Informed
N E W S F R O M T H E N AT I O N A L E X E C U T I V E
issue 17 November 2016
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Newsquest strike
heralds major battle
across local press
The 10-day strike by NUJ members on
Newsquest titles in south London over
redundancies and its plan to deploy
12 reporters and one content editor to
cover 11 newspapers and associated
websites won huge support from the
newspapers’ local communities and
politicians.
Newsquest south London reps, Pippa
Allen-Kinross and Ben Weich, attended
the union’s national executive meeting
and reported a huge level of support
from the London Assembly, local MPs,
including Transport Secretary Chris
Also
in this
issue:
Michelle’s
Message
Page 2
Grayling, and NUJ members and branches
throughout the UK. They explained that
management, which has refused to speak
to the chapel, did not care about how the
cuts would affect journalistic quality and
the health of its workforce.
Seven reporters have resigned since
the announcement. Most of the staff are
young, as Newsquest had got rid of its
older, experienced journalists. The reps
won a standing ovation from the NEC.
The union is also concerned about
Johnston Press. Laura Davison,
national organiser, told the NEC things
Mackenzie
Slammed
Page 5
The Newsquest south chapel would
like to thank NUJ chapels, branches
and members who have sent
donations and messages of support.
To donate to the strike fund please
email [email protected] noting
the amount and send the money to:
Account number 20143387
Sort code 608301
IBAN
GB93NWBK60023571418024
SWIFT NWBKGB2L
looked grim. In its half-year results,
the company disclosed it had written
down the value of its titles by £217m.
Moody’s, the credit ratings agency,
downgraded its bonds and changed its
outlook from stable to negative.
Trinity Mirror has continued the
hollowing out of the Local World titles it
bought in a £220m deal last November
with the closure of four titles: OneMK
(Milton Keynes), Luton on Sunday,
the Northampton Herald & Post and
the Crawley News and plans to cut 22
journalist posts in Scotland.
Photographers’
Summit
Page 10
02 Informed
Michelle’s
Message
and regions. As well as his keen political
awareness, his admirable principles
and effective activism, fundamentally
Lionel was great company, a keen
conversationalist and brilliant fun. His
enthusiasm and positivity were infectious
and inspiring. He wore his activism lightly
and had a gentle, understated touch
that endeared him to people across the
union’s political divides. A welcome
visitor to the NUJ’s head office, Lionel
always found time to chat (often over a
few drinks!) with staff and officials.
Of course the NUJ’s political divides
probably paled into insignificance for a
man who forged his political awareness
and activism amid far deadlier conflict.
Born in South Africa in 1935, he
Read More was a member of the African
National Congress and was the
www.nuj.org.uk/
Michelle and NUJ president Tim Dawson on the Newsquest picket line
news/nuj-pays-tribute- youngest detainee in the treason
to-lionel-morris/
trial of 1956, at which Nelson
Mandela and Walter Sisulu were
What I love most about
also tried. He sought exile in 1960
the NUJ is the chance
after the Sharpville massacre and
to meet so many amazing
five months detention in prison. It was
characters whose overriding passion
after this that he worked in journalism for
for journalism, social justice and
numerous national titles in the UK, as well
solidarity have led them to devote
as contributing to many outlets in the
great chunks of their life to the union’s
black press.
work.
His passion for journalism and for
Lionel Morrison is one of those
better representation of black and ethnic
members who I have admired and had
minority journalists found its natural
the good fortune to work with ever since
home in the union’s charity, the George
joining the NUJ. So it was with great
Viner Memorial Fund. As a fellow trustee,
sadness that we learned of his death
I know firsthand how Lionel made a great
earlier this week, a peaceful passing at
chair of a small but mighty charity that
home with his family in the closing hours
gives black journalists that all-important
of Black History Month. It proved a fitting
first step on the journalistic ladder,
timing for a man who has been at the
turning aspiration and dreams into reality
forefront of the battle against racism and
for many.
intolerance for many decades.
That’s the legacy that Lionel leaves
Right up until his recent ill health,
behind, an NUJ legend who will be muchLionel served the NUJ at every level of the
missed. Our collective thoughts are with
union’s structures - he was our first black
his wife Liz and sons Sipho and Dumisa.
president in 1987, a founding chair of the
As a man who spent many hours on
Race Relations Working Party and of its
picket lines in his life, Lionel would have
ultimate successor the Black Members’
been sad to miss out on the most recent
Council.
NUJ strike at Newsquest south London
News of his death has prompted a spike
but I have no doubt he was there in spirit.
of messages and tributes to my inbox
Colleagues in the chapel are back at
and a swapping of anecdotes about a
work now, operating under a work to rule
man who touched the hearts of many
that is having a cumulative impact on the
NUJ members across the union’s nations
The death of
the much-loved
and admired
Lionel Morrison
has touched
everyone who
knew him at
the NUJ
☞
Informed 03
titles that have been hollowed out to near
breaking point under Newsquest’s policy
of cuts upon cuts.
It may have been cold on the October
picket lines but the mood was upbeat
and full of verve, with a collective
determination to keep the campaign
running until Newsquest saw sense.
Of course, the amusing sight of the
managing editor on the ninth floor office
window opposite training his binoculars
on the pickets before backing away as he
was spotted and waved at helped keep
spirits high and the mood positive.
With help from our campaigns and
communications team, the chapel has
a parliamentary inquiry into the future of
the local press is gaining further support.
As in all disputes, the support of the
broader union and the movement have
made a massive difference so please
continue to keep awareness high and the
messages of support flowing.
It’s clear that this is a fight that goes
beyond the local patches of Newsquest’s
south London titles. This is about the
wider strategy being adopted by those
running Newsquest’s UK operation.
The Brexit result has sparked a bunker
mentality, leading to more cuts and
contraction across the industry. In
Newsquest’s case, the profits flowing
‘Lionel was great company and brilliant fun. His
enthusiasm and positivity were a great inspiration’
secured significant political support,
from local MPs of all colours, and from
all parties in the London Assembly.
Everyone it seems but Newsquest
management can see the latest round of
cuts for what they are, a terrifying crisis
that puts a massive question mark over
the future of local papers in the capital.
It’s been depressing how unengaged the
company has been - taking a daft “we will
not negotiate with terrorists” approach,
instead bunkering down and no doubt
hoping all of this will go away. Instead
of engaging in a grown-up dialogue
the managers have refused to talk and
squandered the opportunity to sort
things out at Acas.
How can they not see the blindingly
obvious; staff and readers are their prime
assets. Why treat them like perpetual
collateral damage in an assault that is
destroying these titles and threatening
their future viability. It’s no
wonder that local MPs and
councilors are so alarmed;
they can see firsthand the
impact this commercial
strategy is having on
local democracy.
It’s in this context,
and thanks to the work
of our reps and chapel
members, that our call for
to US paymaster Gannett have been hit
badly by the tumbling of sterling. The
prospect of investment and the muchneeded nurturing of the business looks
less likely without an urgent change in
strategy.
At the time of the credit crunch, James
Murdoch counselled his fellow business
leaders across the media industry to
remember that they should “never
waste a crisis”. We know the mentality of
seizing the main chance to make
cuts, however needless and
opportunistic they may be, particularly
at a time when workers may feel more
insecure and fearful for their future
and jobs because of the inherent
uncertainties ahead.
So we know what we’re up against in
our campaigning for a viable future for
a newspaper industry that serves such
an important democratic function. It’s
time for companies to emerge
from their bunker and engage
meaningfully to think more
creatively about how to
achieve that future working with their staff
and readers to achieve
just that instead of
presiding over a legacy
of managed decline and
ultimate obliteration.
Lionel and his wife Liz with
Nelson Mandela
Your copyright
questions answered
Do journalists own the copyright in
words spoken to them when they
conduct an interview? Can adding
hyperlinks to an article land you in
copyright court? Could copyright
abusers be treated as criminals, rather
than merely being subject to civil
remedies? All questions to which
journalists should have a ready answer
– our rights to
our work are a
what enables
us to make a
living.
If you are
uncertain
about the
answers to
any of the
above then
the NUJ’s
new book,
Copyright
For Journalists
and Writers by Tim Dawson and
Mike Holderness, both long-time NUJ
copyright campaigners, is for you.
Intended to be an accessible user’s
guide, it covers exploiting your work,
asserting your rights protecting it
from abuse, benefiting from secondary
rights and much else besides. It
is illustrated with case studies of
writers and photographs who have
both benefited from exploiting their
rights and, sadly, fallen foul of some of
copyright’s complexities.
If you are a member you can
download the free guide on the NUJ
website at https://www.nuj.org.uk/
copyright-booklet/
The answers to the questions are i. no.
ii. yes. iii. yes.
04 Informed
News
Update
Maxwell
Charity calls
NUJ branches
NUJ delegation outside the Turkish embassy, Dublin
Delegations protest
Turkish crackdown
Since the failed coup against the
media,” she told him.
Turkish government, President
Séamus Dooley, NUJ Irish Secretary,
Erdoğan has launched a massive
led a delegation to the First Counsellor
crackdown on the media.
of the Turkish Embassy in Dublin.
His government ordered the closure of
NEC members Barry McCall, Emma
131 media and 29 publishing houses.
O’Kelly and Paula Geraghty attended
Hundreds of journalists have been
the meeting, which was preceded by a
issued with arrest warrants. Ninety
protest outside the embassy building.
journalists are now in prison.
The First Counsellor was presented
The NUJ has been in the forefront of
with a dossier setting out the abuse
journalists’ organisations in its protest
of journalists, including the account
against these press violations and
provided by Turkish journalists’ union
has sent delegations to the Turkish
DİSK Basın-İş.
embassies in London and Dublin.
The joint committee on Foreign Affairs
Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general
invited Gerry Carson, the union’s Irish
secretary, and Jim Boumelha,
Executive Council cathaoirleach, to
NEC member and treasurer of the
make a presentation on the situation
International Federation of Journalists
in Turkey and foreign affairs minister,
(IFJ), led the delegation to Abdurrahman
Charlie Flanagan, assured the union of
Bilgiç, Turkey’s ambassador in London.
the Irish government’s support for its
“Journalism is not a crime.
campaign.
We recognise the difficult
The IFJ has launched a global
circumstances in Turkey
#FreeThemAll campaign to
but the government should
support Turkish colleagues
Read More
not continue with its
http://www.ifj.org/
www.nuj.org.uk/
harsh crackdown on the
tags/turkey/
☞
Clive has been an NUJ freelance for
more than 20 years, writing news
and features from his base in Rome.
Nine months ago, he was diagnosed
with throat cancer and his health
insurer used contractual small print
to argue that it was not responsible
for his bills.
After four months of illness, when
work was impossible, Clive (not his
real name) had health bills of nearly
£3,000 and expenses and other debts
of nearly £1,000. Uncertain what to
do he contacted his branch welfare
officer who suggested he apply to NUJ
Extra for help. “To be honest, I was
ashamed to ask my union
for money, but I was
at my wits’ end.” he
said.
Within weeks, the
NUJ’s trustees had
met and sent him a
grant to help him out.
“None of us can predict when
we might find ourselves in trouble,”
said Chris Wheal, who chairs NUJ
Extra’s trustees. “Knowing that there
is someone there who, in extremis,
can help is an enormous comfort. In
the past NUJ Extra has helped with
mortgage payments, utility bills and
simple food costs when members’
needs have been greatest.”
NUJ Extra is funded by the union
centrally, but relies on donations
and bequests. A recent initiative to
encourage branch donations has
already shown results. The Guardian/
Observer chapel branch agreed to
pay £50 a month, while Glasgow,
Brighton and Derby & Burton
branches have also agreed to boost
the charity’s coffers.
Find out more about the NUJ’s
hardship fund at https://www.nuj.
org.uk/work/nuj-extra/
Informed 05
Read More
www.nuj.org.uk/
rights/equality/
Why having Muslim
journalists matters
Fatima Manji does not want to be
identified by “an old-fashioned race
row with an old-fashioned dinosaur”,
but that was what flung the
Muslim Channel 4 news
presenter into the
limelight and made
her a huge draw as
the keynote speaker
at the NUJ’s annual
Claudia Jones lecture.
Fatima had been
condemned by Kelvin
MacKenzie in The Sun
for wearing a hijab while
reporting the news of the July
massacre in Nice. He said: “Was it
appropriate for her to be on camera when
there had been yet another shocking
slaughter by a Muslim?”
Naturally, the NUJ jumped to her
defence. Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ
general secretary, said: “To suggest that
a journalist is incapable of reporting on
a terrorist outrage because of the colour
of her skin, her religion or the clothes
she wears says all you need to know
about the contemptible views of Kelvin
MacKenzie.”
Fatima and Channel 4, plus 2,000
others, complained to the press
regulator IPSO, which sided with
MacKenzie, saying: “While the
☞
columnist’s opinion was undoubtedly
offensive to the complainant, and to
others, these were views he had been
entitled to express.”
Fatima knew exactly what
the former Sun editor was
doing. “It was incitement
to hatred,” she told
the packed event
held at Channel 4’s
headquarters.
Starting by praising
the bravery of Claudia
Jones and her fight against
injustice, she said: “Gone are
the days when newsrooms were
exclusively white; now it’s only 94
per cent.”
And we still hear about situations
such as when a Muslim woman reporter
was told she couldn’t enter a building
because they were letting in only
journalists.
Why does this matter, she asked.
“Just think about the number of stories
involving Muslims. Newsrooms need
credible journalists from Muslim
backgrounds who are familiar with
the complexities of their faith, who
understand the nuances of a theological
debate and journalists who are in touch
both with the intellectual tradition and
also with grassroots communities.”
Spotlight on
Black women
If women of colour appear at all in
the media they are often just “throwaway characters”, a meeting hosted
NUJ Glasgow branch was told.
Chaired by Scottish executive
council member Layla-Roxanne
Hill, the all-black and female panel
comprised Samantha Asumadu,
director of Media Diversified, Briana
Pegado, director of the Edinburgh
Student Arts Festival, and Francesca
Sobande, a PhD student at the
University of Dundee.
Samantha Asumadu quoted London
MP David Lammy who had worked
out that black women appeared on
BBC’s Question Time just 16 times
in the past five years; 12 of those
appearances were by Diane Abbott.
There are about 1 million black women
in Britain.
Saying her research exposed the
dearth of black women on the media,
she said: “Black women on British
television are often throwaway
characters.”
(l-r) Scottish organiser Dominic Bascombe with
Francesca Sobande, Briana Pegado, Samantha
Asumadu and Layla-Roxanne Hill
Women in Journalism Scotland launch
First Minister Nicola
Sturgeon is to launch
Women in Journalism
(WiJ) Scotland, a
networking, campaigning,
training and social
organisation for women
journalists, in Glasgow on
Thursday 3 November.
The event, supported
by NUJ Scotland and WiJ
Scotland, is sponsored by
the professional services
company EY, which supports
women workers by offering
mentoring and coaching.
Fiona Davidson, joint
secretary of the Glasgow
branch, said: “Equal pay
is a continuing battle for
females and maternityrelated problems still lead
to women being underrepresented in the media.”
WiJ Scotland will challenge
these problems. Reserve
your ticket for this event at
https://www.eventbrite.
co.uk/e/womeninjournalism-scotlandtickets- 28249707636?
platform=hootsuite
06 Informed
News
Update
Financial Times chapel, Oxford branch,
Magazine branch and the South East
Region TUC and have been overwhelmed
by the financial support from branches
and members from Glasgow, Belfast and
chapels from every part of the UK. They
met Helen Goodman, chair of the NUJ’s
Parliamentary Group, and London MPs.
Ben Weich said: “It has been fantastic,
a real boost to morale.”
John McDonnell, shadow chancellor,
said: “You have my 100 per cent support
in the action you are taking to protect
jobs and quality journalism.”
James Berry, MP for Kingston and
Surbiton, tweeted: “This is bad news for
local democracy in #Kingston.” He and
a group of Tory MPs have set up a
Read More meeting with NQ management.
www.nuj.org.uk/
Because the management
campaigns/newsquestrefused to negotiate with the
south-london-supportchapel during the strike, they
the-action/
decided to go out for another five
days, so after three days in the
office they were back on the picket
line, with their boss watching them
through his binoculars.
Pippa said: “We were upbeat and
still on for the fight. People brought us
drinks and doughnuts on the picket line
Seven reporters resigned: they’d had
and we have had thousands of Twitter
enough. But they resigned reluctantly,
messages.”
said NUJ rep, Pippa Allen-Kinross. “They
Fiona Twycross, chair of the London
enjoyed their jobs,” she said. “Apart from
Assembly’s Economic Committee,
the workload, we are a tight-knit group
proposed a successful motion, which
and support each other so we can put out
called on the London mayor to “engage
the best paper possible.”
with the NUJ and Newsquest” to find a
Last year their colleagues held a strike
solution to the dispute which “maintains
over many of the same issues, including
the quality of the south London press
obtaining the London Living Wage for
London press hit
hard by sackings
They knew things were bad, but when
Newsquest south announced that
all but a handful of the 29 staff faced
redundancy the journalists reeled in
shock.
Ben Weich, chapel rep, said: “There
had been a sense of doom hanging
over the office. In fact, we had already
balloted to take action over excessive
workloads. When we heard the news,
it was devastating for the long-serving,
loyal staff as well as for those of us who
are relatively new. It’s not nice to be
made redundant from your first job in
journalism.”
The company’s “restructure” will
result in 12 reporters covering news,
sport and leisure across 11 newspapers
and associated websites under a
single content editor. Croydon and
Wandsworth will be without reporters.
The company said it wanted the per-page
cost to drop from £109 to £53 and it axed
a contract with a photographic agency.
☞
“The company said it wanted the per-page cost to
drop from £109 to £53 and it axed a contract with
a photographic agency.”
trainees. Lessons had been learned and a
brisk campaign quickly won the support
of local council leaders, local MPs and
the London Assembly. Many of them
wrote letters to the Newsquest CEO,
Henry Faure Walker, and local managing
director Tony Portelli.
The strikers have spoken to the
publications” and to “commit to look at
ways in which local newspaper provision
can be supported in London”.
The strikers are now back, but are
working to rule. The management was
forced to shelve a new shifts system. The
chapel said everything, including more
strike action, was on the table..
Informed 07
Read More
www.nuj.org.uk/
tags/local+
news+matters/
Newsquest staff claim
£1,500 pay package
The NUJ has delivered a companywide, 12-point wage and benefits
claim for journalists at Newsquest
which would be worth more than
£1,500 or 7.6 per cent to a reporter
on a £20,000 salary.
The package includes a basic 1.5 per
cent cost-of-living increase to keep up
with inflation in the past 12 months.
The NUJ is seeking industry-parity
rates for trainees, with an entry salary
of £17,500, a 1 per cent increase in
company pension contributions, and
☞
freelance and casual rates to be raised
in line with the basic cost-of-living
increase.
Most journalists working for
Newsquest have had their pay virtually
frozen since 2008. An NUJ pay survey
held last year found Newsquest was
one of the stingiest employers, despite
its parent company, the Americanowned Gannett, being able to pay its
top five executives £15.9m and Gracia
Martore, its then president and chief
executive officer, £7.5m.
Local News Matters:
week of action plan
The union is holding a week of action
as part of its Local News Matters
campaign during the first week of
April next year.
The week, proposed by the Delegate
Meeting, will be an opportunity for
branches and chapels to contact their
local communities and seek political
support in the battle to salvage a wellfunded and democratic media, as the
industry faces crisis.
The week will kick off with a reps’
conference and will involve a range of
activities, events and lobby of the UK’s
and Irish parliaments. Put the week on
your next branch or chapel agenda – the
union is keen to hear your ideas.
The NUJ is working with the TUC on
how to organise successful shareholder
campaigns to put pressure on
newspaper groups which
are running titles
into the ground while
still paying bumper
executive pay rates.
The union is holding a
briefing in Parliament on Johnston Press
titles later this autumn. The company
has disclosed it wrote down the value of
its titles by £217m. Debt has increased
as a result of buying the i and talk of
selling other assets has not translated
into much concrete activity, aside from
the sale of its Isle of Man group to Tindle
Newspapers for £4.25m.
Over the summer the FT reported
that Moody’s had downgraded bonds
in Johnston Press to the third-lowest
possible ranking and changed its outlook
from stable to negative.
The group chapel has launched a
national stress survey in the face of
repeated refusals by the company to
carry out a joint study to address stress
and workloads.
Trinity Mirror is continuing to erode
Local World, the newspaper
group it bought for £220m
last year: it has recently
closed four titles, making it
the fifth since it took over
the group.
Celtic Media
The NUJ and the Irish Congress
of Trade Unions is calling on the
Competition and Consumer
Protection Commission to prevent
the proposed takeover of Irish
regional newspaper firm, Celtic
Media Group, by Independent News
& Media. 
If the application is successful,
there would be 28 regional titles in
the group, with additional coverage
of Westmeath, Cavan, Meath, Mayo
and Offaly.
Football ban
The NUJ has condemned Coventry
City Football Club’s
press conference
ban on two of
its journalists
because of
unfavourable
coverage of the
club’s owner,
hedge fund Sisu
Capital. The NUJ Trinity Mirror
group chapel called on the club to
rescind the decision immediately,
saying journalists carrying out
their normal work should not be
targeted in this way.
Martin O’Hagan
The union has urged the Irish
government to put pressure on
British prime minister, Theresa
May, for a new investigation into the
murder of Sunday World journalist
and NUJ activist, Martin O’Hagan. On
the 15th anniversary of his death, the
union has called on the Irish foreign
affairs minister, Charlie Flanagan, to
support the bid by the Organization
for Security and Co-operation
in Europe (OSCE) to get the UK
authorities to intensify their efforts
to find the killers.
08 Informed
News
Update
Read More
www.nuj.org.uk/
news/governmenttold-to-stump-up-forbbc-monitoring/
and international businesses.
Since the 2010 licence
fee deal, Mark Thompson,
the corporation’s then director
general, agreed that the BBC would take
on the full costs.
The NUJ general secretary told MPs
that now the BBC was its paymaster,
Monitoring’s work went increasingly to
serve the broadcaster, producing reports
on a Robbie Williams pop video about
Russia and stories about scary clowns
and burping Danish cows.
Michelle Stanistreet said the severe
cuts could undermine Monitoring’s
relationship with its American
equivalent, the Open Source Centre; the
two services swap information.
Dr Julian Lewis, chair of the defence
select committee, suggested the
government departments which
relied on information from Monitoring,
such as the FCO, MoD, Cabinet Office
and Department for International
Development, should pay up.
“Absolutely,” said Michelle Stanistreet.
Crispin Blunt MP, committee chair,
said: “These cuts to BBC Monitoring,
proposed by the BBC, are simply not in
the interest of the UK government.”
The defence select committee is also
holding an inquiry. It heard from Admiral
Lord West, former Air Marshal (retd)
Chris Nickols and General (retd) Sir
Richard Barrons, former head of Joint
Forces Command, who all agreed when
Lord West’s called BBC Monitoring “a
jewel in the crown”.
☞
Stuart Seaman, BBC rep, and Michelle Stanistreet before the committee hearing
Plan to save BBC
Monitoring
The foreign affairs select committee
has told government that the tax
payer, not the BBC licence fee payer,
should fund BBC Monitoring.
A quickly-convened inquiry into
the future of the service was held by
the cross-party committee following
concerns about the shedding of 40
per cent of UK staff and 20 per cent of
overseas posts, one-third of its workforce,
to save the corporation £4m.
Monitoring was originally established
Broadcasting
round-up
BBC members reluctantly
agreed to a 1 per cent pay rise,
deciding to keep their powder
dry for the battle on changes
to terms and conditions. The
rise was tied to a minimum
of £400; a 2 per cent rise
for those on £20,000. The
union successfully pushed
to study propaganda broadcasts during
World War Two. Its remit soon broadened
to keeping a constant and global watch;
it broke the news to British audiences of
the death of President John F Kennedy.
Today, it surveys the world’s broadcast,
print and social media, reporting from
150 countries in 100 languages.
It provides an essential service for the
wider BBC, the UK government, foreign
governments, NGOs, universities,
embassies, security groups, think-tanks
for the award to include
London weighting. The deal
was backdated to August.…
Despite making huge
profits, ITV has offered a
1 per cent rise; members
described the deal as
“derisory”… Three BBC
News Channel presenters
will be among two dozen
staff to lose their jobs as
part of cost cuts across the
corporation’s national and
international news channels.
An NUJ campaign stalled
a plan to merge BBC News
and BBC World News, but
both channels face 10 per
cent budget cuts…The BBC
must do more to satisfy
viewers in Scotland and
ensure audiences are kept
informed about Welsh
matters, a BBC Trust report
found, while rating its
programming highly.
On the question of
impartiality during
Scotland’s independence
referendum, it noted
there had been criticism
from both sides, while
others praised the BBC for
“maintaining impartiality
across its television
output”.
Informed 09
Comment
Tough new law will
put sources at risk
Investigatory Powers Bill
In October 2014, following the
revelations by Edward Snowden,
the whistle-blower who revealed the
mass surveillance of citizens by the
American security service in collusion
with our own, the NUJ wanted to
discuss the implications for journalists.
We organised a conference with the
International Federation of Journalists
(IFJ) in London. At the time we did not
realise the event marked the start of
a campaign which would fight for the
heart of democratic journalism.
The state’s powers of surveillance
are vast. The authorities can listen to
telephone calls and read emails. They
can access computers or mobile devices
regardless of encryption and can gain
access to documents, diaries, contact
books, photographs, messaging chat
logs and GPS location records. They have
the power to look through all internet
browsing histories, login details and
passwords. Your microphone, webcam
or GPS-based locators can be turned on
remotely.
How do you feel about the police
being able to scroll through your recent
browsing history and having a free
root through your contacts book and
messages?
The London conference agreed to work
on a campaign aimed at challenging
the state’s powers over journalistic
communications, materials and sources.
The basic tenet of journalism is to protect
sources; if whistle-blowers contact
reporters, they need to know they will
not be identified.
The so-called Plebgate case showed the
police had gone to the mobile telephone
company to get access to the messages
of The Sun’s political editor.
The press had been under the illusion
that the authorities needed to follow
procedures set out in the 1984 Police
and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) which
required them to contact a journalist or
media organisation and issue them with
a production order for this information.
But the Home Office argued that
information contained on mobile
phones and electronic devices belongs
to the service provider rather than the
individual or organisation that pays the
bill. Therefore the state did not need to
contact the journalist.
with the Bar Council, Law Society, the
Society of Editors and the News Media
Association to fight the main threat: the
Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB).
This is the spawn of the so-called
Snoopers’ Charter, the Prime Minister’s
brainchild when she was at the Home
Office.
The bill allows the interception
of communications, retention of
communications data, bulk personal
datasets and other information and
establishes the Investigatory Powers
Commissioner and other judicial
commissioners. It essentially puts an
end to digital privacy.
The NUJ has had some success in
making the legislation less draconian,
“They have the power to look through all internet
browsing histories, login details and passwords.”
This puts our sources’ identities at risk,
plus reporters working in dangerous
environments, such as war zones, or
those investigating organised crime
could find themselves identified as
informers.
During the Press Gazette’s “Save our
Sources” campaign, we discovered
that 19 police forces had made 608
applications for communications data to
find journalistic sources over a three-year
period. The union has since joined forces
but the changes do not go far enough.
Journalists and their representatives
must be consulted when the authorities
want access to their materials.
If the current version of the
Investigatory Powers Bill is passed into
law, there is no hope that the media
will be protected from unjustified state
interference.
Sarah Kavanagh, NUJ senior campaigns
and communications officer
10 Informed
Spotlight
Read More
www.nuj.org.
uk/work/
photographers/
Ana Jaks
☞
Photography
Summit 2017
Photographers
have had a raw deal
as newspapers
continue their cull
of pictures staff.
Tim Dawson, NUJ
president, presents
the union’s
response, a summit
to review ways to
forge a brighter
future
The cull of photojournalists’ jobs in
the past two years has been relentless,
even by the British media’s savage
standards.
Newsquest, Johnston Press, Trinity
Mirror and Archant have made scores
of photographers redundant. The
Independent, which had arguably the
strongest photographic reputation in
Fleet Street, has closed its print titles.
However, NUJ photographers – the
union has nearly 2,000 members – have
not taken this onslaught sitting down.
On Saturday 11 February they will come
together at a conference in London to
consider industrial strategies to combat
the assault on pictorial journalism and
share effective new routes to making a
living with a camera.
Chris Morley, the NUJ’s Northern
organiser, said: “Media companies believe
quality news images spring from nowhere
or can be plucked from the internet
without cost or
worry. This is a false
and damaging notion
and these redundancies are proving
to be cuts too far. The danger is the
photographers will vote with their feet
and leave the industry.”
There is some evidence of publishers
realising that relying on stolen
and submitted images may not be
sustainable – and that copyright
mistakes can be costly.
The day-long event will bring together
staff and freelance photographers with
other chapel representatives and will
include sessions on finding new outlets
for photographic work, social media
strategies and successful examples of
self-publishing.
“We want to help members to find
success and to adapt the way they
work to the new media landscape,” said
Nick McGowan-Lowe, who represents
photographers on the NUJ’s national
executive council. “Unions have always
been about helping members to
maximise their income and that is no
less true today.”
Neil Turner is one of many former
staffers who have made a successful
transition to freelancing. After eight
years at the Times Educational
Supplement, he returned to his home
town of Bournemouth and developed a
new business model. “Editorial work is
still part of the mix, but I have assembled
more of a portfolio of income streams,”
he explained. “I have worked as a photoeditor with the teams that supply images
at Wimbledon and at the Paralympics in
Rio and I teach and supply PR clients.”
At Wimbledon, Neil co-ordinates a
team of world-class photographers who
send their images to him and within
three minutes of each exposure, he
post-produces and sends them on to
clients. His fashion work for a high-street
retailer is no less pressured. “My catwalk
pictures transfer directly to my colleague
sitting in the row behind me. She views
them on her iPad, decides which will be
shared and posts them on social media
within seconds. The purpose is to beat
Informed 11
“We want to help members to find
success and to adapt the way they work to
the new media landscape”
the fashion bloggers who post terrible
shots taken on their iPhones,” he said.
Katie Lee, based near Whitley Bay,
Tyne and Wear, formed a partnership
with writer and stylist Karen Wilson.
Working as Beautiful Homes in the
North, they source and produce home
interior features for magazines such as
Build It and Ideal Home.
“We find suitable subjects for the
features,” said Katie, “and clients are
now confident of the quality we produce.
Subjects also trust us, so one person
whose home we feature will refer us to
friends.”
Like many – possibly most – freelances,
Katie spreads her talents to other forms
of work, including portraiture, estate
agents’ brochures and teaching, and
even did weddings for a while.
The conference will also include a
session on using self-published photo
books to enhance a freelance’s business.
Marc Vallée has published eight
photozines featuring collections of his
documentary photography http://www.
marcvallee.co.uk/blog/. Today there are
collectors of his work all over the world.
“The books are a lot of work, but make
a modest return,” he said. “Far more
important, though, is what they do for
my profile. My most recent, Vandals,
was bought by Tate Britain, the pictures
ran in The Guardian and as a result I was
invited to teach at a university and sell
my prints through a new channel.”
Marc’s decision to move into
documentary work came after an
epiphany while covering the student
disturbances at London’s Millbank in
2010.
“My pictures featured on all the front
pages the day after the disturbances except they weren’t mine, they were taken
by the agency guy who was right next to
me who was taking pretty much the same
shots as me. I decided that if I wanted
to stay in photography, I needed to find
subjects that were mine alone,” he said.
David Hoffman always chases up
people who use his work without
permission. When he contacts the
transgressor, he mentions only one
image, even if several have been taken.
Those who are not honest get a bill for
double the amount. His guiding principle
is that copyright infringement cannot be
cheaper than licensed use.
These are just some of the melting
pot of ideas and opinions that will
assemble at the conference to stimulate
abundant fresh ideas, whatever your
style of photography. There will also be
workshops on copyright, privacy, the
When then BNP leader,
Nick Griffin, spoke to a
meeting in Keighley, West
Yorkshire, only a handful
of journalists witnessed
his performance.
Among them was Bob
Smith, then a photographer
on the Keighley News. “It was
one of the worst and most
chilling experiences of my
career,” he remembered.
Smith photographed a
baying, drunken mob
whipped into a frenzy by
the far-right firebrand. “The
images showed Griffin for
just the kind of politician he
was.They would have been
very unlikely to be taken
by anyone other than a
professional journalist.”
After 31 years on the
paper’s staff, Smith was
made redundant and now
freelances. “The odd thing
is that I take much the
same pictures as I ever
did – events organised by
Bob Smith speaking at DM2014
An exhibition will run alongside
the conference, showcasing the
best of NUJ photographers’ work.
Photographer members will be
invited to submit examples of their
outstanding work taken in the past
two years. An expert panel will select
the best, which will be displayed
online and at the Photographers’
Summit. The exhibition will move to
the NUJ’s refurbished headquarters
at Kings Cross, London, where they
will form the inaugural photography
exhibition in the remodelled
Headland House, which includes
a café-bar that will be open to the
public. Details for applications will be
emailed to members.
dos and don’ts of contracts and tips on
becoming an effective freelance.
There are no easy options, whether
we are taking on newspaper owners
or finding new ways to profit from our
talents. But, as all NUJ members surely
know, adversity inspires our greatest
acts of creativity.
the hospital, sports teams
enjoying success and
company awards to longserving employees. Most are
published in my old paper
too – all that has changed is
who is paying for them.”
While the paper does not
pay, organisations holding
events commission the
pictures which are given
to the newspaper. Bob, an
experienced photographer,
well-known in his patch, can
still make a decent living, but
those wanting to promote
their causes or events
without a budget are rather
less likely to be celebrated
in print.
Thinking that readers can
fill the gap of a professional
photographer is obviously
nonsense. Do the newspaper
managers really believe it is
appropriate to publish selfies
at the war memorial on
Armistice day?
Mark Pinder
Right in Focus
NUJ photography
competition
Informed 12
Parliament
Regulation review
Tom Watson, shadow culture secretary
Watson weighs in
So, another day, another shadow
culture minister. This time it’s Tom
Watson, the deputy leader of the
Labour Party.
No stranger to the media brief, Tom
Watson is a former member of the
Department for Culture, Media & Sport
(DCMS) select committee and former
vice-chair of the all-party group on the
BBC.
It was 10 days into his new job that
he found himself speaking for the
Opposition on a motion to approve
the BBC charter agreement; although
Parliament’s decision on the question
was not binding.
It all ended in disappointment when
Labour decided to abstain on the vote,
despite the NUJ’s briefing which made
clear the union’s concerns about the 20
per cuts caused by the over-75s licence
deal, privatisation of BBC production and
outsourcing of radio and the devastation
at BBC Monitoring.
Tom Watson described the over-75s
licence deal, which transfers the £700m
a year welfare benefit to the corporation,
as “political irresponsibility, verging
on negligence”, but went on to say it
provided “security” and Labour did not
oppose the motion because the “BBC
management accepted it”.
There was some solace from Louise
Haigh, Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley,
who said Labour would return to the
matter during the Digital Economy Bill.
BBC reps have been running a sterling
campaign to scupper the disastrous deal.
Helen Goodman MP, chair of the NUJ’s
Parliamentary Group, raised the issues
of privatisation of BBC and noted with
concern that that Karen Bradley, Culture
Secretary, had chosen Craig Woodhouse,
Four years after the £5.4 m Leveson
inquiry and its 2,000-page report, the
government has launched an inquiry
into press regulation.
Culture secretary Karen Bradley
said she would be considering
whether Leveson Two, looking at
the relationship between the press
and police, was “still appropriate,
proportionate and in the public
interest”.
She is also considering the
implementation of section 40 of the
Crime and Courts Act 2013 which
states that organisations not signed
up to a recognised regulator by Royal
charter could pay their own and
opponents’ legal costs, even if they
won a court case. The issue has been
forced on the government by the
recognition of regulator Impress and
an amendment passed in the Lords to
bring in section 40 for the victims of
phone hacking, which was overturned
by the Commons, but will go back to
the peers.
the former chief political correspondent
of The Sun, as her adviser.
Tom Watson made a name for himself
during the DCMS select committee’s
quizzing of James Murdoch when he
likened his silence over phone hacking at
News UK to the Mafia’s omerta. His book,
Dial M for Murdoch, about the scandal,
has ensured he is not on Murdoch’s
Christmas card list.
Trainers wanted!
The NUJ is looking for skilled trainers to deliver courses for freelance members.
We are seeking NUJ members with knowledge-generating ideas, such as how to
look for work, pitching, negotiating, avoiding problems, copyright and income tax.
You will be expected to demonstrate experience of these subjects and have some
professional experience of training or teaching. The NUJ has a proud tradition of
delivering training to a high standard and we intend to maintain that tradition.
To make an application, please send details of your experience and skills to
[email protected] by noon Friday 11 November. Shortlisted candidates
will be invited to a follow-up interview.