4 February 2010
Health and Safety at work is key issue for trade unionists especially in the media. Issues including RSI, back and neck pains, long hours, stress, screen breaks and eyesight can all affect media workers.
8 January 2010
Last month saw many a retrospective on how the noughties had changed the media, entertainment and news. Some of it quite unexpected – who would have predicted social networking and twitter as media tools; then there were the more predictable parts such as decline of journalistic standards and the onward march of multinational control.
7 January 2010
Staff at the Telegraph returned after Christmas with an extra present – a pay rise and bonus won by the NUJ. Staff received a £500 bonus and a 1.5 per cent pay rise. Full story here
Meanwhile at the BBC, the NUJ branch has secured pay rises for six members of staff who had been historically underpaid for the jobs. The victory may lead to more cases of staff who are acting up or underpaid for their job winning pay rises. More here
6 October 2009
NUJ Left has organised a talk at this year’s Anarchist Bookfair in London. “Radical journalism, capitalist media and the labour movement” will see a group of union activists discuss radical journalism, coverage of workplace disputes, grassroots trade unionism and the problems of capitalist media.
The meeting starts at 12 noon in Lecture Room 1 in Queen Mary & Westfield College, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS [map].
28 August 2009
The decision not to prosecute a BBC researcher who went undercover to expose the abuse of older people is a victory for investigative journalism.
NUJ member Arifa Farooq, who used her sister’s name to apply for jobs, helped to uncover malpractice by companies caring for elderly people at home.
19 July 2009
Blogger Jon Slattery is excited about a film being shown on BBC4 tomorrow about Rose Hacker, who was billed as the ‘oldest columnist in the world’ in her weekly slot in Jon’s local paper.
Rose, who Jon describes as “a remarkable woman”, was a committed socialist and anti-war campaigner who wrote for the Camden New Journal and Islington Tribune until she died last year aged 101.
18 July 2009
Two events are being held next week to show solidarity with our colleagues in Gambia.
On Monday 20 July journalists in Glasgow will hold a vigil in support of the seven journalists facing trial for sedition.
13 July 2009
Apparently London mayor Boris Johnson thinks getting £250,000 a year for being a part-time journalist isn’t an obscenely massive salary and he defends it by saying he makes a “substantial donation” to charity.
If he’s looking for worthy causes to assuage his conscience, as a fellow journalist he could do worse than sling a few of his hard-earned quids this way. Or this way if members go out on strike. Or, similarly, this way etc.
9 July 2009
Three big stories that in recent months have dominated the news, and will continue to do so for some time to come, bolster the union’s case that there is no substitute for well-resourced quality journalism.
When in April Ian Tomlinson died after being hit by a police officer during the G20 protests, it was professional journalism that turned a citizen’s shaky video footage into an investigation that is still turning up stories.
18 June 2009
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.