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!