Branch Xmas Party

Come and socialise with fellow journos!

The Branch Xmas Party will at the Lord Nelson, Trafalgar Street, Brighton BN1 4ED

on Tuesday 16 December… from 7pm

Buffet food and free drinks for the early birds.

Next Branch meeting: 21 November at 7.30

At the Argyle Arms on Argyle Road, Brighton (The Engineer as was) at 7.30pm, 21 November 2014.

As well as the usual items for discussion, we also need to find a new Chair, as Adam Powley is resigning. If you wish to stand, please come along.

Sports panel at Exeter Street Hall

Friday 14 November from 7.30pm.

Meet and quiz the best sports writing talent around. Got a burning question? We’ve got the people in the know.

With a Q&A format, we predict an entertaining evening packed with insight and anecdotes. You’ll have the chance to submit questions before the event and chat over drinks. Details will be available soon. Check our website, Facebook page, Twitter feed and look out for posters in the neighbourhood. Book online super-fast – this event will sell out.

Here’s the team sheet: Nick Szczepanik, football reporter for The Independent on Sunday, will chair a panel including:

• Paul Hayward, multi award-winning chief sports writer of the Daily Telegraph 
• Lynne Truss, former sports feature writer with the Times and author of Get Her Off The Pitch 
• Peter Nichols, writer who has covered ten Olympic Games for the Guardian, Times and Daily Telegraph. 
• Mick Cleary, rugby correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and 
• Paul Weaver, Formula One correspondent of The Guardian and co-author of Flight of the Martlets: the Golden Age of Sussex Cricket. 

The Sports Panel is generously sponsored by John Hoole

For tickets, click here.

TUC march 18 October 2014

Branch member Ollie Wilson has posted a blog containing lots of photos of the TUC's Britain Needs a Pay Rise March through central London on 18 October 2014 - and the train the Trades Council hired to get us up there:

http://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/the-red-train.html

Britain needs a pay rise: TUC demo 18 October

There's a TUC march and rally in London on 18 October, which the branch is supporting:
http://britainneedsapayrise.org/

The Brighton Trades Council is organising a train to encourage people to attend the TUC 'Britain needs a pay rise' demonstration in central London on the 18 October.

We expect to leave Brighton station at 8:30am and return from Victoria at 5pm. The Journey will be longer than normal as the direct line is closed to all trains that weekend.

We have block-booked 10 seats on the trades council train that's going up, so ask anyone who wants to go to contact Phil at philmellows@btinternet.com and the first 10 NUJ members can have a free trip. Non-NUJ members can pay for a seat via this Eventbrite page (which includes details on times etc):

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/brighton-train-to-tuc-britain-needs-a-pay-rise-demo-tickets-13289634655

NUJ and Centre for Investigative Journalism – free training

Introduction to privacy and information security: concepts and tools

Wednesday 17 September 2014 18.30 until 20.30

Where

NUJ Headland House, 308-312 Gray’s Inn Road, London

Details

This free workshop for NUJ members will give attendees an overview of the range of threats from public and private organisations and the various measures to deal with them.

The trainer will look at what tools to use (and not use) under certain conditions and how to defeat state-level attacks against your communications on a shoestring budget.

While many of the threats to electronic communications have been discussed for decades, the revelations made by Edward Snowden last year have shown us the scope and scale of the intrusion on our basic rights as humans and journalists.

As a journalist you need to be able to protect your sources, yourself and your story (in that order). This means securing both content and meta-data relating to any communications you have with them by electronic or other means. In the future the ability of a journalist to effectively do this could determine if sources come to them or not.

Glen Greenwald was almost passed over for the scoop of a lifetime because he did not have encrypted email on his laptop at the time Snowden was trying to contact him.

After the introduction to basic theory and time for a Q&A, the various tools that can be used will be discussed. This discussion will include tools to browse anonymously, chat and mail with encryption and prevent data-loss from theft/confiscation of laptops and storage media (the TOR-browser, Truecrypt, GPG mailcrypto etc).

A slightly more advanced practical workshop will be held in the future - if you are interested in the hands-on infosec labs please email minal@tcij.org

The NUJ and the Centre for Investigative Journalism have co-organised this free event for NUJ members.

The event is primarily directed towards journalists, NGO workers and activists.

To register please email: sarahk@nuj.org.uk with the number of places and names for the booking.

This event will be held subject to a minimum number of registrations and will be confirmed by Friday 12 September.

The Trainer

Arjen Kamphuis is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Gendo. He studied science and policy at Utrecht University and worked for IBM and Twynstra Gudde as IT architect, trainer and IT strategy advisor. Since late 2001 Arjen is working independently and advises clients on the strategic impact of new technological developments.

New handbook available

Information Security for Journalists
By Silkie Carlo and Arjen Kamphuis

This handbook is a very important practical tool for journalists and it is of particular importance to investigative reporters. For the first time journalists are now aware that virtually every electronic communication we make or receive is being recorded, stored and subject to analysis and action. As this surveillance is being conducted in secret, without scrutiny, transparency or any realistic form of accountability, our sources, our stories and our professional work itself is under threat.

After Snowden’s disclosures we know that there are real safeguards and real counter measures available. The CIJ’s latest handbook, Information Security for Journalists, lays out the most effective means of keeping your work private and safe from spying. It explains how to write safely, how to think about security and how to safely receive, store and send information that a government or powerful corporation may be keen for you not to know, to have or to share. To ensure your privacy and the safety of your sources, Information Security for Journalists will help you to make your communications indecipherable, untraceable and anonymous.

For more information, please visit the CIJ's website.

Event details on the NUJ website, please share with colleagues and NUJ members: http://www.nuj.org.uk/events/introduction-to-privacy-and-information-security-concepts-and/

Next branch meeting: 4 August

Save the date

Venue and agenda to follow.

Support striking teachers
It is now confirmed that the strike of NUT members at Hove Park School will close the school on Wednesday. Teachers are opposing proposals to convert the school to an academy and parents, pupils and other campaign supporters are encouraged to show their support of teachers by joining with the pickets.

Both school sites will be picketed – Nevill Road and Valley Campus on Hangleton Way. Teachers will be at the gates from 7am.

Messages of support emailed to handsoffhoveparksch@gmail.com will be forwarded to the teachers taking action.

Please let the school know that parents support this action by emailing:

Head@hovepark.org.uk

governors@hovepark.org.uk

Wednesday is results day
Results of both the council’s ballot of parents and the parent governor elections will also be on Wednesday. 

More info: http://handsoffhoveparkschool.wordpress.com

Strike Day - Thursday 10 July

This Thursday 10 July an estimated 1.5 million public sector workers across the country will be out on strike for a decent pay rise. Council workers in the Unison, GMB and Unite unions will be joined by the firefighters of the FBU, the teachers of the NUT and civil servants in the PCS.

You can show your support for workers taking on a government that's attacking us all by joining the marches and rally that will be taking place in Brighton on the day:

10.30am - Marches from Hove Town and Hollingdean Road bin depot

Midday - Rally on The Level

Look out for the NUJ banner!

There will be picket lines from about 7am at Brighton Town Hall (Black Lion St), Hove Town Hall, the bin depot in Hollingdean Road, the fire station at Preston Circus - take your pick!

Hands off Hove Park School march and picnic

Join the march & comedy picnic on Saturday 5 July

Hands off Hove Park School is calling on all supporters to join with a march and family picnic in Hove on 5 July. 

The plan is to meet at 10.30am on the lawns opposite the car-park of the King Alfred's Leisure Centre. Everyone is welcome to join the march including students, families, teachers and anyone who supports and values a fair, equal, excellent comprehensive education in local schools for all the children in our communities. We are marching to say NO to the academy proposal at Hove Park and NO to the continued and chaotic dismantling and deregulation of state schools. We are also marching to celebrate our local schools and help to protect the rights of hard-working, committed state-school teachers who put the education of children first.

Comedians Shappi Khorsandi and Mark Steel will join our family picnic from about 12.30pm for a Stand-Up For Hove Park School comedy show in Hove Park. Caroline Lucas MP will also be speaking.

Retune It will conduct an HOHPS marching band – bring your wheelie bins, metal buckets and pots & pans – and something to bash them with!

Let us know what you can bring to MAKE SOME NOISE. And arrive at 10.20am prompt for a rehearsal.

Don’t forget to bring bubbles, banners, badges and balloons too and add picnic food, friends and family for a great day out. The route for the march will go up Sackville Road and finish at Hove Park.

More info on www.handsoffhoveparkschool.wordpress.com.

Journalism courses at City College under threat

Tomorrow

Support our colleagues and members at City College - Journalism courses under threat

UCU members at City College Brighton and Hove will be striking Tuesday in opposition to the far-reaching cuts proposed by the current management.

There will be picket lines at all College buildings and entrances from 5.30am and throughout the morning, followed by speeches in Jubilee Square.

Staff are furious that the management have failed to listen to concerns about impacts of the cuts on the most vulnerable students. Instead, the Principal and the Chair of the Board of governors have purposely attempted to mislead staff, the public and local politicians with misinformation and propaganda.

The truth is that even with the recently agreed ‘concessions’, the management are still planning devastating cuts to provision for the people of Brighton and Hove:

• 220 staff at the College have been told ‘the proposed new structure does not have a role which is an obvious match for you’ 
• Support for the most vulnerable students is to be cut by two-thirds. This means that learners with mental health issues, disabilities, extra study support needs, safeguarding concerns, cared-for learners, right across all departments and courses will be at a much higher risk of dropping out or failing their course. The safeguarding risks that this poses will have a negative impact on future students and Ofsted grades. 
• The number of courses for adults with learning disabilities (ALDD) are planned to be greatly reduced, with fees will be introduced. 
• Increases in the teaching load for Team Leaders will result in students and staff suffering due to lack of support. We anticipate more long-term sickness and higher staff turnover – not least for Team Leaders themselves, who will have an impossible workload 
• Courses being delivered in far fewer guided learning hours will further add to a lack of support for more needy learners as staff will have to teach more courses to reach their teaching hours target, and will have a far higher workload in terms of marking, admin, recruitment and other non-teaching tasks. 

Please do what you can to support the strike on Tuesday. Head down to pickets send messages of support. Facebook group is here https://www.facebook.com/savecitycollegebrighton

Next branch meeting 2 June, Three Jolly Butchers, Brighton

Brighton & Mid-Sussex NUJ Branch Meeting
Monday, 2 June, 8pm

The Snug, Three Jolly Butchers, North Road, Brighton
(Opposite the Brighthelm Centre, a short walk from the station)

Agenda:

1. Election of new members
2. Treasurer's report
3. Argus strike ballot to defend jobs
4. Threat to journalism course at City College
5. Dispute at Country Landowners Association
6. Anti-academy campaign at Hove Park School
7. Report from Ecostream protest
8. Trades council report
9. People's Assembly demo, June 16
10. Other reports and announcements

Item 3 will be the Newsquest strike ballot, which affects the local Argus chapel. The strike action is in response to redundancy threats, pay freezes and plans to transfer staff and work away from local communities.

More info on www.nuj.org.uk/news/newsquest-nuj-newspaper-chapels-unite-to-ballot-for-strike/

NUJ launches new range of professional courses

Whether you want to learn to build a website, take high-quality pictures on your smartphone, become a video-journalist, travel writer, publish a book or add PR skills to your freelance portfolio, the NUJ can help.

The union has a new programme of training courses, tutored by experts in their fields, to suit all abilities which will improve your professional skills. These one and two-day practical courses are at special rates for NUJ members. More courses, including shorthand, will begin later this year.

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said: "Keeping your journalism and technical skills up to date are vital in today's fast-moving industry. Journalists increasingly have to create portfolio careers, using their journalistic skills in a range of ways. The union's competitively-priced training courses will help you to keep on top of technology changes and add new professional strings to your bow. Our tutors are all journalists with a great wealth of experience and they will ensure you finish the course with new skills to enhance your career."

Chris Wheal, chair of the NUJ's professional training committee, said: "We have the latest journalism skills taught by experts at their craft, covering everything from traditional shorthand to modern-day mobile reporting. I am signing up for several courses to update my skills."

The full selection of training opportunities – for professional and trade union training – can be found on the NUJ website http://www.nuj.org.uk/work/training/ The NUJ can organise bespoke training for groups of members, chapels or branches when there is no specific course available to meet their needs. Contact training@nuj.org.uk to find out more.

• Adding PR to your portfolio: this course will teach you to use your journalistic skills to deliver professional PR.
• Travel writing workshop: get an insight into what travel editors are looking for, how to find story ideas, get noticed by travel PRs and how to write engaging copy.
• Video-journalism: this one-day course will help you feel confident when your boss sends you out with a notebook and a camera. You will discover the secrets of getting the best shots and how to organise your shoot so it will be easy to edit.
• Feature writing: learn how to put together a great feature that keeps readers transfixed and editors returning for more.
• Getting started with InDesign: this one-day course will enable you to make up pages from scratch, import and format text, headlines and pictures. You will also create your own keyboard short-cuts and set up a personal library.
• Advanced InDesign – from concept to print-ready files: you will learn how to set up a publication from scratch and send it to press.
• Getting the most out of trade and business journalism: this class is aimed at existing trade writers looking to sharpen or focus their skills, generalists intending to move into business, or beginners hoping to get into one the largest and most resilient sectors of journalism.
• Build yourself a website that costs less than £50: after this two-day course you will leave with a working website and the knowledge to expand it and refine it later.
• Online journalism: learn how to curate and aggregate web content, add images, video and audio and master basic HTML coding. You will also learn to use social media to promote your web content.
• Developing Digital Photographs with Adobe Lightroom: learn what is quickly becoming the industry-standard editing software for press photographers.
• Getting More (Time, Work & Income) from Adobe Lightroom 5: this one-day advanced course shows how photographers can utilise the software to enhance their creativity and use it to increase their income.
• Press and editorial photography with basic cameras: this one-day, hands-on workshop will show you how to transform photography, using inexpensive “compact” or smartphone cameras, into high-quality images.
• Boosting your income through book publishing: this guides you step-by-step through the stages to publication, beginning with finding the right project, the best route to publication and how to market your book.
• Data Journalism: learn how data can produce off-diary stories that go unreported because most people will not or cannot do the maths; all you need to know about Freedom of Information requests; and how to combine data sets without getting egg on your face.
• Improving your English broadcasting skills: whether you are a foreign journalist looking to improve your English broadcasting skills, or a print journalist wanting to learn key tips, this course will improve your presentation style.
• Getting started as a freelance: covers the ground that freelances, and people thinking of going freelance, need to be aware of, from interacting with editors, doing deals that stick, copyright law, finance and tax and how to make sure clients pay up.
• Pitch and deal: This one-day course can help freelances market their work and negotiate better deals for themselves. It includes understanding the psychology of pitching and dealing, interacting with editors and asking for more money.

Training courses fees
One-day course: NUJ member £175; unemployed NUJ member or student £100, GFTU affiliate £200, non-member £275. Two-day course: NUJ member £300, unemployed NUJ member or student, £150, GFTU affiliate £350, non-member £400.

Getting started as a freelance and Pitch and deal form part of the NUJ trade union training programme and are therefore discounted. NUJ member: £70; NUJ student member/unemployed member: £60; non-members/GFTU affiliate: £130.

Jane Bussmann event postponed, but we'll still be there!

Unfortunately Jane Bussmann has called to say she is stuck in the US with work and won't be able to join us tomorrow evening so the event is postponed. Anyone who has paid for a ticket should already have received a refund. If anyone would still like to join us for a social at The Blue Man - I understand there are both musical and comedy performances at the venue tomorrow night and we will be having a chat and a drink from 8.30pm. Sorry to disappoint you, but hope to see you there.

Next Branch Meeting

Monday, 28 April, 8pm
The Duke of Wellington*, 70 Upper Gloucester Road, Brighton BN1 3LQ

AGENDA

1. New members
2. Report from Delegates Meeting
3. Report from Argus dispute
4. Report from GMC Publications, Lewes
5. Treasurer's report
6. Trade union day at Ecostream protest, 3 May
7. Future meetings
8. Other business

*Sorry, but there is no disabled access to this room. If anyone has ideas for alternative venues for the future please let us know.

Book now for Jane Bussmann - 13 May

Comedy writer and journalist Jane Bussmann will be performing her A Journey to the Dark Heart of Nameless Unspeakable Evil  show (see below) at a one-off performance for the branch onTuesday, 13 May.

The Blue Man on Queens Road, Brighton, has been booked and the event starts at 8.45pm. It's FREE to members - book here - and can't be missed by anyone who has ever suffered the indignity of interviewing 'celebrities' or wished for a more worthy journalistic career.

Unfortunately we were unable to arrange a venue with disabled access on this occasion - mainly due to everything being booked up for the Brighton Fringe. This is very much part of our planning for future meetings.

Anyone wanting an earlier start to the evening might want to try James McDonnell's FREE fringe performance, on at 7.30pm at The Blue Man - book here. Or try out the North African cuisine at this independent cafe bar www.bluemanbrighton.com.

Next meeting: 28 April (no speaker)

The next Branch meeting will be on 28 April (no speaker) - venue TBA, then in May:

13 May 2014

Venue: The Blue Man, Queens Road, Brighton

Comedy writer and journalist Jane Bussmann’s hilarious show documents her valiant attempts to switch from writing inane celebrity stories about Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears, through feature writing for broadsheets, to Africa, where she uncovers the gripping stories of two men - one a symbol of war, another who fights for peace.

In the resulting book, A Journey To The Dark Heart Of Nameless Unspeakable Evil, she savages Hollywood, Joseph Kony, aid charities “and other abominations.”

Jane has also written for over fifty TV shows including South Park and Brass Eye – she was ‘named and shamed’ in the News of the World as one of the writers behind the celebrated Brass Eye Special: Paedophilia.

Fresh from standing-room only performances from Los Angeles to Kampala, NUJ Brighton & Sussex is delighted to host Jane in a one-off UK performance – marking the Brighton launch of her US book release (just don’t tell her publicist).

A Journey to the Dark Heart of Nameless Unspeakable Evil was originally released in the UK as The Worst Date Ever. Jane has worked as a columnist for the Guardian, the Mail on Sunday, Red and The Face and has interviewed Hollywood celebrities for Glamour, Marie Claire and the Sunday Times.

Report from Eastbourne DM

A full delegation from Brighton & Mid-Sussex branch attended the NUJ's Delegate Meeting in Eastbourne last weekend. There will be a full report-back and time for questions and discussion at the next branch meeting on Monday, April 28 (time and venue to be confirmed soon).

Fate of the branch's motions:

Motion 62 (Recruitment), instructing the NEC to make it easier for people to join the union online by streamlining the application process.

The NEC amendment, which effectively removed the instruction, was passed and the substantive motion agreed. A defeat for the branch, but we succeeded in opening up a dialogue with those responsible for the NUJ website and we hope that the required improvements follow.

Motion 101 (Ethics), calling for the NUJ to take a clear position on media regulation, post-Leveson, balloting the membership on the question of an independent regulator, underpinned by statute, and to promote its own representation on any bodies that are formed.

This was ruled out of order on a technicality only a few hours before it was due to be debated. Conference Standing Orders Committee (SOC), which makes such recommendations, apologised for not advising the branch at an earlier stage, when it would have been simple for the motion to be amended and put in order. We were offered the opportunity to effectively speak to the motion in the form of a question about the union's Annual Report, which we took, and we also challenged the decision in front of conference, but the attempt to reinstate the motion failed.

The branch was involved in two other motions:

Composite W (Government Policies), bringing together motions from a whole number of branches, including ourselves, on low pay, calling on the TUC to call a one-day general strike and other coordinated action. This was won. An amendment from the NEC cutting weakening the general strike call was defeated.

We were also among a number of branches proposing a late-notice motion on Egypt that aimed to involve the union in the campaign against repression, including the repression of journalists. This fell off the agenda because of lack of time.

Other debates and decisions worth highlighting:

The problems at Newsquest Group surrounding job losses and the transfer of subs to remote production hubs, affecting our members at the Argus, were discussed. We'll have a report from the chapel at the next branch meeting.

A broader definition of who can join the union, extending it more clearly to those in digital media and 'community journalists' was agreed. This is something the branch has been quite keen on, and we voted for it.

Subscriptions were increased, by 11% for Grade 1, 5% for Grade 2 and 7% for Grade 3. Branch delegates voted in favour.

A move towards earnings-related subs, while attracting support in principle, was defeated because of problems with its proposed implementation. Branch delegates voted against.

A further motion from the NEC giving it the power to increase subs between DMs was defeated. Again, branch delegates voted against.

DM voted, narrowly, to abolish the elected position of Deputy General Secretary and replace it with a non-elected Assistant General Secretary. Branch delegates voted against.

There was lots and lots of other stuff. Please come to the meeting on April 28 to hear more.

Phil Mellows

NUJ freelance training courses coming up in May

These courses are open to both members and non-members.

16 May at Headland House in London
Getting Started as a Freelance - ideal for those just turning freelance or thinking about it. Covers finance/tax/NICs, how to find work (including shifts), getting paid, copyright and more.
http://www.nuj.org.uk/events/getting-started-as-a-freelance-may-2014/


23 May at Headland House in London
Pitch & Deal - this course is about the business side of pitching - selling your ideas, how to up your fees and negotiating rights (it doesn't cover generating ideas and matching them to suitable publications). There is some role play.
http://www.nuj.org.uk/events/pitch-and-deal-may-2014/

For more info, contact Louise Bolotin
http://plaintext.co.uk
http://louisebolotin.com

Health journalism conference in Coventry

From Alan Taman (NUJ PRCC & Birmingham Vice-Chair):

Second International Conference on Health Journalism

14-16 May, Coventry

I'm co-organising a major conference on health journalism in May, as well as helping to run the NUJ's campaign on health journalism reporting and PR (details: www.europeanhealthjournalism.com ).

One of my chief concerns is that any journalist who could be called on to cover health hears about these, and can attend and contribute if possible. This of course includes many who do not have specialist training in health; if anything, I think it's more important that they hear about what we are trying to achieve, and we hear what they have to say.

Could I therefore please ask you to pass on the details about the conference to your members, especially those with an interest in health and the health services?

The aim of the conference is to look at the issues facing the reporting of health and health PR internationally as well as in the UK, and begin to address ways of ensuring all reporters and PRs who have to cover health have enough resources and training (www.europeanhealthjournalism.com ; #forhealthj on Twitter). Please contact myself for further details on aptaman@aol.com.

Thank you.

Russell Brand, Girl Guides and The Sun

Branch officer and committee member Rachael Glazier has an article in the latest issue of The Journalist on the campaign to ban Page 3 of The Sun. It's on page 19:

http://issuu.com/nujupload/docs/journalist_marchapril2014

Photos from last night's meeting

Rob Evans - Photo by Melita Dennett

Natasha Steel and Rob Evans - Photo by Melita Dennett

Pre-meeting for 11 March 2014

There will be a pre-meeting, 7pm at the Red Roaster before the 8pm Rob Evans talk.

Agenda

1. Election of new members 
2. Reports 
3. Support for March 22 anti-racism demo - a coach has been booked and it's on Eventbrite (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/coach-from-brighton-to-stand-up-to-racism-demo-parliament-sq-22314-tickets-10826675879?ref=estw) 
4. Late notice motion for DM on Egypt (this is being raised at a number of branches, more info here: http://egyptsolidarityinitiative.org/)

This part of the proceedings is free to NUJ members.

Next meeting 11 March: Infiltration, intrusion and intimacy

Infiltration, intrusion and intimacy - how the police monitored activists - with 'Undercover' journalist Rob Evans

Red Roaster, 11 March 2014, at 8pm

'Undercover': how the police used infiltration and intimacy to gather information on non-violent activists

Investigative journalist Rob Evans, working with colleague Paul Lewis, laid bare an undercover operation so secretive that some of the UK’s most senior police officers had no idea it existed. The job of the clandestine unit was to monitor British 'subversives' – including environmental activists, anti-racist groups and animal-rights campaigners.

Due to the compelling work of these dogged journalists, and the publication of their book Undercover, we now know how the police stole the identities of dead people to create fake passports, driving licences and bank accounts. They then went deep undercover for years, inventing whole new lives so that they could live incognito among the people they were spying on.

They used sex, intimate relationships and drugs to build their credibility. They betrayed friends, deceived lovers and even fathered children.

The NUJ Brighton & Sussex branch is delighted to host Rob Evans to talk about his work and the issues raised in Undercover.

Rob will also reveal how journalists reporting on politically sensitive stories and attending protests and political meetings can find themselves on the police’s ‘domestic extremist’ database – and how to use the Data Protection Act to find out if that applies to you.

Read a review from the London Review of Books here.

Book now at Eventbrite. Due to expected high demand for this event, there will be free early bird registration for NUJ members until 4 March; thereafter £2. Non-members welcome at £2.

Some more background reading: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/03/undercover-officer-major-riot-john-jordan

Next Branch Meeting: 3 February at the Lord Nelson

Next Branch meeting:
Monday, 3 February, 7.30pm
Lord Nelson (back room), Trafalgar Street BN1

Agenda

• Welcome and apologies
• New members
• Reports
• Delegates meeting motions and amendments
• Future meetings
• AOB

Page 3, freedom of speech and a great big blob of inequality

Photo by Bridget Hodgson

With the title 'Jealous flat-chested bints' and the speaker one Caroline Lucas MP, it was hardly a surprise that the Brighton and Sussex NUJ talk on Thursday 23 January at the Red Roaster was packed. Tickets sold out in a few days and people hoping to nab a return on the night were turned away disappointed.

The debate on sexism in the media, centred around the No More Page 3 campaign, was hosted by radio producer and presenter Melita Dennett. Since the campaign began in the summer of 2012 it has elicited a strong response from a wide cross-section of the population – both women and men – who think images of topless women in family newspapers should be consigned to history. In the past few days both the parenting website Mumsnet and comedian and actor Russell Brand have given their considerable support to the campaign.

Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, explained that the campaign is not asking for an all out ban across all media, but is instead asking for a voluntary agreement from The Sun's editor David Dinsmore to stop picturing topless women on Page 3 where children as well as adults can easily see them. But it's not just involuntary exposure that is worrying the campaigners: amongst numerous reports cited by them on the No More Page 3 website is the government-commissioned Sexualisation of Young People Review by Dr Linda Papadopoulos, published in February 2010, which reported: "Exposure to the sexualised female ideal is linked with lower self-esteem, negative moods and depression in young women and girls." It also concluded there is "a clear link between consumption of sexualised images, a tendency to view women as objects and the acceptance of aggressive attitudes and behaviour as the norm."

To those who suggested that the campaign could be accused of crushing freedom of speech, Lucas responded: "Women have the freedom not to be denigrated or abused. it's not calling for a total ban – to me it seems pretty reasonable."

Other questions centred on whether enough is being done in schools to educate children in how to behave online – no, in Lucas's opinion. Given the government's current narrow focus on traditional curriculum, she explained, other extra-curriculum subjects are being left out. "It's incredibly frustrating that this is seen as a divergence from education, as to me it is an essential part of education," said Lucas. "Education is going to be at the bottom of this. No matter how sophisticated the porn filters...they will always find a way if they are determined enough."

When asked how she would respond to accusations that there are more important issues to be debated, Lucas replied: "We will look at those too. That [accusation] is a very lazy way of dealing with a subject when people don't want to debate it. There are bigger problems, so let's get on with this one and then move on."

Tweeting Rupert Murdoch, the founder of The Sun's owner News Corp, and other publishers was discussed as being a good way to effect change. "I do get the sense that the more annoyed he [Murdoch] gets on a personal level, that he might drop it," said Lucas. Targeting advertisers and embarrassing them with their complicity was another approach that was discussed as being profitable.

Lucas was confident that the end of Page 3 will be soon. Opponents may be vocal – and on Twitter, frequently vicious – but she maintained that they have a weak argument. "There is certainly a lot of righteous anger out there that doesn't stand up to a lot of challenge." Another reason for her confidence is the younger generation: "We're at a time when young people are more politicised, and their willingness to stand up and call out sexism is so much greater. There is a real kickback happening."

The Irish Sun stopped printing pictures of topless women in August 2013 and with a specific domestic abuse law looking likely within the next few years, perhaps women can start to feel hopeful that true equality is possible. Before that happens, the House of Commons could do with a look at its own affairs – only 22.6% of UK MPs are female, a lower percentage than in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq. As Dennett put it so succinctly: "A great big blob of inequality is staring us in the face." The campaigners for No More Page 3 are hopeful that they can start to shrink that blob.

Rachael Glazier

If you'd like to hear the debate then listen to Radio Reverb soon.

'Jealous flat-chested bints' - NUJ talk on media, sexism and freedom of expression with Caroline Lucas MP

Next meeting: Red Roaster, 23 January 2014 at 8pm

This meeting has now SOLD OUT! If you have a ticket but can no longer go, please release it so someone can take your place.

'Jealous flat-chested bints': media, sexism and freedom of expression - old problems, new challenges

'Jealous flat-chested bints' is how one Twitter troll chose to use their freedom of expression in the face of the highly successful No More Page Three campaign. Last year Brighton MP Caroline Lucas won national media attention when she was chastised for ‘inappropriate’ attire while wearing a campaign T-shirt in the House of Commons during a debate on media sexism.

The UK’s only Green MP is the NUJ Brighton & Sussex branch’s first speaker of 2014. She joins the branch on 23 January to discuss ways that journalists, broadcasters and public figures can challenge old fashioned sexism and discrimination in the media and the new forms of harassment experienced through social media.

Caroline is also a vocal campaigner against the ‘gagging law’, officially called the transparency of lobbying, non-party campaigning and trade union administration bill. This talk will also explore the implications of this dangerous, anti-democratic piece of legislation on freedom of expression for unions, campaigners and NGOs and ways to resist it.

There will be time for Q&A.

This event is being recorded for future broadcast on Radio Reverb.

Due to expected high demand for this event, there will be free early bird registration until 16 January for NUJ members and Sound Women members; thereafter £2. Non-members welcome at £2. Book now at Eventbrite.

Add your name to the growing list of backers for the Women’s Assembly Against Austerity.

The People’s Assembly is pleased to announce the Women’s Assembly conference date as announced in the Guardian, to take place on Saturday 22 February 2014 at Conway Hall, London.

Photo by Linda Nylind

Also coming up:

Red Roaster, 11 March 2014, at 8pm

'Undercover': how the police used infiltration and intimacy to gather information on non-violent activists - with investigative journalist Rob Evans

Investigative journalist Rob Evans, working with colleague Paul Lewis, laid bare an undercover operation so secretive that some of the UK’s most senior police officers had no idea it existed. The job of the clandestine unit was to monitor British 'subversives' – including environmental activists, anti-racist groups and animal-rights campaigners.

Due to the compelling work of these dogged journalists, and the publication of their book Undercover, we now know how the police stole the identities of dead people to create fake passports, driving licences and bank accounts. They then went deep undercover for years, inventing whole new lives so that they could live incognito among the people they were spying on.

They used sex, intimate relationships and drugs to build their credibility. They betrayed friends, deceived lovers and even fathered children.

The NUJ Brighton & Sussex branch is delighted to host Rob Evans to talk about his work and the issues raised in Undercover.

Rob will also reveal how journalists reporting on politically sensitive stories and attending protests and political meetings can find themselves on the police’s ‘domestic extremist’ database – and how to use the Data Protection Act to find out if that applies to you.

Read a review from the London Review of Books here.

Book now at Eventbrite. Due to expected high demand for this event, there will be free early bird registration for NUJ members until 4 March; thereafter £2. Non-members welcome at £2.

January union events

Here are a few Trades Council events that may be of interest to NUJ members:

Wednesday 8 January
Brighton Peoples Assembly Open Meeting on Fuel Poverty
7:30pm Community Base, Queens Road

Tuesday 14 January
Candlelit picket of workfare exploiters Grosvenor G Casino
meet at the Pier 7pm

Friday 17 January
No charges against the Sussex Five! Demonstration against disciplinary action!
1pm Library Square, Sussex Uni

Sunday 19 January
Brighton Benefits Campaign fund-raising roast
Cowley Club 1-3pm

Stand by for news of the next Branch meeting, with speaker!