17 NUJ hosts Finnish j-students in four-day visit


Nineteen Finnish students learned about the Press Ombudsman’s office and the challenges facing journalists, when they attended an NUJ-organised event at the Teachers’ Club in Dublin.


The journalism students


attend the Swedish School of Social Science, an autonomous Swedish unit at the University of Helsinki, and were on a four-day visit to Dublin to learn more about Irish journalism. Peter Feeney, Press Ombudsman, gave a detailed talk on the work undertaken by his office and the Press Council, illustrating his points with interesting cases he dealt with. He also explained the international context of press councils, including those in Scandinavia. Meanwhile, Ronan Brady, Irish Executive Council member and lecturer in journalism at Griffith College Dublin, addressed the related issues of press freedom and media ownership in Ireland. During a conversation with the Finnish guests, it emerged that their concerns about starting a career in journalism


Visiting Finnish journalism students with Peter Feeney, Press Ombudsman, and Ronan Brady, Irish Executive Council member and lecturer in journalism at Griffith College.


are the same as Irish students’ worries. They said they were worried about making mistakes in a real newsroom scenario and concerned that the workloads they will face would be difficult to cope with. NUJ Irish Organiser, Ian McGuinness, outlined the work of the union in Ireland and explained it was part of an international union that encompasses journalists in a number of nations and states.


Extra day off for Derry


Journalists at the Derry Journal are to be given an extra paid day off this year, to make up for the fact that their public holiday entitlement is one less than their colleagues in the Newsletter and Mortons. The public holiday anomaly was one of the


many issues that the NUJ hoped to resolve in house agreement talks with management. Each of the chapels (Derry Journal, Newsletter and Mortons) at Johnston Press has their own house agreements, which have not been updated for many years and which contain different terms and conditions. The house agreement talks, which were under


way earlier this year, were put on hold while JP reorganised structures and posts within the company. This took longer than expected, hence the prolonged delay to house agreement talks. As a result the Derry Journal NUJ members


were again due to get one less public holiday than their colleagues. Upon asking for them to be granted an extra day off this year – as it had not been their fault that the reorganisation of the company took so long – JP conceded the request. However, it did so on a without precedent basis to what would be discussed in the house agreement talks. The long-stalled talks are due to get under way again in the coming weeks.


Ian said that unions address issues of concern like those raised by the students (making errors and heavy workloads) by trying to support young journalists in unionised workplaces. He ended the event by advising the Finnish students to join a trade union when they start their working lives, in order to fight for quality journalism and stand up for their rights as workers.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20