Rowan's funeral

Rowan Dore's funeral is to be held at St Margaret's Church at the Green, Rottingdean at 2pm on Wednesday January 4. Apparently, all are welcome. Many thanks to Karen Hoy at the Argus for keeping us informed.

The Argus carried some letters of tribute to Rowan on Wednesday. They can be found be scrolling down to news extra here http://archive.theargus.co.uk/2005/12/21/

If you want to pay your own tribute to Rowan feel free to post on this site.

ADM delegates

The branch is entitled to send two delegates to the union's Annual Delegate Meeting in Liverpool from March 23 to 26. If you want to stand you must either come to the January meeting or let us know if you want to be nominated. If there's more than two candidates then who goes will be down to a vote on the night.

Rowan Dore

Argus reporter Rowan Dore, 56, (on right of pic) was found dead at his Rottingdean home on Thursday. He joined the paper in the mid-90s after working for the Press Association in London, where he lost his job in one of PA’s purges of older journalists. He was always grateful to NUJ officials for the help he had at the time of his departure from PA.

Widower Rowan had four grown-up children – a son and three daughters. The branch – which he represented at three union annual conferences - would like to extend heartfelt condolences to the family on an irreplaceable loss that is keenly felt by every member who knew a kind and generous man. We have no news on when his funeral will be held.

**Adrian Colley adds: One of life’s lovely blokes, Rowan will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him.

And it seemed everybody DID know him. Having worked with him in Brighton on the Argus it appeared he was acquainted with half the city. When I went with him to the NUJ’s annual conference in Liverpool I wondered whether his contacts extended to half of Britain too. He seemed to know the whole world. And who wouldn’t have wanted to know him?

Rowan had the perfect journalistic gift of a bottomless curiosity and was always genuinely interested in what people had to say. He also loved making new friends. Despite having been a reporter for 30-plus years, he was never in danger of turning into the archetypal seen-it-all-before grizzled hack. Far from it. For him, every story was as fresh as a daisy. His was a cynicism-free take on the world – an enviable disposition and one that makes his death so much harder to bear.

An ego-free zone, sometimes you wondered if he was too agreeable. He was an old-style gent journo who loved to hear your tales and had an infinite fund of his own.

And he always remembered your stories – if he ever introduced you to a stranger he would always regale them with a tale about you, complete with flattering chuckles, that reflected you in the best possible light and make you appear one of the most fascinating people on the planet – a rare ability and one of the keys to his social success. He was impossible to dislike.

Rowan always came with a slight sense of the surreal. The brother of a singer-songwriter, who else but him would have been seen out and about Brighton and beyond with the Monty Python actress Carol Cleveland, a great friend? In his days as a Parliamentary reporter for PA he knew dozens of MPs and his love of the theatre saw him review many productions across Sussex.

I recall a night out with him last year. We met in Porto, Portugal, during the Euro 2004 football tournament for a long night. He was there with friends from Brighton – one the owner of a nightclub, the other I only ever knew as Fish. A long night ensued and a nightclub was sought for futher entertaininment. He had a few drinks and disappeared. After scouring the club for him, I finally tracked him down to the ladies loo. In Portuguese ‘Mulheres’ is the word for women and he’d mistaken the M on the door for ‘Men’ and he’d gone in there for, er, a rest. Luckily he was the sole resident at the time. I had to have a loud row with the bouncers, who weren't impressed to see two men hanging around the loos, before claiming him. We managed to swagger out at 6am to watch a glorious sun rise over the River Douro. The oldest swingers in town we may have been but Rowan had a youthful zest that put many half his age to shame and that was part of his charm.

There was no bad side to Rowan and I cannot recall ever hearing a waspish remark pass his lips – not something you can say about many in our profession. He represented all that was best about journalism.

I’ll remember his cherub’s face and twinkling eyes and his unfailing unfeigned delight at seeing you. Though I knew him for at most eight years, he was one of my closest friends. His life may have been cut short but I know for sure that it was full and rich. He was proud of his charming children, Chelsea winning the title and his unerring ability to dig up a story when the Argus needed a quick shot in the arm.

Many of us were reduced to tears by last week’s news. He was a wonderful, wonderful man and I’ll miss his chuckles.

**More pictures, from Jemima. These were taken at ADM, April 2005. Thanks to Dave Rotchelle.

Christmas party - TOMORROW!

Only one week to go - THURSDAY DECEMBER 15 at 8pm at the Cricketers pub in Brighton. This month's meeting backed £300 worth of free booze. That's up on last year's £215.20 (see the accounts) so it should be a good night out.

Basically a repeat of last year's do only the upstairs room - The Greene Room - has been refurbished to look a lot snazzier.

See you there.

Exiled journos' network

From EJN:

You may have heard or read about the official launch of the Exiled Journalists' Network (EJN)- a group set up by and for refugee journalists trying to rebuild their career and life in the UK. We're humbled by the support we've received from the union to launch this outfit.

I'm writing requesting if the branch might help by paying a contribution towards our EJN Emergency Relief Fund for destitute asylum seeking journalists whom majority of them have exhausted their legal challenges and are now not eligible for assistance due to Section 4 of the Immigration laws.

We're getting legal advice from the Headland House on some of the cases but some of our members are in difficult circumances hence my appeal for assistance from your branch.

Cheques can be written payable to the Exiled Journalists' Network (EJN) and post to our address on the signature.

We also encourage members of our network to joim NUJ branches and anyone who've approached your please refer them to the network.

Free tomorrow night?

This looks fun. A hot tip, courtesy of Christina Zaba at Bristol NUJ.

Tomorrow evening in Brighton there's going to be a debate, set up by the No2ID campaign and sponsored by Brighton and Hove Unison branch, between Peter Tatchell and hapless Blairite poodle and junior minister Andy Burnham.

Tatchell, it's confidently predicted, will make mincemeat of Burnham. The funny thing is, Burnham doesn't know that he hasn't got a leg to stand on.

Bound to be something juicy in there. Anyone fancy calling in and telling the branch how it went?

Details:
Farewell to Liberty debate
7.00PM
6 December, Quality Hotel, West Street, Brighton

Contact:
Andy Player
Brighton NO2ID co-ordinator
brighton@no2id.net
01273 749061
07818 027408

Job finding service Pt 2

Brighton's Source needs a new features editor according to this month's issue. "NCTJ, full driving license (sic - perhaps they need a sub too) and car an advantage" says the ad.

Applicants should contact Amelia Lawrence on info@brightonsource.co.uk by Friday December 16 or call Brighton 561617.

Copies of Searchlight/The Zimbabwean

December edition of anti-fascist mag Searchlight up for grabs. Also, latest copies of The Zimabwean - we get one a week - can be mailed out to you.

Email nujbrighton@gmail.com and I can put it in the post

Branch's free job-finding service

From Media Guardian:

Brighton and Hove City Council - £22,512 - £26,157.

With your journalistic approach and flair for web-based copywriting, you'll use your creativity within a commercially focused framework to deliver high quality web communications to our customers, clients and partners.


Click on the headline for more info.

Argus to launch lite edition?

Click on the headline to read the UK Press Gazette's tip-off on the Argus. Any staff members want to enlighten - pseudonymously, of course?

Freelance course

Last call for HQ-run course on Saturday 26th November at head office, Headland House, 308-312 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8DP.

It starst at 10am and finishes at 4.30pm-5m. Cost of the course is £65 and there are still spaces availabl.

Click on this item's headline to for a link

If you are interested email training@nuj.org.uk or telephone 020 7843 3717.

AGM minutes

Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on October 18 at Shakespeare’s Head, Brighton.

1 Apologies – Rowan Dore, Claire Rigby, Naomi Marks. Present – Jemima Kiss, Adrian Colley, Fred Pipes, Virginia Bridgewater, Alex Forbes

2 New members – N Freedman, H Davies, M Townsend, J Sykes, L Appleby, T Briggs, H Way, S Underwood

3 September’s minutes were accepted

4 Treasurer Adrian Colley circulated copies of 2004/05 accounts. At the beginning of October 2005, we had £1,536.35 in the branch account.

5 Correspondence – copies of Searchlight and The Zimbabwean were circulated.

6 Election of officers. Jemima Kiss was elected chair (nominated by Virginia Bridgewater, seconded by Adrian Colley); Adrian Colley was elected secretary and treasurer (nominated by Jemima, seconded by Virginia). Virginia Bridgewater was elected as welfare officer.

7 Chapel reports. Virginia Bridgewater said many Argus staff were still keen leave. They included herself – she resigned in September.

8 ADM motions. There were no motions to be put forward for next year’s Annual Delegate Meeting. It was pointed out that the branch might have three delegates for next year’s meeting as numbers have swollen to close to 250 – beat that and the branch is entitled to send three people to the ADM.

9 No nominations to stand for the National Executive Council

10 No nominations for elections to TUC-elected bodies.

11 The branch reaffiliated to the Trade Union Friends of Searchlight at a cost of £50.

12 Christmas party. It was agreed to spend up to £300 on drinks for members attending the event. The Cricketers was viewed as the likeliest venue.

Aid for Pakistan

Members are being urged to support trade union campaigns to deliver aid to workers in Pakistan affected by the recent earthquake. The Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign has set up a relief committee to send teams of members to help.

It's set up centres in Islamabad and Lahore to co-ordinate relief efforts and a solidarity caravan of more than 20 trucks was organised to take aid to stricken villages and cities.

Send cheques payable to PTUDC to NUJ, Headland House, 308 Grays Inn Road, London. WC1X 8DP.

Stamp out homophobia

As part of LGBT History Month, the TUC is holding a conference for union leaders, officials and activists about the international dimension of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans rights.

Drawing on personal testimonies from around the world, the conference will raise awareness of the issues, explain how and why LGBT rights worldwide are a trade union issue, and discuss what British and other trade unionists can do to show global solidarity.

Click on the headline for more details.

New courses

Head office is running two new courses next month

* Freedom of Information Act on Monday 21 November.

* Introduction to Sub Editing on Thursday/Friday 24/25 November 2005. Both courses are held at the NUJ Head Office, Headland House, 308-312 Grays Inn Road, Londo.

Courses will start at 10.00am and finish between 4.30pm-5.00pm. The cost of the courses are as follows; the Freedom of Information Act is £65; introduction to subediting £205.

http://www.nujtraining.org.uk/page.phtml?id=1755&category=outline&finds=0&string=&strand=

AGM venue

Just a quick reminder not to forget tomorrow's Annual General Meeting in the back bar of the Shakespeare's Head, Chatham Place, Brighton at 7pm. Click on the headline if you're not quite sure of the geography. The pub is at the junction of Chatham Place and Old Shoreham Road.

Annual accounts report

The branch receives 5% of members’ subscriptions to fund running costs and activities. So if you work for the Argus, say, and pay subs of about £140 a year, then £7 will come back to the branch during the course of a year. Due to fluctuating numbers of members from one quarter to the next we get different amounts paid into our bank account each quarter. This year we received £1,404.75

In a nutshell, we started the year (Oct 1, 2004) with £1,265.10 in the bank, received £1,404.75 from head office and spent £1,133.50. That left us, on October 1, 2005 with £1,536.35 – a healthy position and the most we have had in our account since the branch was re-formed in 1998. With about 250 members, the branch has expanded hugely – we had fewer than 100 members back when we re-established.

We have been able to keep running costs at a reasonable level due to the fact that we don’t pay for room hire for monthly meetings. And the decision of members – currently about 75 – to receive newsletters via email also helps. This has allowed us in the last 12 months to make a series of donations to various causes, detailed below. More info on these causes is available from the branch website www.nujbrighton.org.uk

INCOME

Four payments from NUJ - £1,404.75

EXPENDITURE

BRANCH RUNNING COSTS
A Colley - £20
Jemima Kiss £8.49, £20.45 (photocopying) = £28.94
Stamps £315
Cost of website £6.09

Total = £370.03

BRANCH AFFILIATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
Trade Union Friends of Searchlight affiliation £50
Manchester NUJ fighting fund on behalf of Mansoor Hassan, facing deportation to Pakistan - £25
Justice for Colombia donation - £25
Donation to appeal for cash to help re-establish Indonesian newspaper after Asian tsunami - £75
Justice For Colombia reaffiliation fee - £50
Working Class Movement Library donation - £50
Subscription to UK-based paper The Zimbabwean - £42
Donation to Grenada 17 appeal costs - £50
Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom subs 2004/05 £25
Donation to Coventry NUJ fighting fund for striking workers - £50

Total = £442

BRANCH ENTERTAINMENTS
June barbecue costs – J Kiss £62.27 (food), A Colley £44 (booze). Total = £106.27
Christmas party booze bill - £215.20 – cheque to A Colley who paid bill on his debit card.

Total = £321.47

Branch total expenditure for period October 1, 2004 to September 30, 2005 = £1,133.50

A Colley, treasurer

Are you disabled?

The Disabled Members Council is looking for disabled members to register as such so that it can draw up more effective policies and campaigns on their behalf.

It is looking at a new disability policy covering matters such as employment issues and support and access to the Annual Delegate Meeting.

In the past it has launched the Hacked Off campaign to fight the use of unacceptable terminology in news and features relating to disabled people. The 10-strong council works in and outside the union on matters relating to improving opportunities for disabled members in the industry and on offering greater access to union services.

It is aware some members are worried about registering as a disabled member. Any member can register in confidence at membership@nuj.org.uk or contact DMC's chair Stephen Brookes MBE at stbmbe@aol.com or union official Lena Calvert at lenac@nuj.org.uk

Unions in Iraq

We've just affiliated to this - click on the headline to access the UK unions' website.

Anti-war meeting

From branch member Cath Senker:

Thursday October 20, 7.30pm at St Joseph's Church, Milton Road, Brighton IRAQ - invaded & occupied, what happens next?

A talk and discussion with Milan Rai, author and anti-war activist, looking at the following questions:

* Is immediate withdrawal of US & UK occupation forces the answer?
* Will withdrawal make the situation worse for the Iraqi people?
* Can the damage done to Iraq be limited? Is thre a responsible exit strategy?
* Should the UN be involved?

For more details see website http://www.blogger.com/www.watchingthewarmakers.org.uk For more info on Milan Rai see http://www.blogger.com/www.j-n-v.org

Coventry says: "Ta!"

Letter (slightly pruned) from Brum and Coventry branch chairman Chris Youett:

Thank you for sending a cheque for £50 whcih I have paid into our hardship fund account. It is much appreciated.

To give you an update - Jeremy Dear was brought in for fresh talks following a conciliatory letter from Trinity Mirror's cheif Sly Baily who earned a mere £1.2m last year. Jeremy forced the management to concede what the chapel had been asking for all along: early implementation of the skills matrix (a grading structure members campaigned for for years). In return we have agreed to return to work while management is supposed to work with the Coventry Newspaper Chapel on assessing all our members.

We have made it clear that if management drags its feet the chapel reserves the right to start further industrial action. Morale is still high and this has been helped by letters of support, donations and emails to senior TM staff.

I was pleased to note fellow freelancers were offered bribes (er, loyalty bonuses) of £50 a day to cross our picket lines. Most told the management to stick their cheques. TM tried to hire freelances from as far away as Bristol and London to break the strike. This mostly failed. The effect was the cancelling of photographic jobs and titles were forced to rely on handout pics or stock snaps. Readers very quickly noticed this.

I know those who worked did not like coming in an hour earlier to get a reduced-contents paper out, despite free bacon butties. I expect to pick up new recruits from those who stayed inside over the coming weeks because they haven't got any extra money.

ADM motions

It's that time of year again - your chance to have an issue debated by the union's premier power.

October's meeting is when you have the opportunity to propose a motion to be discussed at next year's Annual Delegate Meeting.

So whatever the issue come and along and state the case for it. The branch has to adopt the motion of course.

It would help us greatly if you plan to propose something, to have it written up before the meeting. Two years we proposed a couple of items which were more or less dreamt up on the spot and therefore inelegantly worded. They were, quite rightly, thrown out because of ambiguities or uncertain meaning.

So get a friend to look it over perhaps, or get it subbed, and it should stand a greater chance of being accepted on next year's ADM agenda. Branches are advised to submit a maximum of four motions and the deadline is November 7, which means our October meeting is the only chance for us to discuss possible motions.

Join NUJ councils

If you want to play a role in union policy, now's your chance.

Next month's branch annual meeting is your chance to stand for the union's most powerful body the National Executive Council. And you can also stand for various councils the union runs.

For the NEC, you can be nominated for the geographical area of the South East, or for one of the following seven industrial sectors - books, broadcasting, freelance, magazines, newemedia, newspapers and agencies, PR and information. Or you can be nominated for the disabled members or black members spot. You need to be fully paid-up and nominated at the October meeting. Contact nujbrighton@gmail.com if you want to stand or come to the meeting and be nominated.

For the bodies elected at next year's Annual Delegate Meeting in Southport, you can stand for one of 11 councils - disabled members council, equality, Journalist editorial advisory board, professional training committee, standing orders committee, TUC delegation, Women's TUC delegation, European Federation of Journalists steering committee, International Federation of Journalists triennial congress 2007, British national pensioners' convention, appeals tribunal.

September meeting minutes

September 13 minutes. Meeting at Piccolo’s, Brighton.

Apologies – Fraser Addecott. Present – Rebecca Bromley, Rowan Dore, Jan Melrose, Jemima Kiss, Adrian Colley, Fred Pipes, John Freemantle, Alex Forbes

1 New members – K Howell, J Goodey, A Chiles, J Allen, R Bryne, H Dore, S Pandher, J Manning, J Blake, J Melrose elected.

2 Officers’ reports. Treasurer Adrian Colley said we had about £1,500 in the bank. No other reports delivered.

3 Donation to Coventry Newspapers Strike Fund. Owners Trinity Mirror are being urged to pay seniors on weekly papers £20,000 pa and evening titles £25,000 pa. Jemima Kiss recommended a donation of £50, which the meeting backed. (As an aside there’s a good piece on this at http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/2005/403/index.html?id=np12.htm).

4 Affiliation to Iraq Union Solidarity. Branch backed this at a cost £5. More at http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/index.cfm?mins=376 .

5 Renewal of subs to Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom. Subs renewed at cost of £25.

6 Christmas party venue suggestions: The Cricketers in Brighton could again be an option. All suggestions welcome!

7 October AGM venue suggestion. Nelson is probably too noisy to stage the meeting next month. Fred Pipes suggested the Eagle, which has some connections with Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin (more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kropotkin) which will be investigated.

8 Chapel reports. Rebecca Bromley, from the Argus, said that agreement had been reached on this year’s pay settlement and that staff would finally have their extra money in a September pay packed backdated to April, a sort of ‘saving scheme’ she added. Generally it appears the Argus is still not a happy place to work as staff have resigned with no jobs to go to and morale is not high.

9 Citizen journalism motion (see September 6 entry below). Jemima Kiss said she just wanted to publicise the issue and ask members for their views (which you can post here on the website). She said there had been a web-based debate among NUJ members about the media’s use of Joe Public-provided pictures, particularly in the wake of the July bombings in London. She said some picture providers had an ethos that what they were providing was not for financial gain. She said it raised issues but that the impact on professionals had been fairly minimal .

Meeting was followed by dinner at which NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear, and others, were present. Your secretary had to leave at this point. So I’d be grateful if someone could flesh out the rest of the evening’s events (hint, hint).

Gongadze murder protest

An NUJ delegation, led by general secretary, Jeremy Dear, will go to the Ukrainian embassy in London at 10.30am on Friday 16 September, to express our concerns to the charge d’affaires about the lack of progress in the case of Gyorgy Gongadze.

That day is the fifth anniversary of Gongadze’s death. Please join us if you can, and pass this email on to friends and colleagues. The embassy is at 60 Holland Park, London W12. (Nearest tube: Holland Park on the Central line.)

As you may know, three low-level interior ministry officers are expected to go to trial shortly for their part in Gyorgy’s murder. But those who instigated the killing are further than ever from justice. A report on the continuing failure of the investigation, by the IFJ, NUJ, Gongadze foundation and Institute of Mass Information, will be published this week.

Local newspaper survivors' dinner!

Everyone welcome - it'll be a great night. Tuesday 13 September, 8pm @ Piccolo's - full details here.

The list so far:

Jeremy Dear (general secretary)
Len Mulholland (MoC, Guardian Unlimited & former NUJ Brighton secretary)
Dave Tilley (FoC, South London Guardian)
Carron Taylor (South London Guardian)
Jo Bowring (South London Guardian)
Jemima Kiss (branch chair)
Adrian Colley (branch secretary)
Tim Lezard (president)
Chris Morley (vice president)
Barry White (London press & PR joint secretary)
Anita Halpin (NEC)
Rowan Dore (Argus)
Rebecca Bromley (Argus)

If you'd like to come, please email nujbrighton@gmail.com ASAP!

Gate Gourmet dispute

Grateful to a recent Schnews for the tip. OK, it's been going on a while now but it's a fascinating read. Click on the headline to reach http://www.sackedbygategourmet.org.uk/ and the latest on the dispute

Citizen journalism - have your say

Various NUJ branches and the New Media council have been discussing the impact of citizen journalism on the industry. It's a very broad and complicated area, and there is also considerable misunderstanding about citizen journalism involves and how news organisations use this material in practice.

Donnacha DeLong, the New Media Council's rep on the NEC, has composed this excellent draft motion that we can use for a branch discussion. As we have the branch dinner next week and annual meeting in October, the November meeting would be the mext suitable date to disucss this. But that gives us plenty of time to think about it - as well as discuss it on this blog of course.

This branch notes the recent growth in so-called 'citizen
journalism', which has brought about the situation whereby major media outlets have used audiovisual material produced by members of the public.
Recognising that this is an inevitable product of the ever greater
availability to the public of technology that can produce such material,
this branch/council expresses concern that this has serious implications for professional journalists.

'Citizen journalism' has, around the world, had very positive effects on the media by opening up a space for people to present their views and personal situations to a wider audience than was ever possible. In the period following the Indian Ocean tsunami, new technology was invaluable in sending images of the devastation and survivors' stories around the world. Mobile phone video footage from inside the Tube on 7 July gave the public a view of the incident that was not available from anywhere else.

However, these situations have also revealed the willingness of employers to exploit material they get from the public without proper regard for the originator's rights. Furthermore, they illustrate the possibility that "citizen journalism" could offer employers a cheap alternative to professional journalists' work.

This branch calls on the NEC to make dealing with "citizen
journalism" a major priority for the union in negotiations with employers.

In all such negotiations, the union should seek to agree terms and
conditions for the use of submissions from the general public that:
1 Fully respect the copyright of the originator.
2 Offer to pay for all submissions that are used in the place of paid-for
journalistic content and offers alternatives to payment, such as donations to charity, should the originator not wish to be paid.
3 Ensure that the practice is only used in circumstance where there are no alternative submissions from professional journalists and does not become a cheap alternative to paying for professional submissions.

Sign up now for dinner!

Just firming up names for Tuesday's dinner at Piccolo's.

Jeremy Dear and Dave Tilley from the South London Guardian will both be there, and we'll be talking about overcoming problems on local newspapers.

Please email nujbrighton@gmail.com ASAP if you'd like to come. Thanks!

8pm, Tuesday 13 September
Piccolo's
56 Ship Street, Brighton BN1 1AF

Map: http://tinyurl.com/7snfh

NUJ boss to speak to us

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear and South London Guardian FoC Dave Tilley are to attend this month's Local Newspaper Solidarity dinner in Brighton.

Jeremy and Dave will both have plenty of horror stories and survival tactics for local newspaper journalists, so come along and contribute your own!

It will be a great chance for a proper branch meet up, and even if you don't work in local newspapers please come along and show your support. If you do work on a local newspaper there's really no excuse!

NUJ Brighton will pay £5 towards your meal - or you can ask the branch to pledge the same amount to a dedicated fund for campaigns at our local newspapers.

Join us at 8pm on Tuesday 13 September at Piccolo's, 56 Ship Street Brighton. If you'd like to come, please RSVP to nujbrighton@gmail.com.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Help needed on ownership study

The union is backing a European project on the effects of media owners' pressures on how issues are covered.

The EFJ/IFJ in Brussels wants to know of examples of no-go areas or self-censorship where journalists have avoided covering stories because they know they clash with their bosses' interests.

The study hopes to gauge the effects of media concentration on unions and professional standards and how companies control content and affect the level of professionalism.

It also wants to hear of positive examples of what can and has been done by journalists to defend themselves and their standards.

If you have experience or examples of the ways big media undermine standards and independence contact Granville Williams at g.williams@hud.ac.uk or call him on 01977 646580.

We need your vital statistics!

Are you registered under the union's new media sector?

David Ayrton at the union's research department is asking for information on new media salaries to contribute to the NUJ Pay Summit in November.

David has asked members to submit details from current or previous new media workplaces, and needs to know:
• starting rates
• what journalists usually earn per month
• number of hours worked
• differentials that may exist in pay between the earning of men and woman.

Please send any details to David by email or to the address below.

David Ayrton, Research and Information, NUJ, Headland House, 308-312 Gray's Inn Road, London. WC1X 8DP
Tel: 020 7843 3745
Mobile: 07734 845 323
Fax: 020 7278 6617
Email: DavidA@nuj.org.uk

More about the New Media council here.

Grandmothers & eggs

At the risk of teaching the former to suck the latter, this piece was recently posted to another NUJ group and is a useful reference for anyone you know that might need a good definition of a union:

Trade unions are 'associations of workers for the common representation of their interests', dealing in a collective way with issues such as pay, hours and working conditions (Elliott 1973: 464).

Trade unions were created by working people because, as Robert Taylor (1994: 5) explains, 'the worker as an individual in the workplace suffers from having an unequal power relationship vis-à-vis his or her employer'.

Taylor, a longstanding labour correspondent of the Financial Times, continues: 'Only when workers decide for themselves to combine together collectively can they establish enough unified strength to provide themselves with a strong and credible workplace voice to counter the often arbitrary demands being made upon them by the employer.”

One such trade union is the National Union of Journalists, known as the NUJ, which was founded a century ago to represent those whom its first historian described as the 'starveling scribes' of journalism, who were working up to 90 hours a week for 'the paltriest remuneration' (Mansfield 1943).

As well as a national structure with full-time officials and a leadership elected by the members, the NUJ has workplace organisations - called 'chapels' for reasons lost in the mists of time - in which every member at a workplace can have their say.

Support Northcliffe workers

From HQ.

Please support your fellow journalists working for Northcliffe Newspapers. The company, despite making £100m profit last year, is planning a massive £25m cuts programme, ironically called Aim Higher.

The aim is higher profits but the plan will mean a worse news service for local communities and worse working conditions for NUJ members as jobs are cut and quality is compromised.

Northcliffe refuse to negotiate with unions. So our members there rely on your support to help save jobs and protect quality. Please paste the message below in to a new email and send it to aimhigher@nng.co.uk

FAO: Michael Pelosi
Managing Director
Northcliffe Newspapers Group

Dear Michael,

I am writing to express my concern at plans by Northcliffe to impose cuts of £25m.

Such cuts will undermine the quality of local journalism and lead to worse working conditions for staff. Staff will lose their jobs, standards will drop and readers will lose out as the cuts bite.

Cutting costs is not the way to achieve your aim of maintaining your market position.
Investing in high quality editorial can help boost readership and win a greater market.

July meeting - minutes

1 Present: Gordon Scott, Fraser Addecott, Jemima Kiss, Adrian Colley, Virginia Bridgewater, Huw Williams

2 New members: - several new members admitted to the ranks. Alex Forbes, G Conway R Glazier, Steve F, M Brown

3 Correspondence – issues of Searchlight and Trade Union Friends of Searchlight, Free Press and Black Journalist circulated

4 Officers’ reports – Adrian Colley said we had £1,451.54. The June beach barbie, attended by about 20 people, had cost us just over £100.

5 Subscription to the Zimbabwean. This is a weekly newspaper, based in Britain, set up to publicise news and issues in Mugabe-wrecked Zimbabwe. We back subscribing to the paper for one year at a cost of £42.

6 Aid to Grenada. Further background available on website at www.nujbrighton.org . Basically we were asked to make a donation to the court costs of 17 people locked up in Grenada. Amnesty International says they are political prisoners jailed after the US invasion of the Caribbean country 22 years ago. We agreed to send a cheque for £50.

7 Chapel report: Virginia Bridgewater said morale at the Argus was so low that a recent meeting had been in favour of a strike over new working arrangements now that the Argus is effectively a morning paper. New shift patterns are a significant change to editorial’s terms and conditions. However, after a contract was faxed to NUJ officials it was clear that the right to change working hours is included in employees’ terms and conditions. Therefore a strike could not be justified.

8 Any other business: Jemima Kiss suggested that we take a leaf out of Bristol’s book and buy everyone who turns up at a meeting dinner. Adrian pointed out that could be quite expensive if a lot of people turned up for a meeting and suggested a cap on the amount. Jemima suggested picking a cheap spot, say Picasso’s in Brighton, and a limit of £5.

Discussion then developed into the idea of an Argus Solidarity meeting, given the gloomy scenario presented in Item 7. Jemima said it might be possible to ask NUJ President Jeremy Dear to come down and also strikers from Coventry and someone from the News Shopper, owned - as is the Argus – by Newsquest.

**Secretary’s note: Since then we’ve slightly adopted our stance and want to make this event (in mid-September) a Local Newspaper Solidarity event as it’s not just Argus journalists who suffer from low pay.

Support Iraq unions

Iraq Union Solidarity is a network of trade unionists and activists set up to help the Iraqi trade union movement.

It is working with TU federations in Iraq. Affiliation is £5. It holds monthly in London. Alternatively join the information e-list by sending a blank email to ius-subscribe@unionlists.org.uk or click on the headline to access their website.

Go back to school

A day school for rank and file trade unionists (that's us!) is being held in London next month. Cost is a tenner, if you're employed.

Sessions include: disputes and how to the win them; pensions; Tesco workers talking on how to make partnerships work; equality; how to support Iraqi trade unions.

It's being held at St Mary's Community Centre in Islington on Saturday September 17, noon to 6pm. Click on the headine for the website.

The branch can help with payment given that we've got a fair amount in the bank. There's a free creche. It's organised by the Alliance for Workers' Liberty. Click on the headline to access their site.

Searchlight

August's Searchlight mag, detailing latest anti-fascist activity, available if you want it. Email me and I can put it in the post

Broadcasting courses

HQ is running two broadcasting courses next month. Radio news presentation is taking place on Thursday September 8 and TV news presentation is on Friday September 9.

If you're in the NUJ, the cost is £155. Do both and you'll pay £275. Click on the headline for the outline of the TV course. The Radio News Presentation outline is at http://www.nujtraining.org.uk/page.phtml?id=1901

These courses will take place at the NUJ Head office, Headland House at
308-312 Grays Inn Road, London. If you are interested in attending please email to training@nuj.org.uk.

Work at ITN!

In memory of the ITV News Reporter Terry Lloyd, ITN and the NUJ sponsor an annual bursary to allow a journalist to spend six weeks within the ITV News department at ITN.

You must have at least four to six years hands-on knowledge of the industry. You don't need to be a reporter but you will need to have a reasonable broadcast voice, a good understanding of reporting and an understanding of what makes a good TV news package.

This scheme is aimed at those who have a good grounding in journalism gained from grass routes (sic) experience. Applications are welcomed from NUJ members with a TV, print or News Agency background. Unfortunately we cannot accept applications from people at the BBC, ITN or Sky News.

The successful candidate will be given six weeks experience and training at ITN. Applications should consist of a full CV and a covering letter outlining why you should be the successful candidate. You should also submit a proposal for a three-minute report for ITV news. The proposal should be no more than 2 sides of A4 and outline the story, its news value, relevance to the ITV news audience, the way you would tell the story and an overview of the logistics and costs of covering such a story. The story idea can be related to either a home or foreign issue.

All applications to Laurie Carrington, ITN, Human Resources Department, 200 Grays Inn Road, London, WC1X 8XZ quoting reference BUR - 05.

Justice for Colombia mag

Latest mag available to the first taker. Another horrifying read guaranteed!

Also plugging their Christmas cards early. If you buy JFC cards they get 20 pence for every sale - money it needs to continue its work. However minimum order of 50 does cost just over £80.

Pay in the media pow-wow - free advice

HQ is holding a pay in the media summit on Saturday November 19 in London - the key event in bringing together the union's campaigns to end low pay.

The meeting is free but because of space restrictions and for catering needs they want to know need an idea who will be attending so people can register at endlowpay@nuj.org.uk

We've been sent a leaflet which says the day will concentrate on negotiating, equal pay claims, campaigning and drawing up a pay claim.

Further leaflets/advertising will be going out later but we wanted to give reps as much notice as possible of this important event in building our campaign against low pay.

So if you want to go, send that email!

Coventry strike

Members at Coventry Newspapers - publishers of the Coventry Citizen, Bedworth Echo and the Evening Telegraph - have been forced to strike to win better pay.

Most seniors on the paper do not break the £19,000 wage barrier and owners Trinity Mirror made more than £200m proift last year.

We've been asked to help by one of three methods:

* Give cash - we got the plea yesterday, after the July meeting, and don't meet again for another 7/8 weeks so timing is bad. But if you can help send a cheque, payable to NUJ Coventry, to 41 Spencer Avenue CoventryCV5 6NQ.

*Send emails of support for the NUJ to sly-bailey@trinitymirror.com. She's the boss. Or click on the headline to access the NUJ's suggestedmodel letter to be sent to her.

*Invite strikers to a branch or chapel meeting. We may well do this for September!

Top tips for freelancers!

The NUJ is running a one-day training course, called Essential Journalism at the Headland House HQ near King's Cross in London.

The course dates are: Monday 25th September from 10am - 4.30pm and Saturday 26th November from 10am - 4.30pm. If you wish to attend the course, please respond by email to training@nuj.org.uk

Also, one of the tutors - Humphrey Evans - would like to receive tips from any members who have attended his courses in the past. Email him at topwrite@hotmail.com

It's aimed at helping freelance journalists who find themselves caught up in freelancing without very much training or journalistic experience. Click on the headline to access more info on the national site. £65 for members.

The Zimbabwean newspaper

This month's meeting backed an annual subscription to the weekly Zimbabwean newspaper, at a cost of £42. The first copy's already arrived. It's a 24-page tabloid. If you want it I can chuck it in the post.

Win Argus cash

Last week's meeting (details to follow) decide to try to stage an Argus solidarity evening in September. In fact this could, perhaps more properly, become a Local Paper solidarity evening instead given the number of Sussex papers represented in the branch.

Anyway, what better way to help pay for it could there be than to get the Argus to fund it. So why not try to win their £4,000 cash on offer next month. Register online by hitting the headline - which is also a link - and following the instructions. If any Argus hacks could oblige us by printing the daily numbers on the site then that would be very handy.

If your secretary wins, I promise all prize money will help us pay for a night out in Brighton.

Brutal regime exposed

From Sussex Action for Peace:

The West is giving financial and military support to the Karimov regime in Uzbekistan, one of the most brutal regimes in the world.

Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, helped expose vicious human rights abuses by the US-funded regime of Islam Karimov.

He is now a prominent critic of Western policy in the region. Mr Murray will be speaking in Brighton next week: Uzbekistan and British foreign policy in Central Asia at 7.30pm – 9.00pm, on Thursday July 28 at the Hanover Room, Brighthelm, North Road. Free admission, donations welcome.

Are you a pension trustee?

If so, then the TUC is offering fee membership and information to help you. It wants to help trustees as they steward trade unionists' retirement benefits.

Click on the headline to reach their website with news, guides, event details and policy papers.

Spooks!

Circular from HQ plugs a new book by former MI5 spy Annie Machon. Spies, Lies and Whistleblower is even published by Sussex-based The Book Guild, of Lewes.

Annie, who addressed the branch at the same meeting David Shayler - her partner - spoke at several years ago, says the book is a damning indictment of MI5.

It lists crimes, misdemeanours and cover-ups by the service, and MI6, and says the intelligence community should be reformed to protect us from threats like Al Qaeda.

It's £17.95 a pop and credit card orders can be made on 01825 723398.

July meeting - Tuesday 19th

Feel free to come up with suggestions to put on this month's agenda, as it will be the last chance to discuss issues for two months, given that there is no August meeting.

So far, only got two definite proposals - do we donate to the Grenada 17 cause (see below) and do we subscribe to the Zimbabwean?

Last pic, promise!

Another one from the Midsummer meeting: from left Rowan again, Amanda Wilkins, Fraser Addecott and Bip Mistry, who is not breastfeeding baby Esme.

Release the Grenada 17

The branch is being asked to back this year's annual delegate meeting's call for justice for the Grenada 17 - political prisoners jailed after the US invasion of the Caribbean country 22 years ago.

Click on the headline to access Amnesty International's 2003 article on the issue. Amnesty says the 17's trial was fatally flawed and wants their release or an independent trial. Some of the 17 are ill. Onne - former trade union leader Chalky Ventour - has cancer.

ADM voted unanimously to back the trade-union backed campaign and has given £500 to the Committee for Human Rights in Grenada UK. But unless a large number of people respond individually the target of £27,500 will not be reached. The 17 are getting free legal help but other legal costs will be met by any donations received.

Head office has circulated branches with a number of things they or individuals can do:

* Donate a sum. The branch will discuss next week.

* Publicise the case by passing on info (click on the headline for more) to friends, colleagues, trade unionists etc. Or write about it for your own publication, radio or TV station.

* Write to the Prime Minister of Grenada Dr Keith Mitchell urging their release. Or sign the online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/grenad17/petition.html

* Join the Campaign for Human Rights in Grenada - £12 for individuals.

* Tell Paul Mackney, general secretary of NATFHE (pmackney@natfhe.org.uk) if you can help with an update of Bernard Coard's book How the West Indian child is made educationally subnormal in the British school system. Bernard Coard is one of the 17 and is a former deputy prime minister of Grenada,

Argus cuts edition

... following relaunch 'fails to increase sales' - as reported by MediaGuardian on Wednesday.

More Barbecue pics...

Fred Pipes' colourful shirt, James Morrison (of City College fame) approving the alcohol and Jemima wrestling with sweetcorn on a a windy June evening.



The venerable Adrian Colley, our branch sec.



The peculiarly large moon, as snapped by Fred Pipes.

Designers needed

Branch member Liz McLaughlin is seeking freelance graphic designers. If anyone out there can help, get in touch!

"Worthing company seeks talented, accurate, efficient and reliable designers (preferably with subbing skills) to assist communications dept with ad hoc projects. The work mainly consists of corporate brochures, reports, leaflets and other support materials. "

For more information contact: emclaug1@mac.com

Another summer snap

In answer to the innumerable requests for more photos of Rowan on the site, mainly from Rowan himself (only kidding!) here's a pic of him at last week's do, talking to Fred Pipes. Camera shake all mine, I'm afraid.

More pics to come once I've worked out how this new-fangled blog picture thingy works.

G8 events

Sussex Action for Peace are urging participation in three Sussex events on Saturday July 2:

For those not going to Edinburgh on Saturday, there will be Three "Make Poverty History white band of people", organised by the World Development Movement.

St Marys Church, New Road, Shoreham, noon. Please arrive at around 11:45 am and wear white clothing

Brighton Pavilion, 2pm. Please arrive at around 1.45pm and wear white clothing.

St Peter's Church, York Place, Brighton, from 2:30 pm. There will be an encircling of St Peter's and at 3pm there will be a two-minute silence. At 3:02pm there will be a big noise so bring noise-makers and, again, please wear white clothing.

Beach party - FULL DETAILS

Just in case you haven't got 'em:

The barbie will be at a point on the beach at Hove between the Peace Statue and the West Pier. It’s officially listed on the Brighton and Hove Council site as between ‘Norfolk Groyne and Meeting Place’. The reference is to the Meeting Place café on the seafront so we’re going to try to hold it as near the Meeting Place as possible.

Best train station is Hove station, which is about 10 mins walk.

There’s free food and drink for members. We’re investing in portable barbies, veggie sausages, non-veggie sausages, white wine, lager etc etc so get along because it’ll all need devouring. If you’re having problems finding us when you reach the seafront call 0791 966 5818 and we’ll wave sausages at you in unison so you can spot where we are.

Beach party - NEXT WEEK!

See this month's email or mailout for further details of our barbie on the beach from 7pm on Tuesday June 21.

Ethics report

The union’s ethics council has sent us a copy of ‘Journalism and Public Trust’ – a conference held in association with Mediawise and addressed by members of the Press Complaints Commission, the House of Lords and other speakers. The them was the growing lack of trust the general public has in journalism.

We have one copy which can be put in the post to anyone who wants it. MediaWise is the the independent media ethics charity, set up in 1993 by 'victims of media abuse'. Its website is at www.presswise.org.uk

Your right to know

A guide to using the Freedom of Information Act and other access laws is on sale, written by a US journalist. The act came into force on January 1 this year, giving a legal right to access information from more than 100,000 public authorities.

Union HQ is promoting the book Your Right to Know by Heather Brooke, on sale at £10.40 at www.plutobooks.com

Hey ladies!

More women are needed for the Vital Statistics conference next Saturday. The branch will pay your expenses, so if you're undecided let us tip you over the edge!

Email jennyl@nuj.org.uk to find out more. This is a chance to raise your own concerns about equality and employment issues. - sign up now!

Women's conference

The NUJ is holding a women's conference in Manchester on Saturday June 18.

More than 15,000 members are women - some 40.4% of membership but there are still only seven women on the National Executive Council. 41% of chapel reps elected in the past three years are female and 58% are under 35. But they are paid less than their male equivalents.

Women's participation and representation in the NUJ is an important issue. Head office is funding the cost of hiring the Manchester Conference Centre from 11am to 4.30pm and is looking to branches to arrange and cover the cost of travel and, if needed, accommodation (we have enough cash to do this if anyone is interested). The NUJ can cover any childcare costs.

Speakers included NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear, TUC deputy general secretary Frances O'Grady, Thompsons Solicitors' Nicola Dandridge and NUJ assistant organiser Jenny Lennox.

If you are interested then email lenac@nuj.org.uk with your details by June 3!

Thomas Angus

Thomas Angus
Photography
editorial-pr-press-anythingbutweddings

www.thomasangus.com
enquiries@thomasangus.com

Shortlisted BBC Photographer of the Year
NUJ-BPPA

Tel: +44(0)1273 380427
Mobile: +44(0)7971 043698

More NUJ courses

More NUJ courses are being run in London over the next six months. Details and prices (for members) as below. Click on the headline to link for more details!

Thur/Fri Sept 22/23 Intro sub-editing £205

Mon Sept 26 Improving yourJournalistic Skills for Freelances & others £65

Sat Oct 1 Getting started as a freelance £55

Fri Oct 7 Pitch & Deal £65

Sat/Sun Oct 22/23 Photoshop £205

Sat/Sun Oct 22/23 Intro Online Publishing £205

Sat/Sun Oct 29/30 Intro Sub Editing £205

Sat Nov 12 Improving your journalistic skills £65

Sat/Sun Nov 12/13 Intro Quark £205

Thur Nov 17 Getting starte as a Freelance £55

Fri Nov 18 Pitch & Deal £65

Latest news from Justice for Colombia

Local Agricultural Workers Union Activist Assassinated in Colombia

A paramilitary death squad has assassinated peasant organiser Jose Maria Maldonado in the Loma Arena area of the municipality of Pondera in Atlantico department. According to witnesses two men on a motorbike approached Mr Maldonado and shot him dead on the morning of May 17th.

For a long period a paramilitary death squad has been operating in the municipality of Ponedera where they have carried out a systematic campaign of assassinations against local union organisers. Local people say that the paramilitary unit acts under the orders of local landowners and that they use terror to force people from their land allowing the landowners to take over their property. Recently the legal officer of the agricultural workers union, Seferino Padilla, was forced to flee his land and the region after the paramilitaries said they would kill him.

Please send a message of protest condemning this latest murder and calling for a full investigation to the following:

Dr. ¡lvaro Uribe VÈlez
President of Colombia
Fax: 00 57 1 566 2071

Jorge Alberto Uribe
Minister of Defence
Email: siden@mindefensa.gov.co; infoprotocolo@mindefensa.gov.co; mailto:mdn@cable.net.co

Dr Carlos Franco
Director of the Presidential Human Rights Program
Email: cefranco@prsidencia.gov.co; fibarra@presidencia.gov.co

Dr Luis Camilo Osorio
Attorney General
Email: contactofiscalia@fiscalia.gov.co; denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co

Please also copy your message to the Justice for Colombia office on info@justiceforcolombia.org and the UN High Commission for Human Rights on oacnudh@hchr.org.co.

Justice for Colombia website:justiceforcolombia.org

May meeting - a branch record!

Another cracking turnout - of two. But I still haven't missed a meeting since I joined the union, so bobbins to all of you! If I keep it up I'll get a carriage clock when I'm 90, or something.

Sec's (tee hee) on holiday, but basically we had to hand out some material from the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom and pass a couple of membership applications. Those will have to wait until the next meeting as two members does not a quorum make.

The next meeting, as it happens, is our June summer solstice barbecue. 7pm, Tuesday 21 June on the beach near Sackville Gardens. The branch will provide food and barbecues, so just bring booze. And if it rains we'll retire to the pub nearby...

It would be really rather grand if more than two people showed up. A girl can only eat so many sausages, and I have no dog to help.

BTW, there are quite a few new members signed up to contribute to the blog now. Where are they all? I dunno. I feel like I'm scribbling on the back of my text book in Maths. Is anyone out there? Should I just get a life?!

What councils actually do...

A few posts back, Ade mentioned vacancies on quite a few of the union's industrial councils and then said he's not quite sure exactly what councils do.

In my rather limited experience on the new media industrial council, we basically have meetings, talk about what needs doing, and then go away and do it. And have another meeting. And so on.

I'm sure HQ can provide a formal explanation of the role of councils if anyone is desperately keen to know. But there are vacancies on the ethics council, amongst others, so if you feel strongly about industry issues in those areas then joining a council is your opportunity to have a say...

PS
I'm writing this in the pub just before our May meeting, and just realised I left all the bloomin' paperwork at home. Darn it.

Minutes of April meeting

Minutes of meeting on April 19

Present: Jemima Kiss, Adrian Colley, Adam Juniper, Rowan Dore, Doug Devaney, Fraser Addecott, Virginia Bridgewater, Linda Harrison, John Thompson.

1 Apologies: Barbara Wiseman, Karen Hoy, Steve Whitehead

2 New members elected

3 Minutes of March meeting - accepted, there were no items raised for further discussion.

4 Correspondence
i) Copy of Searchlight circulated. As were copies of Trade Union Friends of Searchlight newsletter.
ii) Meeting backed £50 donation in response to plea for cash from the Working Class Movement Library, Salford.

5 Officers' reports - Treasurer Adrian Colley said we had £1,336.23 in the bank.

6 ADM report. Rowan's report was accepted. Jemima said she and Rowan were diligent in attending the conference's business. She said it was exciting to meet people who are so committed to the trade union cause. NUJ President Jeremy Dear had been impressed by the branch's new website and wanted to talk about possibly developing the union's site on similar lines.

Jemima said she organised a meeting addressed by the technology editor of The Independent who knows his stuff and that one of the main highlights was a BBC speaker who gave a great speech, likening Beeb director-general Mark Thomson to a Rottweiler.

Rowan also mentioned the demand that local paper journalists be paid a minimum of £25,000 a year - which while desirable, was felt by the NEC (the union's chief decision-making body) to be an unrealistic expectation. He said that this was what journalists should aim for. Rowan said he hadn't realised how there was a whole block of people who more or less always back the NEC's view on issues debated at the ADM.

7 Chapel reports. Virginia said that even the Argus MD did not understand the proposed pay offer that Brighton Argus journalists have been offered. Pay rises offered ranged from 0 to 2.75%. Recent redundancies had seen Mac operators and a photographer - Alan Jones - made redundant and freelance photographers also faced cuts. Angry editorial recently boycotted the paper's 125th anniversary celebrations.

8 Branch reaffiliated to Justice for Colombia cause at a cost of £50.

9 June beach party. Meeting backed holding a party at Hove. Adrian Colley said he would look into obtaining a council licence etc. Final decision to be taken next month on party details. Fraser asked why that date was chosen and was told it would be instead of the monthly meeting and also had the advantage of possibly being the longest day of the year.

10 Any other business - Fraser and Virginia said they had attended a union-run international development campaign and they have established a project to encourage journalistic freedom in Colombia. They have a mentor from War on Want and asked the branch to back their, which they hope to develop with branch support.

CPBF annual meeting

If you want to attend the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom's agm at NUJ HQ on July 9 we have a nomination form. There's a registration fee of £16.

It's a chance to have an influence on CPBF policy. Aidan White, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists will speak on 'globalisation and the media'.

Motions can be submitted by paid-up members of the CPBF (which includes the branch).

**PS - Several copies of March/April of CPBF available. Email nujbrighton@gmail.com if you want one put in the post.

Class act

Last week's meeting bunged £50 to The Working Class Movement Library (WCML) in Salford, in answer to a plea for cash - and they've been in touch to thank us.

The library holds a collection of English language books, periodicals, pamphlets, archives and artefacts, concerned with the activities, expression and enquiries of the labour movement, its allies and its enemies, since the late 1700s.

Click on the headline to see its website.

Wanna be a councillor?

HQ is looking for members to serve on NUJ committees like the ethics council and a variety of industrial councils.

For example, take the freelance council - the branch could nominate any member for the South seat, a black member for the black seat and a disabled member for the disabled seat.

* Newspapers and agencies - equality, black members, national newspapers and news agencies

* Magazine and book council - equality, black members and disabled members

* Freelance industrial council - South, black members and disabled members constituencies.

* PR and information - London/South East and disabled members

* Ethics - members sought from Book and Magazine sectors.

* New Media - Black members and disabled members

* Broadcasting - Agencies, black members and disabled members

I'm a bit hazy on how the councils operate, never having served on one. Maybe our chair Jemima can enlighten us on the new media council's operations?

If you're interested in standing please let us know at nujbrighton@gmail.com. You can be nominated at the May meeting, as closing date is May 31. If there's more than one nominee for a seat then you need to supply a ballot statement, as there will be a vote.

CPBF manifestos

The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom has issued two new pamphlets - its 'Media Manifesto 2005' and 'Keeping Broadcasting Public'.

Manifesto - this 40-page A5 booklet outlines what the CPBF thinks the government should do to improve the 'media environment' and makes forthright demands on everything from Whitehall briefings to a regulatory framework for the internet.

Keeping Broadcasting Public - written by Tom O'Malley, this coincides with the recent launch of the government's green paper on the future of the BBC. It outlines plans to defend and improve the BBC and public service broadcasting.

It also highlights the dangers to the future of commercial public service broadcastings after Ofcom endorsed plans to slash regional ITV broadcasting to 1.5 hours a week.

We've been sent one copy of each publication. Email adecolley@1927club.com and I can put it in the post. Or either can be ordered at 50p a pop from the CPBF or click on the headline above and then click on the home page story which starts 'NEW Important Campaign pamphlets available' and you can download a pdf.

Peace and love and bloke from TV

Sussex Action for Peace are busy this week!

THURSDAY APRIL 28

Are we losing the right to protest? A public evening of information sharing, debate, networking and building alliances with guest speakers: Mark Thomas (activist/comic); Dr Caroline Lucas (Green MEP); Coun Keith Taylor (Green candidate); Plus local activists. At the Brighthelm Centre, Brighton, 7.30pm.

FRIDAY APRIL 29

Anti-war hustings. Ask candidates from all parties & all three Brighton & Hove
constituencies about their views on Iraq & Palestine; how they feel about EDO; what do they think of ID cards & Control Orders. At The Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton, 7.30pm.

SATURDAY APRIL 30

Protest for peace in Iraq. Meet 12 noon in George Street, Hove. March to Hove Town Hall & Defence Minister Ivor Caplin's last surgery!

Local newspaper pay rises

Head office reports Newsquest chapels in Scotland accepting 3% on the Sunday Herald; 3% in York, with minimums of £16,500 for newly qualified seniors on weeklies and £18,500 on the daily; at least 2.75% for staff at Bradford, w ith 3.5% for juniors and newly qualified seniors.

At Kendal, 2% has been agreed. At Darlington pay went up 9% for trainees with a 2.75% basic rise.

Johnston Press titles in Leeds have accepted a 3% increase and a minimum starting rate of £20,000 for seniors. Scottish Johnston Press chapels are considering a ballot on a pay offer giving between 2.5% and 3.5%.

Average earnings in the year to 2005 rose by 4.2%. Since then average has been 4.4%.

UKPG Argus piece

Press Gazette carried a piece on the Argus on page 3 this week

Three photographic Mac operators and the newsdesk secretary have gone and another photographic job could be cut. Use of freelance columnists and photographers has also been reduced. Editorial staff believe they are suffering the effects of a relaunch which was seen as a failure of the sales and marketing department.

NUJ members boycotted a party held on Friday to mark the paper's 125th birthday. Argus management was unavailable for comment.

Justice for Colombia affiliation

Justice for Colombia is celebrating after the release of an agricultural trade union's leader Luz Cordoba after a campaign to free her was launched last year.

She was held for more than a year without being formally charged and now released.

Last year JFC says 94 trade unionists were assassinated in Colombia - no one has been arrested for any of the crimes. JFC aims to end UK military aid to Colombia.

The branch has been asked to reaffiliated to JFC as our affiliation has run out and the campaign says support offered by groups like ours has helped with successes like Luz's release.

Rowan Dore on ADM 2005

Report on 2005 Annual Delegate Meeting Scarborough
April 7-10 2005 from Rowan Dore



Jemima Kiss and myself were the two delegates from the Brighton and Mid Sussex Branch.

We maintained a continuous presence on the conference floor for the three day conference and voted on virtually all the 142 motions put to the ADM. We made sure it was known that the Brighton and Mid Sussex was an effective branch representing all aspects of the media in the area.

Although there were no motions from Brighton and Mid Sussex for the 2005 ADM, I spoke on three issues:

• The need for a minimum £25,000 basic salary for all senior journalists

• I supported photographers in their call for a NUJ photographic organiser, who would deal with all matters affecting photographic staff.

• During a debate on a motion urging the NUJ to modernise its logo and rebrand some of its literature I warned the NUJ not to go down this road, citing the experience of The Argus, which has seen falling sales, a drop in advertising and now redundancies following its rebranding.

The minimum £25,000 motion was thrown out on the grounds that some seniors were only getting £14,000 a year and a leap to £25,000 was unrealistic. But there was general agreement that wages in the provincial sector were too low and salaried journalists were now falling behind teachers, nurses and firefighters.

There was a lot of criticism of Newsquest and Gannett for deliberately keeping wages low, especially as parent company Gannett is making profits of around £100 million a year. All senior journalists on the Yorkshire Post have broken the £20,000 pay barrier. The NUJ will continue to press for better pay for journalists.

The call for a photographic organiser was rejected out on the grounds it would cost the union £60,000 a year and would duplicate some of the work done by regional organisers.The idea of re-branding the NUJ by modernising its logo was withdrawn

Jemina, an ADM virgin, spoke up for the New Media Council, of which she is a member and organised a successful and well attended fringe meeting about blogging.

A lot of the ADM was taken up with issues concerning the cut backs and redundancies at the BBC, and how the sacking of thousands of BBC staff, many of them journalists. There was much talk about how this affected programme quality. The NUJ is fighting some of the redundancies and a day of action is planned. Don Mackglew, our regional organiser, asked me "When is The Argus going to have a day of action?". He also was in agreement that we should change our name to the Brighton and Sussex branch.

There was also discussion and debate about low pay in the provincial sector, the organisation of the union, health and safety matters and media freedom.

The union now has 36,000 members across all sections of the media and the numbers are growing daily. General Secretary Jeremy Dear's vision of a well run, campaigning union encompassing all aspects of the media is taking shape.

All union subscriptions are to go up by £5 annually from next Year, which will mean a slight increase in the monthly direct debit. Jeremy Dear said that when he was a delegate he always opposed such increases on the grounds that the union was previously squandering money. "We are now a well run effective campaigning union and to remain an effective campaigning union we need this increase."

It was agreed that the union should look at holding an ADM in Northern Ireland (There are always a lot of Irish delegates attending).

The next ADM will be from Thursday March 23 to March 26 2006 in Southport. Closing date for motions is November 7 and nominations for delegates should be completed by January 23 2006. Judging by the way recruitment to the branch is growing we should be able to send three delegates to Southport and play an important part in the next ADM.

Rowan Dore 

May Day stalls

Brighton and Hove unitary UNISON branch is marking May Day on Brighton seafront and we've been asked if we want to join in.

From 11am – 3pm on Monday, May 2, Unison is running a stall on the seafront on the seafront at the end of East Street, near the "kissing wall".

May Day is the day when trade unionists peacefully celebrate the achievements of the union movement, when we recommit ourselves to achieving economic and social justice for all. It is also a day when we remember our sisters and brothers who are suffering victimisation, such as trade unionists in Colombia, Palestine and Iraq.

Stalls at the event are free and Brighton and Mid Sussex NUJ has been asked if we want to run one. It could be a great opportunity for us to raise our profile in Sussex, forge links with other union activists and recruit new members.

There will be provision for union reps to take the opportunity to deliver speeches or addresses to those present throughout the day.

**NB from Adrian Colley. I won't be able to take part as I'll just have finished working seven nights in a row. Is there anyone out there who would be interested in taking this on? It occurred to me that maybe Argus journalists might be interested in publicising their pay campaign via an NUJ presence. Just a thought.

The Zimbabwean online

Click on the headline to see the online newspaper for expat Zimbabweans, which is providing information on the troubled African state.

The publication has been selling 10,000 copies weekly in Zimbabwe after being shipped in from South Africa - and it has not gone down well with authorities in Harare.

Model freelance claims

The Freelance Industrial Council is plugging its model claims form - for use in negotiations with employers.

It hopes that union reps and officials can use them to renegotiate agreements with employers in all media - from online to books and magazines. The ultimate aim is to set up good freelance agreements after a period when very few existed and many NUJ reps were unfamiliar with them.

Copies available from freelanceoffice@nuj.org.uk

On location

Rowan and Jemima, armed with tea at Scarborough Spa.



We didn't put any motions forward this year, so let's start making notes now for the next ADM. Burning issues, anyone?

No such thing as a free lunch

I was talking to Tony Gosling from the Bristol branch this morning about methods of luring more members to branch meetings.

They meet at the Tobacco Factory, a particularly impressive arts centre in Bristol, and the branch buys dinner for all the members that turn up. That sounds good to me.

We've moved our meetings for now to the Nelson on Trafalgar Street so we can piggyback their pub quiz, but how about doing dinner one month? Is anyone up for that?

Or any other ideas for a stonking summer party?!

No photographers' rep

Delegates this morning voted against the proposal for a dedicated photographers' organiser.

Can't help feeling that was a good idea and wasn't convinved by any of the arguments against it. Those arguments included "the union just isn't organised like that" and "photographers are already looked after by every other sector". If the photographers feel they need a rep to better support their work, then they are really the best people to assess that need. IMHO.

Where the action is!

Fantastic! I'm on the conference floor right now at the NUJ's Annual Delegate Meeting. Praise be for wireless internet.

I just about survived the raging tempests outside to make it to the venue this morning - Scarborough's very beautiful Spa on the South Bay.

We've already had a telephone call from Mordechai Vanunu which was very faint, but at least the noisy delegates at the back had to stop chatting so they could listen.



I've met loads of interesting people (is there anyone Rowan Dore doesn't know?!) and we've barely even started yet. The main event for me is the New Media drinkypoos tonight where we try to persuade old school hacks how important the internet is. Or at least show them what a computer looks like. (Saucer of milk, table two...)

Charles Arthur, former Indy tech editor and blogger, will be there to tell everyone what they need to know. This is only just the beginning for our nascent New Media Industrial Council and we have a very long way to go...

Local newspaper protest

As part of the union's campaign against low wages in the newspaper industry, a protest is to be held outside the Newspaper Society agm and lunch at the Savoy Hotel, London from noon on Tuesday May 17. If you can make it, go along and vent your feelings.

More info at endlowpay@nuj.org.uk

NUJ editor to speak at anti-war event

Tim Gopsill, editor of the NUJ magazine The Journalist is among speakers at an anti-war conference in Sussex this month.

The event on Saturday April 23, from 11am-3.30pm is at the Brighthelm Centre in North Road, Brighton. It is organised by 'Hands Off' an anti-war forum linked to Sussex Action for Peace

It will focus on Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and other issues raised by New Labour foreign policy. There will also be stalls and kids' activities.

Others speakers are Sami Ramadani Iraqi-born lecturer and writer; David Chandler, a writer on the politics of humanitarian intervention; Haifa Zangana, Iraqi-born novelist and antioccupation activist, focusing on women's rights; Ana Lekaj, from former Yugoslavia; Nicholas Gilby, of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade; Howard Davies, local photojournalist documenting refugee crises.

Searchlight magazine

Copy of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight can be put in post if someone wants it. Also have several copies of Trade Union Friends of Searchlight four-page mag available. Email me if you want one.

March meeting minutes

Meeting on March 15

Present: Jemima Kiss, Adrian Colley, Adam Juniper, Rowan Dore, Abbe Bates, Sanaz Nazemi, Peter Newman , Dan Savery, Doug Devaney, James Morrison. Meeting included three non-members who came along in response to union's recruitment week publicity.

1 Apologies: Naomi Marks

2 No new member applications

3 Minutes of February meeting - accepted, there were no items raised for further discussion.

4 Correspondencei) Copy of Searchlight circulated. As were copies of Free Press, the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom's publication.

5 Officers' reportsAdrian Colley said we had £1,411.23 in the bank.

6 Chapel reports. Rowan Dore said the chapel had been having talks with Argus managing director and that staff were demanding a 6% pay rise. He said the new Argus editor would be Mike Beard, formerly of the Hastings Observer.

7 i) ADM motions - in response to suggestions that our reps vote for a certain candidate in one of the ADM elections, Adrian Colley pointed out he was unsure if the meeting could instruct reps on who to vote for. On motion 77 - a plea to redesign the union's logo - the branch voted to oppose the motion.

ii) June meeting - discussion was held on whether to have a beach party rather than a meeting, on June 21, which may well be the longest day of the year. Next meeting is on Tuesday 19 April at 7.30pm.

March meeting

Everyone should have had postal or email notification. Just a quick reminder that the meeting on Tuesday at the Nelson in Brighton starts at 7pm. As part of recruitment week efforts we'll buy a drink for every non-member who turns up. If that sounds like a bribe, well yes it is. They need to be journalists though!

Up for discussion

Just a note to say that if anyone wants to suggest items for discussion at monthly meetings you're welcome to get in touch and I can put it on the agenda.

Annual Delegate Meeting agendas

Got five - email me if you want one. 140+ items on the agenda. If you want the branch reps to vote in a certain way on certain issues then next week's meeting will be debating the branch voting stances.

Snappers' competition

Take a look at: http://www.wacc.org.uk

Then click on 'network' and go down the page to click on the competition. Or just click on the headline to this item.

World Association for Christian Communication works for human dignity, justice and peace. It sees genuine communication as the basis of understanding and co-operation between peoples of different faiths and cultures.

It is inviting photographers to send in entries - first prize $500 (about £275).

Future of Beeb

NUJ has teamed up with Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom to stage a conference on strategies to defend the Beeb and public service broadcasting.

It's at Headland House on Saturday March 5 from 10am to 4.30pm . Speakers include NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear, Dorothy Byrne, head of news and current affairs at C4 and Nick Jones, author and former Beeb political correspondent. Registration is a tenner, including lunch. You can turn up and pay on the day.

CPBF newsletters

Have three copies of Free Press available. It is the Jan-Feb edition of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom's newsletter. Features include Using the Freedom of Information act anda report on the December meeting of Journalism and Public Trust - a NUJ/Mediawise-organised event aiming to improve public trust in journalism.

February minutes

Present: Jemima Kiss, Linda Harrison, Adrian Colley, Natalie Holmes, Adam Juniper, Rowan Dore, John Hughes, Virginia Bridgewater, Naomi Marks, Karen Hoy

1 Apologies: Steve Whitehead, Barbara Wiseman

2 No new member applications

3 Minutes of January meeting - it was pointed that the newsletter that was sent out with the January minutes was confusing in that it said the cost of the nujbrighton website was 50.75p a month. Some read that as the price it would cost members to use monthly. Adrian Colley said the figure was the monthly cost of the site, which is free to all to use, and apologised for not removing any ambiguities in the offending item.

4 Correspondence
i) Thank you letter from Manchester branch for our donation to the freelance activisits conference in November.

ii) Copy of Searchlight circulated

iii) Recruitment week - March 21-24. Do we want to organise an event? Meeting decided to encourage members to bring along non-members to the meeting/pub quiz. It suggested contacting the City College and Brighton University with a view to encouraging students to come along. It was agreed that the branch would offer a drink to such potential recruits, not as inducement, but as hospitality.

iv) BBC charter renewal meeting with Michael Grade, March 22 - details of how to attend this event were circulated.

5 Officers' reports
Adrian Colley said we had £1,411.23 in the bank.

6 Chapel reports
Argus MoC Karen Hoy said journalists had met pre-press staff, who are members of Amicus, who are in talks with Newsquest management at the Brighton Argus. She said journalists' pay claim had been delayed.

7 Any other business
There was no other business to transact

Next meeting is on Tuesday 15 March at 7.30pm.

Intelligent quick-witted journalists required!

Great meeting this week at our new meeting venue - the Lord Nelson on Trafalgar Street.

I'll 'fess up: we lost the pub quiz. The winners scored 108, biggest losers 54 and we got 88. So it wasn't too embarrasing but we badly need more team members, despite the relatively good turnout. Yes - it is a union meeting but cunningly disguised as a night down the pub so do come along if you haven't already.

Minutes will be up soon - eh Adrian?! - for the nitty gritty...

We want you as a new recruit

The NUJ is beefing up its recruitment drive with a week of activities next month.

It wants chapels and branches to consider staging a special event during the week.

There are still thousands of journos out there who aren't members and the NUJ says that often the main reason people haven't joined is that they haven't been asked.

The week of March 21-24 has been earmarked for the recruitment drive. Activities could include emails to all members in a workplace asking them to recruit a pal as a member; leafleting of other departments at your company, a quiz night, tenpin bowling, or whatever.

Head office also reckons a members audit of your workplace could be a good idea - with non-members to be wooed by sweet-talking reps!

This comes after five years of growth in membership. Brighton and Mid Sussex branch, re-formed in 1998, has more than doubled in size since our first meeting. Membership fluctuates monthly but we now have about 220 members across East and West Sussex.

The NUJ can send you recruitment leaflets, posters, membership forms and other promo material.

If you have any ideas on what the branch could do, get in touch, we're all ears! This will be on the agenda for February's meeting.

February meeting - CORRECTION

This month's meeting is on Tuesday, February 15 at the Nelson Arms in Brighton. It is NOT on Wednesday. In the mailout I sent I wrongly wrote Wednesday, February 15. Apologies for that - a stupid mistake on my part.

So it's Tuesday at 7.30pm, to be followed by the pub quiz.

Rentamob required

Nice types, no riff-raff needed to lobby media industry events where the NUJ plans to mount protests. Volunteers are needed to leaflet promoting anti-low pay campaigns and other issues.

Events to be targeted:

March 15 - British Press Awards, London

March 21-24 NUJ recruitment week - across UK

April 21 Reuters AGM, London

April 28/29 European Newspaper Publishers Association annual conference, London

May 3/4 PPA Magazines 2005 annual event

May 16-22 Local newspaper week

May 17 Newspaper Society AGM - location to be confirmed

November 17 Periodicals Publishers Association CEO annual meeting

Names/email address to Jeremy Dear at NUJ HQ in the smoke. The union's also looking for members to help run stalls at media careers fairs around the UK. And if you know of other events Rentamob can target, come forward with the details.

NUJ job up for grabs

The union is creating a campaigns and communications officer to, among other things, beef up communication strategy; develop the NUJ's web presence; produce high-quality campaign material; work with MPs etc.

Journalistic qualifications and experience in trade union movement essential. Salary: £41,000. Application forms from general secretary, Headland House, 308-312 Gray's Inn Road, London. Closing date March 7. Interviews to be held on March 9.

BBC charter renewal meeting - March 22

The TUC hosts a meeting on the Beeb's charter renewal with BBC Chairman Michael Grade and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell at Congress House, London on Tue March 22, 2.30pm to 4.30pm. It's part of the consultation on the Beeb charter. If you want to go we've got a copy of a form you need to fill out which has to be returned to the TUC by March 1.

New online pay database launched

Branch officers and chapel reps can now use an online database of salary details when negotiating pay details.

The database was set up in partnership with the Labour Research Department and holds details of nearly 2,500 pay agreements including salaries, holiday, London weighting and paternity leave.

To access the database, email davida@nuj.org.uk to get a username and password.

Running her socks off...

How much did you donate to the Tsunami appeal?

If you're still looking for right moment - look no further! New branch member Abbe Bates is attempting the Hastings half marathon on 13 March. Last year she finished in around two hours, and this year she'll be raising money for victims of the Asian tsunami. And she'll be running alongside her Dad, who normally takes part dressed as a clown...

Email us if you fancy chipping in some cash and we'll pass your details to Abbe over at the Group Travel Organiser in Hastings.

January meeting - new venue, new blood!

Minutes

Apologies
Adrian Colley
Present
Jemima Kiss, Barbara Wiseman, Fred Pipes, Linda Harrison, Abbey Bates, Peter Newman
The Nelson, Trafalgar Street, Brighton

1 Magazines and updates
Copies of January branch newsletter, Searchlight, Justice for Colombia, International Federation of Journalists newsletter, Free Press and the NUJ mail all made available.

Book branch news sheet and promo for new Rupert Murdoch book made available

2 Union information
Information given out on new pay database for reps.

Freelance wellbeing report made available. Another copy to be requested from head office for future reference. Is the full report available on the NUJ website?

Information made available on Freedom of Information Act.

3 ADM agenda
No amendments suggested. JK said a good motion would be that as a professional organisation, branch websites should be properly organised, supported and hosted with main NUJ site. Will have to wait until next year.

4 Delegates
As meeting is inquorate, decided to post details on website and ask members to vote. But then FP AB and PN arrived. LH put forward motion to nominate JK for ADM, seconded by FP. Rowan Dore, Fraser Addecott and Virginia Bridgewater also want to go, but were not present at the meeting.

5 New members
New members all approved: Samantha Hicks, Hastings Observer; Mark Baynes, freelance photographer; Katherine Simmons, East Grinstead Observer; Chris Pollard, Hastings Observer; Angela Peterson, Hastings Observer.
Temporary members all approved: Rupert Rivett, photographer; Sam Walker, photographer.

6 Tsunami
Request for donation towards media workers appeal in Asia. AB put forward motion for £75, LH seconded.

7 AOB
Is January newsletter on the website?

Pub: all agreed venue is great. Much more lively and sociable than Sussex Arts Club (SAC), but back room still quiet and roomy enough for meetings. SAC should be informed if we will not be meeting there for the time being.

Quiz - great idea. The Nelson's pub quiz is held every Tuesday, so we'd need to change the meeting day. All agreed that this should be OK. Members could be told that union meeting starts at 7.30, and quiz starts as 8.30.

Teams are of up to six people and it costs £1 per team to enter. Advised to arrive early to get a table. Prizes of cash and wine.

Next meeting should be Tuesday 15 February at 7.30pm.

JK also suggested looking at other social events for the branch, such as indoor climbing at Shoreham, theatre trips and more parties. AB is running the Hastings half marathon in March and JK suggested the branch should sponsor her.

JK said that she will modify the website to make it clearer how to post a comment, or sign in to post an entry.

JK thanked AB and PN for coming all the way over from Hastings for their first branch meeting.

Cracking meeting tonight!

New venue, new blood!

Will post a summary and minutes etc ASAP. Thanks to Abbe and Peter from Group Travel Organiser for making the trip all the way from Eastbourne. The Nelson is a great venue.

More soon...

No pub quiz at January meeting

Apologies to some members who have been sent this month's mailout saying that there is a pub quiz after next Wednesday's meeting. We've got it wrong. There will be a meeting on Wednesday at the Nelson in Brighton but there is no pub quiz.

One of the items on the agenda is whether we should switch to a new venue from the Arts Club and whether we should meet on a different day.

If you have a view let us know, or even sign up to the site and contribute to this thread!

Colombian congressman to speak in Brighton

Message this morning from our comrades at Justice for Colombia:

Dear friends,

During the first week of March 2005 Justice for Colombia will be hosting Colombian Congressman Wilson Borja in the UK. Wilson was formerly the leader of the public sector union in Colombia before being elected to Congress and is now Colombia’s foremost opposition politician standing up for the rights of trade unionists and other progressive sectors in that country. He is also one of the most threatened people in Colombia and has been the victim of numerous assassination attempts. During one of these attempts Wilson was shot three times and one of his bodyguards killed. He is now forced to travel everywhere in an armoured car with 14 armed bodyguards with him at all times.

Justice for Colombia will be bringing Wilson to Brighton during his visit to the UK and the AUT at Sussex University have very kindly offered to organise a venue for the meeting at the university campus. The date for the meeting is Wednesday 2nd March and it will be held at some time in the late afternoon. We hope to get as many people as possible to come to the meeting, in particular trade unionists, students and other activists.

As an affiliate of Justice for Colombia we write to ask that your branch also get involved with planning and promoting this meeting and would ask that you make contact should you be willing to do so. 

Wilson is an extremely charismatic speaker who will be able to give a very informative overview of what is happening in Colombia and in particular the problems faced by trade unionists.

We hope to hear from you soon and would ask that you copy any replies into Jim Guild at Sussex AUT on j.guild@sussex.ac.uk

All the best and thank you in advance for your help with this.

Liam Craig-Best
Secretary, Justice for Colombia
Tel: 020 7794 3644
Email: liam@justiceforcolombia.org

Represent Brighton branch

Brighton/Mid Sussex branch has been asked if it would like to send someone to an event at Headland House in London.

A presentation is being held on Wednesday February 9 from 5.30pm until about 7.30pm for learning reps who have succecssfully completed the learning rep course. Refreshments will be provided and we will also pay your reasonable travel expenses.

The evening will provide a good opportunity to meet with the established learning reps and hear first hand how they are promoting learning and training in their workplaces.

If you're interested contact adecolley@1927club.com and your details can be passed on to Deirdre Heinrich. Need to know by January 21.

Wanna be a learning rep?

The union is looking for members to become learning reps in their workplaces.

A project worker Deirdre Heinrich was recently appointed NUJ learning rep project worker. Her role as project worker is to recruit and provide support for learning reps and she is willing to attend a branch meetings or chapel meeting to tell members more about it.

Learning reps were granted statutory rights for time off to train and perform their duties in the workplace and where learning reps are in place they are providing valuable advice and information about learning and training to their colleagues.

Searchlight magazine

January copy of anti-fascist magazine now available. If you want it email adecolley@1927club.com and I will put it in the post.

Tsunami appeal

NUJ President Jeremy Dear is appealing to members to back journalists affected by the tsunami in Indonesia.

Over New Year he received calls from many NUJ members anxious to find out information about the fate of journalists. The news is grim.

In the Aceh province of Indonesia alone most of the 80 staff of Serambi Indonesia, the only daily newspaper are dead or missing after the tsunami tore through its offices.

Since its founding in the 1990s, the paper has been one of the only sources of information from the war-ravaged Aceh Province. Its journalists have routinely faced violent attacks, threats and intimidation from both sides of the conflict in the region.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists reports that almost two-thirds of its members in Banda Aceh have been killed or are missing. Throughout Northern Sumatra around 200 journalists are missing.

The General Secretary of the AJI, Nezar Patria, lost 20 members of his family in the disaster.

The NUJ, along with other international journalists' organisations has already pledged funds and support for the AJI and will be working closely with the International Federation of Journalists who have set up a special disaster fund (see www.ifj.org ).

Members have already responded magnificently to this tragedy but assistance is still badly needed.

Donations should be made payable to IFJ Safety Fund and sent to Jeremy Dear, General Secretary, NUJ, Headland House, 308 Grays Inn Road, London, WC1X 8DP. Of pay by credit card by calling the NUJ on 020 7278 7916.