May Searchlight

May edition of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight available - out in time for the May local elections, and features an item on efforts to in Bognor to counter far-right candidates.

Rover returns

At a recent meeting someone told one of us: "You should get a war correspondent to come and speak." Allah be praised, there's one in town next week, straight outta Baghdad, although we can't claim any credit for his visit.

You may have already spotted this on the Brighton Festival calendar but former Argus journalist Rory McCarthy is one of the starring attractions next week and some of us remember him as a callow youth, covering the transport beat with commendable vigour. It's on Sunday May 6 at the Old Market in Hove. Rory is the Guardian's Baghdad correspondent and last year wrote a book on the country and how its people are coping with war. He is joined by BBC film-maker Sean McAllister who made the film Liberace in Baghdad, which will be screened at the venue. It will be followed by a round-table debate on Iraq's continuing crisis.

Tickets - call Brighton 709709. Booking fee a despicable £2 but not if you buy direct at the festival box office. Tickets still available on Tuesday!

Job - Culture vulture wanted

Former branch member Jon Pratty is looking for a ‘middle-level journo’ with experience of online working to run Icons Online website. Deadline, Tuesday May 8. Five weeks holiday a year, 37.5 hours a week for £17,500 (we suggest you ask for a wage rise on your first day if you get it). Closing date Tuesday May 8.

ICONS, a major online project funded by Culture Online, is coming under the editorial supervision of the 24 Hour Museum. The job will be an interesting mix of tasks, from sifting nominations for ICON status and answering email enquiries, to researching and writing articles and features for new ICON entries, sourcing pictures and editing and uploading content.

The mix of skills, initiative and judgement needed to do the job successfully means we are seeking a qualified journalist (to NCTJ standard) with recent experience and a self-starting and positive attitude. A willingness to travel around the UK to research information and an interest in culture is essential. Duties include:

• Research and write articles, features and news stories for ICONS / 24HM website.

• Take responsibility for maintenance of the ICONS site. Maintain scrutiny of specific site sections and ensure they are accurate and up-to-date.

• Assist in maintaining a contacts book and story diary

• Liaise with contacts, press officers and PR agencies as necessary.

Plus any other duties that are seen to be appropriate to the post.

Contact Jon Pratty at editor@24hourmuseum.org.uk for an application form or we can forward a pdf on to you!

Crofts original

Cracking effort this evening - more than 20 people turned out for the talk on ghostwriting and freelancing by author Andrew Crofts who had some titillating tales about the likes of Gillian Taylforth and Lady Buck, courtesan (or should that be gold-digger?).

Even the gate-crasher ("I came in here looking for a talk on nuclear power.") hung around for an hour to enjoy the event. She didn't seem particularly interested in joining though.

VIGIL FOR ALAN JOHNSTON - 25 APRIL @ 12.30PM

The NUJ is calling on members to show their support at a vigil for kidnapped BBC correspondent and union member Alan Johnston.

The union, with the support of the International Federation of Journalists, is to stage a vigil for Alan Johnston outside the Palestinian General Delegation office (5 Galena Road, Hammersmith, London W6 0LT) on Wednesday 25 April between 12.30pm and 1.30pm. Members who can are urged to attend to show your solidarity with Alan and efforts to secure his release.

After visiting the NUJ conference last weekend IFJ General Secretary Aidan White arrived in Gaza last night. As an NUJ member Aidan is carrying a message from me on behalf of the NUJ to representatives of the Palestinian Authority demanding action against those who have kidnapped Alan. He is also taking with him a letter demanding Alan's release signed by 177 MEPs - the result of last Monday's day of action in Brussels organised by the IFJ with the support of the NUJ. The NUJ has also organised a day of action in Dublin today.

The US journalists union has also now taken up the campaign after its President Linda Foley attended the NUJ conference and met with NUJ officials.

A report of the trade union meetings with the Palestinian Authorities over Alan's kidnap taking place over the next few days will be given at the vigil. We will hand in a letter demanding further resources and effort be devoted to trying to secure Alan's release and provide information to his family, friends and colleagues.

This latest move comes after meetings and correspondence between the union and UK and Palestinian government representatives over the past few weeks, as well as vital work with the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate to keep up the profile of Alan's plight . All our efforts have been to bring pressure to bear on the authorities, not only to work hard to secure Alan's safety and release but to address the threats to all journalists in the region and to enable them to work free from the threat of kidnap, intimidation and threats.

Please join us at the vigil if you can.
Jeremy Dear
General Secretary

Editorial assistant job

Brighton-based Journalism.co.uk is recruiting an editorial assistant. The news and recruitment website requires someone for web-based marketing research, data input and general admin. This is not a journalistic role but there will be an opportunity to write content for the site.

For more information go to http://www.journalism.co.uk/jobs/3331

Safety of Journalists - Join us in Parliament

You are invited to a discussion to be held in the Wilson Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons on the International News Safety Institute's report Killing the Messenger: The Deadly Price of News, which has as one of its main findings that 1,000 journalists have been killed - many of them murdered - over the last decade. The meeting will be held on Wednesday 25th April from 2pm - 3.30pm. All welcome.

Day 4 - Revenge of the Nerds

Day fur in the Big Brootha House, er, sorry ADM, and top of the viewers’ voting were two former Brighton branch stalwarts. Step forward Helene Mulholland and Jemima Kiss.

They were elected by delegates to the new union body – the Commission on Multi Media Working (Motion 90 – you can read it in full at the main NUJ website). It aims to conduct an intensive study into all union-related aspects of multimedia working – and will look at issues like training, health and safety, use of freelances, wages etc.

And they’re definitely the right people for the job though of course with all the candidates in front of us, we were spoilt for choice. Anyone who knows Jemima is aware of her evangelistic zeal for new media in her former role at Brighton-based journalism.co.uk. And Helene - known to many of us as ‘Len’ when she was secretary in the late 90s and a key figure in the branch’s resurrection – works on the Guardian website. Both were speakers at a fringe meeting on ‘Convergence’ the evening before. Jemima is the recent former chair, now a resident of west London, is also on the union’s new media council. She also works on the Guardian website.

Of particular interest today was the motion on Newsquest, which is the owner of the Brighton Argus. In Glasgow, as publisher of the Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times, it has fallen foul of journos. Managers even had the audacity to ask the staff how to save £3m – this, following a £19m profit last year. “Oi, help us make you redundant!” Anyone who has worked for Newsquest would recognise this attitude.

Bradford rep Bob Smith condemned the ‘rapacious greed’ of the Newsquest. He said: “We are looking to attend the Gannett group annual meeting in the US next year (Gannett own Newsquest) to tell them about what is happening on their papers in the UK. We have got to attack them.” The ADM instructed the National Executive Council to support the joint chapels’ campaign to remove the threat of further cuts.

Motions 150 to 175 were on the agenda. Some decisions arising from them:

* There will be 10 issues of the Journalist not nine, published next year. One was to have been dropped but that has been opposed.
* A motion urging the Journalist editor Tom Gopsill to seek to ensure a balanced and fair coverage of Middle East issues was passed.
* Ways to enable an NUJ-hosted email list to allow for ‘sharing of best practice and defence of members’ rights’ will be looked at.
* A union pensioners’ organisation is to be set up.
* The National Executive is to step up its anti-racist campaigning specifically against Islamophobia and support membes prepared to take industrial action to oppose racism.

More contentiously the union will soon have a new code of conduct which is ‘tighter’. See Motion 172 on the main site. The paragraph which mentioned not mentioning a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed, legal status etc etc has been ditched and sparked a healthy debate with several speakers on both sides.

The one who stood out though was Yorkshire Post reporter Pete Lazenby (star of last week’s Press Gazette NUJ pullout). Basically I’m telescoping his quotes here – He said: “If, after making the morning calls on the newspaper I wrote a story about someone dying in a road crash and left out all the information supplied by the various emergency services (and all of it relevant to what the reader would want to know), I wouldn’t be able to write a story if I take on board what the code of conduct says I should leave out. So instead of a news story revealing all about what had happened and that someone had died in a car crash and who that someone was etc. I’d be left with the story “It is dead.”

And now, thankfully, after the vote so is that part of the code of conduct.

Day 3 of ADM

Day 3
Finance was the first issue of the day. The union, for the first time in a while, has a deficit, so subs have been increased. The maximum increase is £9.60 over the year and will cover funds needed for campaigns such as Journalism Matters as well as training. Student membership has increased from £10 to £25 for the entirety of their course, and with this they are now entitled to a 25% discount on their first full year of membership, providing they join within 12 months of graduating.

Max Clifford and Esther Rantzen are apparently up for grabs if we'd like them to help us raise funds for a welfare campaign. Any suggestions as to how we could use them on a postcard to the usual address please, try to refrain from sending pictures of oddly shaped vegetables at the same time.

The motion to appoint a Photographers' Organiser was remitted. This means the national exec council will investigate the proposal as part of a wider investigation into union staffing over the next 12 months. It was felt that staffing needs to be dealt with in a strategic way to prevent money and time being wasted.

John McDonnell MP gave a talk about the role of journalism in this country, commenting that many MPs only pay lip service to free press. He predicted a future where the media is controlled solely by monopolies and trans-atlantic media barons and urged members to act when Blair finally steps down and the leadership contest begins (as is looking likely). "We should intervene in hustings, asking 'What is your position on free press?', 'What is your position on low pay in journalism?' The free press is fundamental to the future of democracy."

Conference briefly felt like a school playground when the seemingly uncontentious motion to set up virtual branches for those unable to get hold face-to-face meetings was discussed. This motion is especially important for those overseas or disabled as it allows them to debate and choose delegates from their virtual branch so they are represented at ADM. The namecalling started with one delegate opposing the motion calling computer types nerds. Inevitably this was followed by a proposer calling out Luddite from the other corner. Jemima Kiss, ex-chair of this branch, declared herself proud to be a nerd. The opposers, one of whom recommended virtual branches should only be allowed when the "bugs in the email system are sorted out", won the close vote. This branch has been reliably informed that the New Media Industrial Council is considering renaming itself the Nerd Media Industrial Council.

Under government policy there was a call for the extradition of those responsible for the death of ITN reporter Terry Lloyd. It was noted that journalists in Northern Ireland are not receiving adequate protection from the government.

Action was called for amendments to the Freedom of Information Act to speed up the process, as well as to reduce the number of refusals. An American reporter said she was shocked at how difficult it is in the UK to get information, unlike in the USA.

A motion was carried instructing the NEC to encourage disabled members to declare their disability, whether hidden or not, on the understanding that the more members who declare they are disabled, the less disability will be viewed as something that only affects a minority of workers.

ADM - Day 2 (Friday)

Tony Benn at 82 might no longer be an MP but his wit is sharp as a needle and he had the conference roaring.

Wheeled in just after lunch to address his first annual delegate meeting in 58 years as a member of the NUJ - the ADM must have been one of the few forums this inveterate public speaker hadn't addressed - he outlined the importance of the union's work.

"Truth will make you free," he said. And he applauded the work of British journalists - even managing to wring laughs about The Sun's treatment of him ('Benn is bonkers') as it urged voters at a by-election in Chesterfield to kick him out in the 80s. He won by 16,000 votes!

A wide ranging speech scanned 600 years of history - quoting the 1401 Heresy Act (only allowing priests to read the Bible - this was why access to information was paramount) and the verdict of the 1830s writer William Cobbett on the 'enslaved and vile' press of the time. You probably had to be there to but it was a hilarious turn.

As for the rest of the day, well there's no point in trying to list every twist and turn of every argument and list every decision taken on all the issues. But here's a few things that stood out for me (ie I didn't know about them, or they sparked the most debate)

1 General Secretary Jeremy Dear said November 5 will be a huge and vocal protest - a day of action by journalists. Activities will be arranged to coincide with the Society of Editors conference in Manchester.

2 Conference voted narrowly in favour of boycotting Israel goods

3 The BBC reps announced that despite the job cuts at the corporation in the recent turmoil, there had not been a single compulsory redundancy - union activity had succeeded in making great inroads into the degree of suffering of staff as a result.

4 Outsourcing jobs abroad is an increasing concern. David Crouch of the FT said that despite making journalists redundant the FT had recently announced they were creating 'lowly production jobs' in Manila. He warned: "Our members are paying for jobs that are moving to Manila."

5 Former Daily Mail reporter Hal Austin, who is black, said that the number of ethnic minority journalists represented in newsrooms was far too low - and the situation was worse than it was 20 years ago. He urged a 'conversation' to encourage more black representation in newsrooms, pointing out that South London Press which covers Brixton, had no ethnic minority reporters.

6 Freelancer Tim Lezard, formerly of the Gloucester Citizen, said local newspapers were beginning to fail the towns they served. The Citizen had withdrawn its three reporters from the city, moving them to Cheltenham in a bid to cut costs. Inevitably this resulted in good stories being missed. Conference heard that this sort of action by management was being looked at abroad - similar moves had occurred in Norway where union staff had contacted journalists in Britain to swap information on the issue.

That's it for the mo - the above is from my notes and I can put up more once I've gone through the agenda again.

It wasn't all doom and gloom, Tony Benn ensured that. The level of goodwill and energy of all involved so far is a good sign and ever-inventive journos seem to have plenty of answers for the issues some of us will have to confront in the next few years.

Tomorrow, hopefully, Rachael will be posting here.

ADM - Day 1

Your three reps arrived too late to be able to report from any of the sector conferences, at which members in various sectors - newspapers, new media etc - meet to discuss issues important to them.

But I did manage to make the fringe meeting on Islamophobia. Speakers included David Crouch, FT web news editor, Uzma Hussein from the BBC World Service, the new president of the NUJ Michelle Stanistreet (who works on the Daily Express) and Andrew Murray, chair of the Stop the War Coalition.

David Crouch said that there was too much xenophobic journalism in the coverage of the Middle East - a particular example being the recent hostage crisis in Iran.

Michelle Stanistreet circulated copies of the infamous 'Daily Fatwah' which only abrupt action by the Daily Star's NUJ chapel had halted shortly before the evening deadline on night last year. The Star had been due to run a page of 'jokes' at the expense of Muslims. She talked us through the representations made by staff unhappy about the tone of the page and said that a walkout of staff shortly before the deadline had prompted a rethink and the substitution of a feature instead. "We walked out to the canteen and that in itself got the page pulled."

"I am sure in reality that the management are pretty grateful for what the chapel did. I personally received about 300 messages in the next ten days." She said that the Express/Star's steady diet of gypsy-bashing stories and anti-aslyum seeking items had often resulted in a boost in sales across the titles.

Andrew Murray spoke very effectively on the work of the Stop the War Coalition. He said Britain had been failed by its lobby and parliamentary correspondents in the run-up to the Iraq war. He said: "They have uncritically retailed government spin. Our media has amplified the lies used to justify the war in Iraq. This is happening again with Iran."

NUJ birthday book

If you didn't already know, the NUJ is 100 years old this year and, as you may have read in this month's Journalist, the official history has been written.

It's described on the NUJ's home page as "a 320-page history, with more than 80 photographs, written by Journalist editor Tim Gopsill and Greg Neale, former Father of the NUJ Chapel at the Times and the founding editor of BBC History magazine."


There's a form in your copy of the mag or you'll be able to buy it for £10 from Tuesday via the website (accessible by hitting the headline on this item).

April Searchlight

This month's includes a preview of next month's local elections in which the BNP has high hopes of making an impact. Email nujbrighton@gmail.com and we can put it in the post.