The NUJ in the news“We will not be used by the BNP to spread their propaganda,” says Eileen Short, a former Tower Hamlets council PR officer who helped organise a campaign to expose and isolate the BNP’s first elected councillor Derek Beackon.
As part of that campaign, Eileen compiled a list of 10 questions every journalist should ask themselves before reporting on the BNP or other racist and fascist parties.
Following the success of our event in London in April, a Stand up for journalism gig is to be held next month in the north west.
Stockport has been chosen as the venue because MEN Media has removed all the journalists from the local office where the Stockport Express, South Manchester Reporter and Trafford Metro News staff were based.
The ruling today that Suzanne Breen will not have to hand over her notes to the Police Service of Northern Ireland has rightly been hailed by the NUJ as a “landmark victory for journalism and civil liberties”.
At Belfast recorders court, Judge Thomas Burgess refused an application by the PSNI, which would have forced Suzanne, northern editor of the Sunday Tribune in Dublin, to hand over notes, computer equipment and other material relating to the Real IRA.
Strathclyde Police’s investigation of BBC Scotland for incitement to racial hatred over a phone-in show should give editors a wake-up call about how they handle coverage of the BNP.
The case, reported by the Socialist Unity blog, clearly has more editorial than criminal implications as it is unlikely that anyone will be prosecuted.
NUJ Left is calling for mass action to support local authority press officers who refuse to work with BNP members if any are elected as councillors in this week’s elections.
Union guidelines already call on every member not to sensationalise the activities of racist organisations, including the BNP, and to challenge and expose their views.