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GUARDIAN SCRAPS STUDENT AWARDS The Guardian has ended its Student Media Awards after nearly 40 years of operation to save costs. The awards, which celebrated student reporters, writers and photographers, began in 1978 after The Guardian teamed up with the National Union of Students.


QUADRUPLE WINNER TAKES REDUNDANCY A four times winner of Weekly Reporter of the Year at the Regional Press Awards has taken voluntary redundancy from the Croydon Advertiser. Gareth Davies spent nearly eight years at the Trinity Mirror-owned title, where he began his career as a trainee reporter. Davies won his last Regional Press Award in the spring after winning a two-year fight with the Metropolitan Police over a harassment warning.


SOUTH WEST EDITOR DIES OF CANCER Zena O’Rourke, who edited the Cornish Guardian and the Somerset County Gazette, died recently from cancer. She edited the Cornish Guardian from 2009 until March 2015 when she took over at the Gazette, which is based in her home town of Taunton.


DEATH SENTENCE CONFIRMED IN EGYPT An Egyptian court has upheld the death penalty given to NUJ member Ibrahim Helal, the Al Jazeera journalist sentenced in absentia in May after a two-year legal process. The judge referred repeatedly to the so-called “betrayal” by the journalist.


PHOTOGRAPHER KILLED IN FALLUJAH A photographer was killed by a mortar round in Fallujah in June. Fadil al-Garaawi, 45, was employed by Iraq’s Interior Ministry forces and contributed to Iraqi news outlets, according to media reports.The NUJ has joined International Federation of Journalists affiliate the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate to call for more safety for journalists working in the Iraqi war zones.


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rish journalists recently marked the 20th anniversary of the murder in Dublin of the journalist Veronica Guerin. The killing led to the creation of the


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Global journalists’ group backs surveillance drive


motion to set up a working group on surveillance. The group will aim to:


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The group will aim to increase awareness of surveillance and build a culture among journalists to secure their information


increase awareness of surveillance and build a culture among journalists to secure their information and communications; defend journalists’ fundamental human rights against government surveillance; attempt to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding the use of intercept powers; campaign to defend cases where journalists’ ability to protect journalistic sources is attacked and challenge bulk collection of telephone, email and internet data; and work with other professionals such as lawyers, doctors and social workers to build a coordinated global movement to rein in surveillance powers. The motion noted that “the


widespread use of smartphones, emails and social media over the last decade has given the


he International Federation of Journalists has backed an NUJ


intelligence agencies access to private data on a scale few would have imagined possible” and it applauded the work of Edward Snowden who had “unravelled the most extensive global surveillance operation ever seen”. More than 300 delegates,


representing journalists’ unions across the world, gathered in Angers, France for the 29th World Congress of the International Federation of Journalists in June. They marched through the city to commemorate


journalists killed while working and laid a white rose in front of the commemorative plaque for Camille Lepage, who was killed in 2014 in the Central African Republic. The 26-year-old journalist was caught up in fighting near the border with Cameroon and the circumstances of her death remain uninvestigated. Philippe Leruth, member of the Belgian Association Générale des Journalistes Professionnels de Belgique, was elected as the new president of the IFJ.


BLACK MEMBERS FOCUS ON BREXIT VIOLENCE The BMC decided


acist attacks and xenophobia following the Brexit vote were top of the agenda at a recent meeting of the NUJ’s Black Members’ Council.


At the meeting it said it would also lobby to build on the proposed changes around diversity to the BBC’s charter set out in the government’s white


paper. Council members said they would demand the corporation brought in penalties for corporation executives who do not reach agreed targets.


to work to recruit more black journalists to the union, including young people working in digital media.


Guerin’s legacy, 20 years on


Guerin principles, which were agreed by the NUJ, the Association of Independent Radio Stations, the National Newspapers of Ireland (now NewsBrands Ireland) and


the Provincial Newspapers Association of Ireland (now Local Ireland). They support: a fair, free media; freedom of expression; and resources for investigative journalism.


TETRA IMAGES / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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