news in brief...


ARCHANT LAUNCHES POP-UP EUROPEAN Archant has launched what it has called a “pop-up newspaper” – The New European. It is intended to appeal to people who voted to remain in the European Union. The European is planned to be produced this month with future editions planned if the sales of the previous edition are strong enough.


TIME TAKES CYCLING TITLES OFF THE ROAD Time Inc is closing two cycling magazines to focus on its Cycling Weekly title. Cycling Weekly will now be the publisher’s only cycling publication. Monthly magazines Cycling Active and Cycle Sport are being axed and resources directed into the weekly. The closures follow Time’s shutdown of the quarterly Cycling Fitness earlier this year.


IT’S NO MORE FOR MERCURY MAGAZINE The Leicester Mercury’s weekend magazine supplement, More, has been closed following cuts to the newspaper’s features team. Some of the supplement’s regular content, including its entertainment coverage and food and shop reviews, will be published in the paper instead.


GUARDIAN’S NICK DAVIES TO RETIRE Nick Davies, a high-profile Guardian reporter, will retire in September after 40 years on the paper. He is best known for investigating hacking at the News of the World and the subsequent cover-up. The scandal led to the paper’s closure , the hacking trial and the Leveson inquiry.


SUICIDE VERDICT FOR BBC’S JACKY SUTTON A verdict of suicide has been recorded for the death of a former BBC reporter described as “fearless”. Jacky Sutton, a veteran war reporter, was found to have taken her own life in the toilets of Ataturk airport in Istanbul after missing her flight, an inquest was told. The 50-year-old had been scheduled to catch a connecting flight to Erbil in northern Iraq.


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Call for police to work openly with journalists


The British policing model is based on consent. For this to work, the public needs to have confidence in its police


the College of Policing consultation on draft guidelines for police and media relations. It said: “The British policing model is based


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on consent. For this to work, the public needs to have confidence in its police. The media plays a vital role as a watchdog and in holding the police to account so the public can have this confidence. “This is only possible when there is an open


and collaborative relationship between the police and the media.”


The union challenged the guideline stating that in most cases communication between the police and journalists must go through press officers or police corporation communications departments (CCDs). This could severely hinder a journalist working on a tight deadline. As one CCD member admitted: “The


practical effect is that CCD-authorised briefings of journalists are often significantly delayed and information will not reach reporters until after deadline.”


he NUJ has called for an “open and collaborative relationship between the police and the press” in its submission to


Journalists must be able to speak to officers


to obtain and share information. One member noted that sometimes journalists are ahead of the police in an investigation. Restricting communication to CCDs, said the submission, would do little to aid “open, honest and transparent communications which enhance confidence in policing”. The union backed Hayley Court, a media


officer working for South Yorkshire police during the 2016 Hillsborough inquest. She said she was “bullied” into spinning for the police rather than being allowed to respond to the inquiry’s findings fairly. Iain McBride, a former journalist who was head of media for Kent Police, says he believes there has been a fundamental shift in the way police media teams are structured. He said: “Years ago, police press offices


were staffed by officers, then they were ‘professionalised’ and journalists were brought in … Now police press officers seem to come increasingly from a PR/marketing background and their sole interest is positive promotion, rather than constructively handling the negative stories/critical incidents.”


Peers back public ownership of Channel 4


cross-party group of peers has recommended that Channel 4 should not be sold, stating that it is financially strong enough to weather the aftermath of the Brexit vote. The House of Lords


communications committee said that a new owner of


Channel 4 could not be held to commitments to news, film production and the broadcaster’s record of diversity programming. The committee rejected the


claim by John Whittingdale, then culture secretary, that the commercially funded, state-owned broadcaster could be better off in private


hands. Mr Whittingdale had argued that a new owner would be able to invest more in the channel. Lord Best, chair of the


committee, said: “Channel 4 boasts an array of innovative and creative programming as well as a strong commitment to public service broadcasting.”


LIFE MEMBER FITS THE PICTURE


and peace campaigner Eamonn McCann to mark his life membership. Felicity McCall, job-


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share chair of the NUJ Irish executive, presented


he Derry North West Ireland Branch has honoured NUJ stalwart


him with a reproduction of a painting by Northern Irish artist John B Vallely. Fittingly, the print showed a group of Palestinians. Branch member


Darach MacDonald told how McCann signed him up for the union 40 years ago,


while he was in his first job. “If I get in trouble again,


there’s nobody I’d like more in my corner than Eamonn,” MacDonald said. Thanking the branch for the print, McCann said: “If I said anything more, I’d embarrass myself.”


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