.

Better use of government advertising to support local media is supported by most - the real question is how do you ensure that the revenues are used to bolster local journalism not just carry on rewarding shareholders.

But any look at local media shouldn't just look at how to protect existing companies but how to help journalists, local communities and businesses develop alternatives that may be specialist, small-scale, may be trusts, co-operatively run or simply locally-owned companies. They may be in print, online or broadcasters. Are there ways subsidised newsprint or grants for technology, training or business advice can be provided.

Whilst not much is clear in the debate at this stage, it is clear there is a strong support for quality journalism across the political spectrum and in local communities. And no-one must forget that quality journalism can only be delivered if you have enough journalists and editorial resources.

Apart from the lobby I have been pursuing discussions with the BBC over outstanding threats of compulsory redundancy at BBC World Service South Asia Service, meeting with all the union's officials for our 6-monthly strategy discussion, meeting our staff union reps, writing my column for Tribune on the abuse of work experience and meeting with reps from the BBC. I also did 4 radio interviews around the lobby.

An (un) fair cop

2009-03-23T10:05:00.003Z

The Joint Committee on Human Rights has called for steps to be taken against police officers who fail to follow the nationally agreed police/media guidelines. This was one of the calls we made when giving evidence to the Committee and we're pleased to see it has been taken up. On the back of the apology from Kent Police over their treatment of journalists at the Climate Camp protests and the call from the Met Police Federation to stop mpoliticians using thye police for political purposes and the recent expose in The Guardian of police surveillance of journalists it adds to the pressure on police and politicians to lay off media personnel trying to do their job in the face of a clampdown on dissent.

Let's hope it starts to change the behaviour towards journalists covering protests (and towards peaceful protestors!). It couldn't come at a better time with the wave of G20 protests coming up. See you at the Put People First march on Saturday...

Devastating news...

2009-03-23T09:29:00.003Z

It’s Monday morning, I’ve been back from Laos for two weeks and this is the first chance I’ve had to catch up on the blog. I promise I’ll try and do better in future!

The past two weeks have been devastating for the industry – amongst the worst of the recent cuts announced were those at GMG – but have also witnessed yet more of the fighting spirit amongst our members, whether at Leeds and the BBC South Asia Service or at the Morning Star where a welcome new deal on pay was agreed to end the dispute.

So what have I been up to. Here’s a snapshot…
l Gave evidence to the Office of Fair Trading investigation in to proposals to relax the media merger regime. In other words, should we allow greater consolidation in the local and regional newspaper industry. Er, no. Debt, brought about by excessive borrowing in order to fund recent consolidation, is one of the principal reasons driving cost-cutting at the moment. I simply don’t believe the companies who say further consolidation would save jobs. Further consolidation would mean more cuts and journalism becoming even more remote from the communities it seeks to serve. Centralised subbing, photographic pools, general reporters without patches, closed district offices…it’s a recipe for driving the final nail in the industry’s coffin. Instead of allowing the same greedy owners to fleece our industry more we should be finding ways to break up their existing monopolies.

l Met Secretary of State Andy Burnham to discuss the future of regional and local media. We made the call for him to convene an industry conference to consider how the government, Regional Development Agencies, media companies, local businesses, journalists and editors can come together to sustain quality local media – that means both supporting existing media prepared to invest in quality content and helping to support new local initiatives – in print and online.

l Lobbied Johnston Press over cuts at the Yorkshire Post/YEP. We took our campaign to the financial analysts – part of our argument that continuing cuts are a false economy, leading to lower sales and fewer advertisers in a cycle of decline. I joined striking journalists handing out leaflets as the company announced their latest results - £128m profit. Later that day I went to the Waldorf Hotel to meet Johnston’s HR head Malcolm Vickers to press for a resolution of the dispute.

l Met with BBC M/FoCs to discuss the threat of compulsory redundancies at the South Asia Service. Reps named two days for national strike action following a 77% yes vote in the ballot. Since then I’ve met with chapel members at the South Asia Service and had informal talks with BBC management to try to resolve the dispute. More talks are expected this week.

l Submitted our response to the panel on fair access to the professions. The union has campaigned for a number of years to open up journalism to people from all backgrounds. 98% of new entrants have degrees, just 3% come from families headed by semi-skilled or unskilled workers and far too many people are expected to work for free for months at a time before they can get a job in the industry. No wonder access is so restricted. We have lobbied HMRC, the Low Pay Commission and now welcome the chance to push our case with government. We’ve called for an industry training levy, better enforcement of the national minimum wage and support for union initiatives like the George Viner Memorial Fund and Move on Up project which provide assistance to Black and Asian journalism students.

l Attended our Policy and our Finance committees – discussing the union’s financial situation, plans to rent out part of Headland House, our work with the TUC, our international work and much more.

l Had meetings with reps from Johnston Press, Newsquest (subsequently wrote to Chief Executive Paul Davidson setting out our concerns about the company’s request for staff to work unpaid for a week), Guardian Media Group and this week went to Manchester for a meeting of Trinity Mirror reps to try to co-ordinate our response to cuts and pay freezes.
l Run from meeting to meeting – the TUC Executive, internal management meetings, Central London Branch AGM, the Colombian embassy and many more…

Oh, and I won the football World Cup. Well, the mini World Cup. Actually the Berkeley Nomads AFC Mini World Cup – a 6-a-side tournament featuring five teams. But still, the NUJ team won.

Must rush, got a column to write for Tribune.

God, that holidays feels a long time ago!

The cop, the mayor and the communist...

2009-02-14T11:58:00.002Z

Thursday morning headed to New Scotland Yard to meet senior police officers about our photo event on 16 February highlighting the introduction of new laws making it unlawful to photograph police buildings or officers. Then on to City Hall to meet Guto Hari, Boris Johnson's press head honcho to talk about ways the Mayor can promote quality journalism in London - the day the front page of the Evening Standard is dominated by Boris' alleged 'f-word tirade'. We've also written to the London Assembly urging them to take action to protect quality and diversity in London's media as more local titles are merged, offices closed and jobs cut. A full staff meeting at Headland House rounded off the day.

Friday morning I met with Morning Star Chapel officers about their dispute, sent the formal industrial action notice to the company, produced a newsletter for Johnston Press reps, met with representatives of the Journalist Editorial Advisory Board and had conversations with both the TUC and Unite about union recognition at Pearson Education (Oxford). The afternoon was dominated by a meeting with Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger and senior finance and editorial managers - during which they announced their plans for a pay freeze for all staff - we've not accepted the need for the freeze, instead asking them key questions about the company's finances. Further information-gathering meetings will take place before pay negotiations next month.

Spent several hours trying to deal with all the outstanding emails, correspondence, phone calls etc before heading home to prepare for my holiday...see you in three weeks!

More on that BBC DEC decision

2009-02-10T10:56:00.002Z

News reaches me from the BBC Director General’s meeting with staff on the corporation’s decision not to air the DEC appeal for humanitarian assistance.

I wasn’t there so others may have another view (feel free to post it here) but more than one source has confirmed this version of events…

“This was probably the most cynical piece of news management I think I've experienced at the BBC…..Thompson and Byford and their minders used every trick in the book to suppress genuine criticism and deeply felt anger directed towards them from BBC staff (as witnessed during two bruising encounters with staff at the BBC Arabic Service and BBC Monitoring last week).

To start off with, they buried news of this important meeting. A small notice was posted in the BBC weekly paper, Ariel, more than a week earlier and no further mention was made. There was no email sent out to staff to say it was happening. This is an astonishing omission given the seriousness of the allegations against Thompson and the level of staff criticism about this decision. Someone fortunately sent me a link on Wednesday to an announcement which was hidden on the Internal Communications website, otherwise I wouldn't have found out about it. (I was told it had been on the front page of the BBC intranet site Gateway on Thursday morning, but I doubt many members of staff would have seen it there and it was too late anyway).

If you were lucky enough to stumble on news about the meeting, you had to contact IC to ask to attend, and only then would they tell you about the venue. A number of my colleagues emailed on Thursday morning and were told it was full. This is an interesting concept, because the venue was in fact TC6, a huge studio at TV Centre that could hold at least 400 people. What they laid on was about 12 round tables with white tablecloths, which could have seated at least 12 people each but had only four to six chairs per table.

A nice "Audience Management" lady with a clipboard (with our names on - not on the list? no entry!) told me they had made places for 100 people. A couple of unsuccessful applicants who came along anyway were taken to a "holding area" and then allowed to fill empty seats. This bizarre gala dinner layout was, by the way, especially tailored for this meeting and it was cleared away afterwards. There were two red chairs allocated for Thompson and Byford on a stage on one side, but they never used them. Instead they wore radio-mics and stood, quite aggressively and confrontationally right next to the front table

Questions got an answer from both Marks, sometimes they had more than one stab at each answer. Their spiel was exactly what was expected - not about not wanting to be seen taking sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict, it's just that this is a "controversial" issue, an "on-going" news story, "consistent with 30-40 years of BBC policy", would do the same even if it wasn't Israel-Palestine. we would do the same even if Israel wasn't involved; there are no "innocent victims of war" in this conflict; Aid agency employees are not angels, but ambitious individuals who knew the BBC's position but called the appeal anyway.

Thompson said the Trust would rule in about two weeks whether the decision was correct and the complainants had pledged to take their case to judicial review if they failed with the Trust.

During the 80 minute session, several speakers managed to land punches from the floor, a few examples of which are below:
- Do they think all the resources we've put into covering Mid-East story have been wasted, if the audience cannot make their own judgments about things like this? (er no, but they had to do it anyway)
- Since when was our impartiality so fragile that we shied away from negative reaction for something we considered important?
- Why wasn't there an announcement before and after the film and a strap running through the film saying it wasn't BBC editorial content? (MB had apparently suggested this too, but MT said it was never done like that with DEC appeals)
- Was it worth the catastrophic damage to BBC reputation in the Middle East? (apparently it'll blow over - like Jerry Springer - apparently MT has an annual meeting with evangelical Christians and the atmosphere is improving)
- If as they claimed we were damned-if-we-did/damned-if-we-didn't on this one, why did they choose the option which meant not helping people?
- Why didn't they consult people meant to know about the Middle East who could have told them what a disaster this would be? (apparently because they wanted to protect them from taking this difficult, divisive decision)
- Weren't they worried about safety of staff in the region after such a provocative decision? (yes, but never mind, they'll look after them)- Aren't we putting the perception of impartiality over the need to provide food, clothing, shelter for needy people?

After this meeting the Arabic Service staff circulating petition deploring the decision and seeking its reversal."

Watch this space…

Global response needs to be bolder

2009-02-10T09:04:00.003Z

Am in Brussels at the grandly-titled Council of Global Unions - an attempt to bring together all the main international trade union groups. It's the follow-up to the Washington meeting I attended last December.

The global economic crisis is dominating our agenda - and how we respond. It's frustrating to see the bureaucracy of the global labour movement at work whilst out on the streets hundreds of thousands are striking, demonstrating and protesting. There are some startling statistics - 800,000 jobs lost in one month in the US, one billion people facing starvation - and our response needs to be bolder, quicker and more pro-active.

Last night I took the chance to do a meeting with NUJ Brussels branch members and try to address some concerns they have about how the union supports members in Continental Europe.

Due to the wonders of wi-fi i have also been able to write to Vernon Coaker about ongoing concerns about photographers' rights, to write to David MIlliband about the UK government's opposition to the draft Ministerial Resolution on developments in anti-terrorism legislation in the Council of Europe and its impact on freedom of expression and information. I've also sent emails to NUJ executive members, chapels, branches, councils about mobilising for a lobby of Parliament in March over the future of local media.

Snow joke (and a variety of snow-related puns)

2009-02-06T08:00:00.003Z

Why is it the more you do the more interesting things you’d have to blog about but the less time you have to do it.

So, another quick catch-up, dominated by strike ballots.

Monday I braved the snow in suit and wellies – always a fetching look – only to find everyone I was due to meet hadn’t made it in to London. I did however manage to hold a telephone conference with Johnston Press reps about the latest situation and in particular building support for the strike ballots at the Derry Journal and Yorkshire Post/YEP and plough through weeks worth of outstanding correspondence and wrote and did the lay out for our NEC newsletter, Informed.

Tuesday I met with Pension Trustees followed by the NUJ Staff Pension Scheme AGM – an hour of answering questions about the performance of the pension scheme. Never the easiest task – in the middle of a global economic meltdown (or is it a depression?) an unenviable one. Wednesday we had a 3-hour management team meeting before heading over to The Independent for their chapel meeting that massively backed a motion to move to a ballot for industrial action.

Thursday morning I had negotiations with Morning Star management as part of the current dispute there. Some progress was made and talks are ongoing. After a meeting with NUJ staff unions over finance and budgets I went across to City Hall to talk to Guto Hari, Boris Johnson’s head press honcho (and a former Cardiff School of Journalism classmate of mine). But that damned snow – and Boris’ response to it – kept intervening so we’ve rearranged for next week. We wrote setting out our concerns at the closures of local newspapers, loss of jobs and merging of newspaper offices in London, seeking the support of the GLA and Mayor of London for a campaign to protect diversity and quality in London’s media. From there a quick phone call to the BBC regarding our industrial action ballot there and to see what progress could be made in negotiations in advance of ballot papers going out and then straight over to the Morning Star for their evening Chapel meeting to report back on negotiations. Hopefully more talks will take place in the coming days.

Missed the Money Programme on the future of newspaper industry last night but had some texts saying I looked like I was trying to hold up a building because of the way I was leaning against it – you know these TV types, getting you to pose for them. Hopefully that didn’t distract from making the important points about the damage being done to the industry by profiteering and unnecessary cuts.

And now it's snowing again. Great.

Coming up for air

2009-01-30T15:21:00.005Z

Finally time to draw some breath in what is a hectic period for the union.

Quick update - Tuesday I met Journalist editor Tim Gopsill to discuss the next stage of our web integration plans before meeting staff union reps to discuss the union's financial situation and our response to it. Barry Fitzpatrick, Michelle Stanistreet and I then met Malcolm Vickers, head of HR for Johnston Press to press our concerns about jobs cuts, centralised subbing plans, pay freezes and so on and to get an update on company plans and finances. Tuesday evening I did a media interview (as a source so i'm saying no more!).

Wednesday morning I and Sue Harris met with Mike Danson the joint owner of New Statesman for constructive talks on the union's recognition claim. There is an agreement in principle to recognise the union - we've now given ourselves a 4-week period to flesh out the details of the collective bargaining agreement.

I then did something I hate doing - had to pull out of a conference at the last minute. I was due to speak at the British Institute of Human Rights Conference but got tied up helping out a chapel about to go in to dispute after they received legal threats from their management.

Thursday morning I met with Stephen Pearse to build on plans agreed at the Jobs Summit in respect of the debate on media ownership, state aid and our plans for lobbies and protests. More details will be announced shortly...and some may just be a surprise!

I then did an interview on media portrayals of Islam and muslims before heading across to The Independent to talk to chapel negotiators about the next stage of the campaign there over threatened redundancies. A quick dash across to Shepherd's Bush for Bectu General Secretary Gerry Morrissey and I to meet the new head of the BBC in Salford, Peter Salmon and the HR team (or People people as they are) followed by a meeting of the joint unions national reps with the Salford team.

This morning I went to New Scotland Yard to speak to around 50 senior police officers as part of their Advanced Public Order Officers training course. This was one of the initiatives to come out of our meetings with the Home Office to try to ensure the media guidelines are better undertstood and enforced. I ran through a number of examples of the types of complaints we'd had, tackled some of the thorny topics raised by questions about cordons, media pens, the papparazi, who should make moral decisions about what pictures can and can't be taken (i'll give you a clue - not the police), how journalists identify themselves, how we enforce our code of conduct (this gave me the chance to have a rant about Thatcher's anti-union laws) and many other topics. It was a useful, if gruelling exercise.

Back to the office to try and catch up on some of the emails/correspondence/bills which have been neglected for a few days before heading to London Metropolitan University to address a UCU/Unison job cuts rally. Amongst the things I said are:
"There is a fundamental reason why every trade unionist should be standing with you.
UK PLC is in recession. Hundreds of thousands of jobs will go. At such a time further and higher education becomes not less but more important. Expanding education is a vital response to economic crisis. London Met, a vibrant university with a mix of class and ethnicity and culture must be central to helping re-skill and retrain Londoners facing a daunting future not adding to the unemployment figures. Education cuts are a false economy".

Now I've drawn breath I'm getting ready to write to Ofcom about S4C, the BBC about the safety of journalists and looking forward to a weekend of putting together Informed, the NEC newsletter.

Hitting the DEC

2009-01-27T08:32:00.004Z

Saturday’s Jobs Summit was hugely inspiring and set the basis for a real fight to tackle redundancies and start turning the tide against profiteering in local media.
Reports of the conference can be found at the following sites:
http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/01/26/nuj-jobs-crisis-summit-round-up-murdoch-and-dacre-have-brought-us-into-disrepute/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jan/26/nuj-day-of-action-newspaper-job-cuts

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=42911&c=1

http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=1088

Picture: (c) Pete Jenkins

And no sooner had Nick Davies suggested we blow the whistle on employers cuts which damage journalism than we were on the campaign. Let us know how the cuts in your newsroom/company are damaging your ability to deliver quality media – all in total confidence.

The union’s National Executive Council met all day on Friday – discussing the jobs crisis (we gave authority for industrial action ballots at a record number of workplaces), a new recruitment strategy, the situation facing journalists in Gaza, the future of public service broadcasting and the Digital Britain report, recognition at the New Statesman, BBC pay, copyright and John McDonnell, secretary of the NUJ’s Parliamentary Group may have been banned from Parliament after his mace-wielding antics, but he’s always welcome at the NUJ. He kicked off a debate on media ownership and state aid for the media industry which is to become a major topic for the union over the coming weeks. The NEC backed plans to establish a commission to consider new business models, regulation and ownership rules.
We’ll be inviting people to participate over the next few days.

The NEC also discussed at length the tough financial climate facing the NUJ with the likelihood that membership will be hit by the redundancy crisis. Even with just a 2% year on year membership fall for the next three years the union would have a shortfall of £500,000 per annum by 2012. It means the NEC is having to look hard at how we can save money.

Today has been dominated by the DEC appeal fallout. Along with Bectu General Secretary Gerry Morrissey I have written to Mark Thompson and wrote a Tribune column on the issue. I’ve also spoken to some senior BBC journalists who are angry and feel betrayed by the decision and believe that the Balen Report – the report on BBC coverage of the conflict which the BBC are fighting to keep under wraps - is at least one driving factor in the decision.

Then I answered 94 emails – and wrote this.

Local media concerns top agenda

2009-01-23T09:29:00.002Z

What a day. In the office at 6.30am - get some work done and across to Oxford for the Media Convention. Managed to get a question in to Andy Burnham about profitable local newspapers begging for state aid, trying to make the point that any aid of any sort should have stringent conditions about investment in editorial, stopping profiteering and a commitment to public service.

Then was part of a panel in the session The News is Dead, Long Live the News along with Peter Horrocks, Lord Norman Fowler and Charlie Beckett from Polis. Of course news isn't dead but it is danger of being killed off by profiteering, poor management and reckless borrowing (that's my 7 minute speech in 20 words). There was a good degree of agreement that new media offers great new opportunities to journalism if companies invest in building quality content and serving local communities. Did a quick interview with Matt Wells at Media Guardian then dashed back to London and off to Fleet Street (yes, really) to do a BBC interview for the Money Programme about the crisis facing the media. Meant I had to miss the fantastic rally against job cuts at the FT with Tony Benn (yes, really) addressing almost 170 FT journalists and supporters.

Back to office to meet with various NEC members in advance of today's meeting, talking about finances, Saturday's Jobs Summit, the OFCOM report, journalists in Gaza and much more. Home at 11.30pm.

Yesterday I was at a meeting of all our BBC M/FoCs and then a joint meeting with BECTU reps at the BBC to talk about this year's pay claim and other industrial issues. Later in the day I was at the parliamentary launch of the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group with MPs and other trade union general secretaries. It was supposed to be hosted by John McDonnell, but after his mace waving in the Commons he's banned. Still he'll be allowed in to our National Executive today where he's giving his report from our Parliamentary Group. And he'll be welcome - we like people of principle!

Rearranging the deckchairs...?

2009-01-21T08:43:00.004Z

It's official! Broadcasting regulator Ofcom has signed the death warrant of local news on ITV. Hundreds of ITV staff will leave in the coming weeks as news programmes are merged, axed or reduced in length. Viewers and citizens will lose out, local democracy will be damaged but ITV's shareholders will have been given a big boost as they take steps towards their final goal - ditching their public service commitments and becoming a purely commercial channel.

For Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland an as yet undefined consortia can bid for as yet undefined amounts of money to produce as yet undefined amounts of news for the nations. If the experience of contested funding for news elsewhere is anything to go by we'll see a competitive process that drives down the cost, quality, range and scope of news. It's not the answer.

The rest of Ofcom's report raises as many questions as it answers. Their plans so far are robbing Peter to pay Paul, taking money off one public service broadcaster and giving it to another or a consortia of others.

Here's our official take on it.

Alongside the Ofcom report we have the increasing clamour from newspaper owners for state aid to prop up the ailing newspaper industry. Does their greed know no bounds? Whilst they have made excessive profits over the past decade or so and failed to properly manage their businesses they now want taxpayers to bail them out - not because they are losing money but because they can't maintain such high profit levels. And on top of that they want further relaxations in media ownership rules as a way of solving "the crisis". Each time ownership rules have been relaxed we've been told this will solve the crisis, each time it has led to more job cuts, a fall in quality and a boost in profits - until the next crisis comes along. Any merger/takeover resulting from any relaxation of ownership rules should only be approved under conditions on investment, resources for news-gathering and employment rights. Anything less would simply be feeding the insatiable appetite of the corporate news industry.

So what else have i been up to? On Friday I took over as President of the Federation of Entertainment Unions and chaired the annual general meeting before meeting with the families of a number of murdered journalists - Kate Peyton, Anna Politkovskya, Roddy Scott - as well as media safety campaigners and the IFJ to talk about improving the support given to families and friends of journalists killed in the course of their work. On Saturday I spoke as chair of Justice for Colombia at a Latin America solidarity event at Bolivar Hall.

This week has so far been dominated by meetings going over budgets, staffing issues and pension funding and with preparing for today's meeting of BBC reps to talk about the pay claim for this year and getting ready for Saturday's Jobs Summit which has had to move to a bigger venue given the level of interest.

Wasted opportunities for peace...

2009-01-14T12:04:00.002Z

Spent Saturday marching for peace in Gaza – neither Hamas nor Zionism but international socialism – and spent a mere 9 hours on Monday stuck in an airless cell (ok, it was ACAS but it felt like that..) negotiating – and I use the term in its loosest sense – with Reed Business Information management.
ACAS was all pretty fruitless. Whilst local union reps had spent hours consulting with members and coming up with a number of innovative proposals to break a long-running deadlock management didn’t even all manage to turn up, let along with any ideas. They spent half their time on the phone getting instructions. The instruction appears to have been – no!
So nothing achieved and we race headlong towards a ballot and possible tribunal cases. What a wasted opportunity.
Tuesday I met with Gerry Morrissey, Bectu’s General Secretary at the BBC, had a meeting with one of our BBC secondees, Keith Murray, with Deputy General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet and Campaigns head Stephen Pearse to put final plans in place for the NUJ’s Jobs Summit, and then went to Parliament to meet with the NUJ’s Parliamentary Group. We discussed the crisis facing local newspapers, the refusal of the New Statesman to recognise the union despite us representing 15 out of 16 editorial staff, an ongoing dispute at the BBC World Service, Lord Carter’s Digital Britain review, the Israeli ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza and agreed a number of letters, Parliamentary Questions, Early Day Motions on other activity over the coming weeks.
Then back home to try and catch up on phone calls and emails..sorry if I missed yours!

out of the FRYing pan...(and other attempts at a cheap pun)

2009-01-08T14:00:00.004Z

Yesterday I was accused of taking a cheap shot at Tim Bowdler. It's not him personally - I always found him to be straightforward and likable as a person - it's the fact he received a performance related bonus last year of £516,000 when the share price dived, the company debts became a millstone around their neck and almost 100 editorial jobs have been cut - and that he got a £172,000 uplift in his pension, giving him a transfer value on it of £1.3m whilst many of our members fear for their futures and will not be able to walk straight in to other jobs at PA or elsewhere.

Of course he's not alone - you can draw out similar figures for Sly Bailey, Paul Davidson and others. But his comments put him in the line of fire that day. I'm sure I'll be equally as cheap about others shortly.

And so to his successor, John Fry who visited Leeds yesterday on the same day 100 journalists walked out on a protest and won support from local politicians for the campaign to oppose cuts there - including possible compulsory redundancies amongst photographers.
Discussions with local management have bought more time - and hopefully some movement on those jobs.

That wasn't the only movement over the last 24 hours. In Darlington, following our industrial action on Monday, an agreement has been reached to bring forward pay talks and to reinstate pay stopped as a result of the action. It's the first sign of a thaw in the pay freezes and comes at a time when chapels across arrange of groups are considering action over pay.

Last night the Scottish Parliament also hit out at job cuts amongst journalists - and the particularly pernicious way Newsquest in Glasgow have gone about the process. Once again today in an editorial comment the Herald management try to blame it all on a few trade union militants - then how come 90%-plus voted for action in a secret postal ballot. Liars!

As well as trying to co-ordinate our responses to each set of cuts I've also been trying to do the rest of my work! I had a meeting yesterday to discuss the dispute at Reed Business Information which goes to ACAS on Monday, met with campaigners from War on Want about a range of international issues where we have joint concerns, met Chapel Officers from one of the national newspapers currently negotiating pay and had a meeting with BBC management over a long-running individual case (and hopefully have secured a process for resolving it).

This morning I had a telephone conference with members of the union's copyright committee to discuss how best to bolster our campaigning work on copyright, wrote to our sister union Unite about our work in the publishing industry and did a radio interview with Heart about the cuts announced earlier at the Gazette in north Essex.

Now for some lunch...

Happy new year?

2009-01-06T10:13:00.003Z

Happy new year to you all - I'd wish you happiness and prosperity but with high street stores closing at an alarming rate and media companies rushing to axe yet more jobs it appears it could be a rocky 12 months for all those of us. Still it was nice to see former Johnston Press boss Tim Bowdler driving off in his flash car and admitting to mistakes in an ">article in the Sunday Times - at least he'll be alright even if loads of his journalists face a miserable year having been sacked or facing redundancy.

It's also been a miserable start to the year in Gaza - I joined protests during the holiday season in London against the attacks and spoke out against the Israeli ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza at the massive demonstration in London last Saturday. I'll be attending this Saturday's demo too.

Whilst much around us seems miserable the new year has also heralded a new resistance to the cuts in the media industry. Members at the Northern Echo have taken action, members at York have voted for action, protests are planned in Leeds and we've had a flood of people registering for the union's Jobs Summit as we co-ordinate our campaigns against the cuts.

We also received the welcome news of Colin Freeman's release. Our Deputy General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet had been liaising with the Somali journalists union who provided some excellent information and with Telegraph management over the kidnap. We shouldn't forget the Somali journalists who such dangers day in and day out.

Today I've also met with pensions campaigners, had a meeting with Jim Boumelha, President of the International Federation of Journalists covering issues in Somalia, Zimbabwe, our work with members in news agencies in Europe, protection of sources, impunity and a range of other issues.

I also met with photographers pursuing an FOI claim for information about police surveillance of journalists and decided on the next steps in their cases.

I've also been liaising with chapel reps at newspapers in Northern Ireland where attempts to centralise production and cut wages are being resisted.

All in all it's back to business as usual! It's like we've never been away...

Things can only get better/worse

2008-12-22T13:29:00.004Z

It's hardly the time to be full of the joys of the season given employers are using the Christmas break to make redundancies, cut pay, close offices and reorganise in the hope that people won't want to take any action over the holiday period - we've even been forewarned of more announcements tomorrow.
These employers are all heart. I wonder how some of them sleep at night.
A head of steam is building up for the union's Jobs Summit taking place on 24 January...and expect to see some action early in the new year at two or three regional newspaper centres.

Back to the end of last week - met with the General Secretaries of Equity, Musicians Union and Bectu to discuss our work together over the coming year - and in particular the review of public service broadcasting which affects us all in different ways.

Then it was off to Sutton for a meeting about planned redundancies at Reed Business Information under the Disputes Procedure. No joy. Whilst we pretty much resolved one individual case there are two real outstanding issues on which there was no significant movement from the company - and we're refering the matter to ACAS in the new year.

A quick dash to White Hart Lane to see Tottenham fight back from a pathetic first half display to grab a 2-2 draw with Spartak Moscow...and qualify for the next stage of the UEFA Cup. On the way home we dream of a trip to Florence, Bordeaux or somewhere warm and beautiful. We get drawn against Shaktar Donetsk and then probably Aston Villa. The Ukraine and Birmingham. Oh, thanks.

On Friday we have a telephone conference with some of our reps from Newsquest, Trinity and Johnston Press to discuss some action against the cuts in the new year and we say a sad farewell to Linda York who is retiring after more than 30 years working for the NUJ. We'll really miss her. We run through the new online membership system and make a few amendments to try to make it as easy as possible for potential members to join...and catch up on letters and emails.

Today we've finally signed off all the documents relating to the union's staff pension scheme - effectively we have put up to £2m worth of NUJ assets in to the fund. We don't actually have to pay the money over until March 2011 but it is still a huge commitment for us. My hand shook a little as I signed the papers.

This afternoon I've staff meetings - and then I'll quickly try to clear emails and post before heading off for my Christmas break.

A big thank you and best wishes to all those NUJ members, reps, officials and staff members who have worked so hard for members during 2008. Those of you getting a break - enjoy it. Those of you working - remember if you're in trouble, I'm on call....

See you in 2009 - I hope it's a better year for pensions, jobs, local media, Tottenham....

Cutbacks crisis - more action on the cards

2008-12-17T16:33:00.004Z

I'm uninspired. I've just spent an hour and a half at the TUC General Council with Alastair Darling. With many people you can say they talk a good fight - but he didn't. Even when challenged on the government's punitive welfare reforms he simply denied they were punitive. If taking away the benefits of those who don't get a job when two million are unemployed is not punitive then I don't know what is.

General Council members raised lots of valuable points about the failure of regulations, the growing gulf between the rich and poor whilst also welcoming moves to raise the top rate of tax but we remain bemused by the failure to act decisively over the tax avoidance of the big corporations (costing the UK economy billions a year) and halt the repossessions affecting thousands of people and an increasing number of journalists who are losing their jobs.

I was able to raise in the subsequent discussion the cuts at Newsquest in Glasgow and the obscene manner in which management there are threatening everyone with the axe but allowing people to reapply for their own jobs on worse terms and conditions. There's a great clip from Newsnight Scotland of a senior manager trying to justify it. Watch the reporter's reaction when he admits that if it was another company acting in this manner the paper would call it a scandal. Priceless.

But we did get some good news - the European Parliament have voted by a huge majority to call for the end of the UK opt-out of the Working Time Regulations. Hurrah! Thousands of journalists are forced on pain of losing their job to sign an opt-out and work excessive hours, damaging their health week in, week out. No journalist minds putting in extra hours when a big story breaks but the culture of long hours is wrecking people's lives and it allows media organisations to get away with cutting jobs and making up for short-staffing by forcing others to work longer hours. There;s still a long way to go before the opt-out ends but the unions' lobbying - we wrote to every UK MEP last week - has won us the first round.

Our campaign against the job cuts and pay freezes continues. Down in Exmouth staff are fighting to save their office and we've sent them a message of support. Strike votes have been successful at Darlington and in York. We've launched a new web area with a fancy google map highlighting some of the cuts taking place. And we've been discussing co-ordinated protests in different cities and co-ordinated action with our sister union Unite.

Even man flu can't stop the resistance to job cuts

2008-12-15T09:33:00.005Z

The dreaded man flu (a particularly virulent strain!) caused me to have my first day off sick for years last week - hence the lack of posts as I rushed to try and catch up with other work - or that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Have just confirmed this morning that Nick Davies, author of Flat Earth News will open the NUJ's Jobs Summit - Protecting journalism, defending journalists - on January 24. The meeting is building up to be quite an event as ever more dire predictions about the future of parts of the industry reach us. Claire Enders predicts a third of regional newspapers, two national newspapers and half of the jobs in the regional media to have gone by 2013. With Trinity Mirror having already axed 44 titles and Newsquest announcing a further 11 title closures, her predictions are looking less and less 'out there'.

We've already started the fight back with local campaigns being built, industrial action ballots announced and negotiations proceeding. A couple of surprise protests are planned too! But it's clear we are going to have to step up the resistance to this dismantling of sections of the industry - and the Jobs Summit will give us the chance to co-ordinate action across more sections of the industry. The companies are not unprofitable and many major analysts expect them to remain so in to the future so the slash and burn is not about saving an industry but about maintaining artificially high profit levels. Owners can no longer expect to fleece the industry to the tune of 30%-plus, they are going to have to accept lower profit margins. If they won't, they should get out and let people who care about newspapers' public service role take over.

Much of last week (and I expect the next few months) has been taken up with dealing with the fall out from this crisis.

But other issues have needed dealing with too. I was in Ireland last Monday doing interviews for our vacant assistant organiser role. Congratulations to Ian McGuiness who takes up the role in January.

I have also had staff meetings with our broadcasting and membership departments and worked with Michelle Stanistreet and Lena Calvert to put together our response to the TUC Equality audit. I've taken part in an NEC telephone conference about the staff pension scheme and met with the GFTU and Express Newspapers to talk about the redundancies as well as...oh, loads of other things.

With the threat to jobs in the industry there is clearly a major knock-on impact on the union - and not least our financial position. This morning I'm sitting down with our finance manager and Michelle to try to work out the implications over the next three to four years. Gulp!

Fight back starts here

2008-12-02T08:50:00.003Z

Saturday's emergency union reps meeting was excellent - good turnout, focused discussion and most importantly a clear plan of action to unfold over the coming weeks and months. There are measures to support those facing job cuts now, measures to tackle the pay freezes imposed by some companies and most importantly a plan for co-ordinating the activity across the local newspaper industry.

On Monday morning we set about getting the message out to our members that the fight back starts here. The story was picked up by a range of media yesterday. I also wrote a piece for Media Guardian and Tribune (to be published on Thursday) on our campaign.

Here's some of the coverage:
Media Guardian
Journalism.co.uk
Hold the Front page
Jon Slattery's Blog
Press Gazette

Found time to meet with the NUJ Officials chapel union rep to discuss staffing issues and then met with lawyers from Liberty to discuss a legal case we have an interest in.

Oh, and caught up on those hundreds of pesky emails...!

Saving the industry from the owners

2008-11-28T09:52:00.003Z

I was standing having a drink at a gig/film screening last night in support of an excellent project Jail Guitar Doors, when I was announced as the next speaker. It's one of the perils of being General Secretary - getting it sprung on you at a few seconds notice that you're going to speak. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to support the project and have done so in the past - but there's still a moment of panic when you hear your name mentioned.

It was great to go and be inspired by the work being done by musicians, trade unions, prisoners and prison staff which is really making a difference to people's lives. It was also good to get a lift after another days of unrelenting redundancies across the media industry. There were almost too many to keep up with but it's clear the gloom is turning increasingly to anger and Saturday's emergency local newspaper reps meeting will be the springboard for a major fight back against both the doom and the continued profiteering. As part of the build-up to Saturday, last night I took part in a telephone conference with reps from Newsquest where action against cuts is already threatened at Bradford, York and Darlington.

Before that we had the NEC Policy Committee which discussed the jobs crisis as well as our Parliamentary work, our activity at the TUC, recent meetings I've had with Gordon Brown, Vernon Coaker and Jeremy Hunt, copyright issues, the killing of Kate Peyton and impunity as well as our international solidarity campaigns with journalists in Zimbabwe.

Today it's the union's Development Committee and a chance for us to put some flesh on the bones of our campaign against the job cuts - it really is coming down to a battle to save the industry.

Unlawful killing verdict should be a wake up call

2008-11-26T19:15:00.003Z

Somalia is dominating today - first the decision in the inquest in to the killing of Kate Peyton and then the news that a British journalist, who we believe is an NUJ member - has been kidnapped in north east Somalia. I am in contact with our sister union in Somalia who are helping to keep us informed.

The coroner ruled that Kate Peyton had been unlawfully killed - and the comments made by the coroner highlight concerns we have been expressing for some time - that too many journalists, particularly those with precarious employment status are being forced to take on dangerous assignments to prove their worth. The decision should force media employers to take a long hard look at their procedures and more importantly how they put them in to practice.

Back to other issues this week. I spent Monday morning working on the union's submission to Ofcom's review of Public Service Broadcasting and the afternoon meeting with staff.

I had a meeting Tuesday morning with the union's staff in the broadcasting department followed by a discussion with Neal Lawson from Compass about a possible project on media ownership.

Tuesday evening I began a run of three nights of emergency telephone conferences with reps from Trinity Mirror, Johnston Press and Newsquest building up to an emergency regional newspapers reps meeting on Saturday to talk about how we tackle the jobs crisis and pay issues facing the industry. In reality it is about how do we save the industry.

It is to borrow a phrase the "economics of the madhouse" that an industry which has had 15 years of huge profits and which is still for the most part profitable is hacking at its very core, axing hundreds of journalists and in effect destroying the ability of many of their titles to be able to thrive the bother side of a recession.

Later on Tuesday evening I spent a couple of hours in a gay bar with a bunch of young anarchists, a spook and various photographers - don't ask! It was some party though...

BBC M/FoCs met this afternoon to discuss threats of compulsory redundancies in a couple of areas - and took a strong position for us to be able to take in to tomorrow's negotiations at the World Service.

Then I met with campaigns staff and the editor of The Journalist to talk about online integration followed by a Johnston Press telephone conference.

Knuckledraggers of the world unite!

2008-11-21T18:19:00.003Z

Still dealing with the fall out from the leak of the BNP's membership list.

Sacked Talksport DJ Jon Gaunt put it well in his column in The Sun (I never thought I'd ever use that combination of words!) and I put it in different words in a Comment is Free piece but the sentiment is the same.

But we're also dealing with the fall out of journalists being threatened who write about the leak and provide any details and/or links. I understand the BNP legal team and security will be visiting errant journalists. The police have been alerted.

BBC Trust caves in

2008-11-21T09:11:00.002Z

The BBC Trust has rejected proposals to allow the BBC to create up to 65 local online video news services. The decision was made in large part because the commercial lobby of the newspaper industry who said the plans would damage local journalism.

This is the very same industry which has cut thousands of jobs in loocal journalism over the past few months, which is imposaing pay freezes, which is under-resourcing newsrooms, which is cutting back on training budgets and which is closing titles. Trinity Mirror alone have closed 44 titles.

Cowed by critricism of the Brand/Ross affair the BBC Trust have failed local journalism.

Here's the statement the union put out a few minutes ago...

The rejection of plans by the BBC Trust for investment in local journalism is a missed opportunity to enhance local media.

The BBC Trust today turned down plans to create a network of 65 local online video news services.

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: "This decision is a missed opportunity to improve local news for communities around the country.

"Local papers are closing and job cuts mean thousands of journalists don’t have the time to do their jobs properly anymore. ITV is withdrawing from its regional and local news commitments. Against a significant decline in local journalism, here was an opportunity to take a small step in the opposite direction by actually enhancing local news provision.

"The BBC made commitments to invest in local and regional news services. We expect the corporation to stick to its promises and ensure that other news services now benefit from this investment."

The plans were rejected after a vigorous lobby by the newspaper industry.

"Newspaper employers have spent years taking huge profits out of local media whilst cutting jobs. Now they have helped stop new jobs being created because they said such competition would stifle their investment.

"Now is the time for them to put their money where their mouth is and invest more in local journalism - in jobs, in training and in resources for hard-pressed newsrooms."

And the news just gets worse...

2008-11-19T14:39:00.003Z

Trinity Mirror staff are currently being told a pay freeze is to be imposed on them. Here's our press release going out now.

"The NUJ has hit out at Trinity Mirror’s senior management after it announced plans to impose a pay freeze across the company.

Journalists were called into briefings today to be told that the 2009 annual pay review is to be cancelled and existing bonus arrangements suspended.

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: "Today’s announcement just goes to show how little senior managers at Trinity Mirror value the journalists that have been earning the company massive profits over the last few years.

"This is yet another slap in the face for our Trinity Mirror members and comes at a time when they are being put under greater pressure than ever before.

"Many of our members will be seriously worried about the news. Sly Bailey has said she will forego her bonus next year, but earning a salary of more than £720,000 will probably help her get over the loss.

"It will be for our chapels to decide how they plan to react to these proposals. Our members will be asking why shareholders’ dividends were put ahead of maintaining journalists’ standards of living. It’s one thing to make proposals like this which include commitments to stop redundancies, it’s quite another to impose a freeze whilst slashing jobs from the business. That’s a massive insult to Trinity Mirror journalists.

"The announcement also just goes to expose the sham of local consultation behind which the company hides whenever we try to open talks on a national basis. The imposition of a pay freeze across the group knocks down the myth of local managers having authority and autonomy to negotiate their own deals."

BNP expose their members - and their hypocrisy

2008-11-19T09:03:00.004Z

Like thousands of other trade union and anti-racist activists i'm busy scouring through the BNP membership list which has been published (and is on wikileaks) this morning. I've had neo-nazis threaten me at home, publish my details on Redwatch, the right-wing website designed to target and intimidate journalists and trade unionists, and was once physically assaulted by them and had to go to hospital. The BNP have staged demonstrations outside the NUJ's head office and have issued threats to dozens of our members - particularly in Yorkshire. How sickening to hear Nick Griffin on Five Live this morning say he would use the Human Rights Act against to protect privacy when he stands for abolishing the act. Hypocrite.

Anyway, back to business. It was an inspiring weekend. I spoke in the morning at the Labour Representation Committee conference to around 250 trade union activists at Conway Hall in London.
Here's a couple of reports of the conference
http://www.socialist.net/lrc-conference-report.htm
http://www.labourhome.org/story/2008/11/16/185658/19

Key among my demands was:
"The TUC should be convening an urgent summit to mobilise the labour movement to defend jobs and living standards – building a united struggle across the public services. Building on joint action over pay to develop a labour movement wide campaign against job cuts".

The NUJ is already waging lots of fights against the job cuts and to build on that - and with dire predictions of what is going to happen next year and the news over the past few days - from the Independent to Time Out to Haymarket to Trinity Mirror and beyond - we are holding a summit on tackling the jobs crisis in January. Details will be published here in the next few days.

Then it was a quick dash across to the London School of Economics where I spoke at and chaired sessions at the Islam, the War and the Media conference organised by Media Workers Against the War.

It was very strange to find myself on a platform with Peter Oborne - but his work in exposing the anti-muslim prejudice in many newspapers has been outstanding. Other speakers at the conference included civil rights lawyer Louise Christian, former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzem Begg and journalist Nick Davies, the author of Flat Earth News.

In my speech I both praised good journalism and criticised poor journalism.
I said: "Let no-one be under any illusion, just as we welcome journalism which challenges stereotypes we should also welcome journalism which puts the claims and policies of all religions under public scrutiny – from Christianity to Buddhism, from Judaism to Islam.

This isn’t - as some of our detractors would have people believe - about censorship or tacit support for jihadists or providing special protection for islam or muslims. It is about truth, accuracy, balance.

And that is where our media is failing. According to a study carried out by the GLA in just one week in May 2006, 91% of the 352 articles that referred to islam and muslims were negative – 96% of tabloid coverage.

The same report highlighted the fact that the tone and terminology was overwhelmingly emotive, immoderate, alarmist or abusive. 80% of the terminology related to problems, threats or opposition to dominant British values. The most common nouns used were terrorist, extremist, Islamist, suicide bomber and militant. The most common adjectives were radical, fanatical, fundamentalist, extremist and militants.

The terms demonise, dehumanise and create an environment in which attacks on muslims are legitimised and the abuse of their human rights is seen as a just response.

And whilst we bandy around statistics in theories on the streets of Britain the impact of such reporting is there for all to see in the violence against muslim communities in the imam blinded in London, in the mosque destroyed in Basildon, in the Muslim cemetery vandalised in Southall, in the daily harassment and intimidation, in stop and search and much more.

Such poor journalism is no laughing matter. The clear conclusion of all the recent research was that the reporting was likely to provoke and increase feelings of insecurity, suspicion and anxiety amongst many non Muslims while at the same time causing many Muslims to feel vulnerable and alienated. It is a recipe for driving people to the extremes – to the BNP and worst criminal elements of the far right and to those who espouse violence in the name of Islam".

Here's some reports of the conference
http://london.indymedia.org.uk/articles/236
http://marcvallee.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/journalists-and-the-terror-laws/

No rest for the wicked. Sunday it was off to the NUJ Left meeting.

Monday started by welcoming Miles Barter back to the NUJ staff - he has joined us as our new campaigns officer before meeting with Foster Dongozi, General Secretary of the Zimbabwean journalists union. A video interview with him will appear later today here.

Next stop Parliament and a meeting with John McDonnell MP and senior leaders of the RMT, FBU, PCS and NAPO under the banner of our newly established Trade Union Co-ordinating Group which brings together like-minded unions on a number of common issues. Then it was back to the NUJ for a meeting on staffing issues before heading off to the BBC for meetings with HR (or BBC People as they are called) and a meeting with Director General Mark Thompson and the other FEU unions at which we covered issues such as the move to Salford, BBC finances and BBC Local.

Tuesday morning it was off to the TUC for the Executive which was dominated by the economic crisis and our lobbying of the government to halt forced repossessions. We also endorsed the TUC's submission to Ofcom on Public Service Broadcasting.

Back at Headland House I had a couple of staff meetings before the first meeting of our reconvened Multimedia Commission which produced the Shaping Our Future report last year. We're reviewing the changes in the industry in the intervening twelve months and updating the recommendations for union action.

Editors - they're like buses

2008-11-13T18:25:00.005Z

Blimey - they're all at it. No sooner does one editor speak out than, like buses another comes along, calling on media owners to "stop milking papers dry". If only we'd thought of that.

Press Gazette today has come up with some useful figures on job losses - 140 per week (and climbing) it estimates. But that seriously underplays the problem which is in large part caused by non-replacement of staff. The true picture in some newsrooms is grim. For example yesterday I spoke to a journalist at a daily regional paper who was the only reporter there that day. The reporting staff as a whole has dropped by half. It's a familiar story for those working in local newspapers. But it is also now becoming more familiar to those working across the media - Time Out is the latest to announce cuts today.

And Mark Thompson at the BBC is threatening yet more cuts - despite commitments given just a few months ago. Bectu General Secretary Gerry Morrissey and I have written a letter to Ariel setting out our opposition to such threats. The BBC cannot make compromises on quality at the same time as campaigning to defend its future funding. More staffing cuts will compromise quality.

I'll just climb off my high horse and go back to keeping you updated on work.

On Tuesday I met with Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport. We discussed Conservative Party policy on public service broadcasting and Ofcom's proposals and I made representations on the future of ITV local and regional news, BBC funding, regulation and a number of other key issues for journalists.

On Wednesday amongst many other meetings I met with the Colombian ambassador to make representations about Carlos Lozano, a journalist facing trumped-up charges of 'rebellion'.

I also set out the terms of a new agreement we have reached with Johnston Press to handle restructuring across the group and highlighted the broad support for our campaign against job cuts at UTV.

At last an editor speaks out (even if he is a 'former editor')

2008-11-11T15:02:00.002Z

Congratulations to Chris Rushton for breaking ranks at the Society of Editors Conference and exposing the failings of management at Trinity Mirror.

In a blog a few days ago I reported that after my comments about BBC Local had caused some controversy at a meeting at Parliament I received an email from Trinity Mirror's corporate communications bods telling me why I didn't know what I was talking about.

I hope they are reading Chris Rushton's comments - one of their former editors - who says of the local newspapers' opposition to the BBC's plans: "You can't say it's your patch if you don't use it. You've not invested - you've just announced 20% redundancies in Newcastle. How are you going to do that and cover a patch?"

Read the full article here

Darren Bent for Prime Minister

2008-11-11T10:07:00.003Z

I left you on tenterhooks as I was off to meet Gordon Brown with a delegation from the TUC Executive. Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary was unable to make the meeting as he was in negotiations over the civil service pay dispute but he texted me after to ask how it had gone. I was at Tottenham watching Darren Bent score a hat-trick against Dinamo Zagreb - so my reply was 'Darren Bent's better'.

It's not just a flippant comment. The meeting with Gordon Brown was frustrating. Bringing forward major public spending, the cut in interest rates and the pressure put on banks to reduce their rates are all welcome. But there is still a paucity of ambition.

The government have a significant share in many banks now - and outright ownership of others - and they need to be making sure social policy - putting a stop to repossessions, job protection and so on - are being supported by the banks. They need to clampdown on tax avoidance and use that money to shore up employment and tackle fuel poverty, they need to address the impact of the crisis on pensions. But I left feeling they are not really getting to grips with the magnitude or the opportuni9ties it represents to put social needs ahead of the vast profiteering that has been going on for years in our economy.

From Gordon Brown to the Tories. Today we're meeting Jeremy Hunt, the shadow DCMS Minister to talk about Conservative policy on public service broadcasting. Later in the day we're meeting Ofcom again with other media unions.

On Friday I met with other pensions trustees to put the final touches to our agreement on the staff pension scheme which has been given the green light by the pensions regulator. It gives us time to meet the shortfall in funding. I also met a journalist and lawyers involved in a very difficult potential libel case which has big press freedom implications.

Saturday I played football (against the Daily Mail!). I'd love to report a victory for the forces of enlightenment against the forces of darkness but instead it was a rather friendly 1-1 draw.

Monday I met again with lawyers to talk about the same (confidential!) case and then welcomed our new Head of Personnel and Adminsitration, Lorna James. Michelle Stansistreet and I talked her through some of the key issues facing the union and tried to explain our structure - never easy!