Informed 05


Indie & RTÉ chapels join branches boom


Journalists working on the Independent have re-established a union chapel. Tey said: “We love working at Te Independent and in this ever-changing media landscape we would like to positively contribute to shaping the workplace. We will be sending all NUJ members an anonymous survey and hope to use its findings as the basis for discussions with management.” In Darlington, a get-together in the Red Lion pub brought together local journalists with other branch members in the north-east. Te event will, hopefully, herald the revival of a fully-functioning branch for media workers and students the journalism school at Darlington College.


Chris Morley, Northern & Midlands senior organiser, says union solidarity in the north east is alive and kicking. It was an announcement by


Cheers to Darlington branch Read More ☞


htps://www.nuj.org. uk/where/


that galvanised members. Jane Kennedy, Northern & Midlands organiser pulled together a chapel meeting and contacted Nick Fellows, managing director for the North West and North Wales, asking for more details on the VR deal. He said there were enough volunteers to avoid compulsory redundancies, so now the chapel will seek recognition and raise issues of pay and workload.


New chapels have been


Newsquest that it was seeking voluntary redundancies (VR) across the whole of its newly-acquired NWN Media, which has offices in north England and Wales,


established at RTÉ in TV and press and information and there has been increased activity in the newsroom chapel and the Irish language Nuacht.


International Report


Te International Federation of Journalists has published its full annual report which detailed the killings of 82 media staff in 2017. While the report welcomed the fact the number


of work-related killings of journalists fell to the lowest level in a decade, the death toll remained unacceptably high. Journalism is still an extremely perilous profession and media freedom is crushed in many parts of the globe. Afghanistan, Mexico, Syria and Iraq topped the killings list. htps://www.nuj. org.uk/news/impunity-if-killed-report-2017/


Paradise defended Te NUJ defended the BBC and Guardian for exposing mass tax evasion revealed in the leaked Paradise Papers and pledged to defend the right to report, aſter it was revealed that offshore company Appleby had initiated breach of confidentiality proceedings against the news organisations. Michelle Stanistreet said: “Journalists have a duty to represent the powerless when their interests are at odds with the powerful. It is typical of corporations to use their financial muscle to try to bully individual media outlets in the hope that they will frighten all who seek the truth. Te response of all journalists should be that we will not allow this to succeed.”


Money and membership Te union’s treasurer reported a surplus of almost £200,000 in his end-of-year accounts. Te NUJ’s headquarters in Acton Street, London now has tenants and from 2019, when full rents will be paid, the union will receive an income of £300,000 a year. John Barsby said: “Te year finished with the union’s finances in a strong position with positive balance sheets and funds amounting to almost £334, 000 at the end of September.” He noted that this year the union will have to bear the costs of DM and commitee elections, plus the costs of the BBC pension case, for which the union has made a provision of £200,000. Te NEC heard that there was no decline in membership contributions. A big increase of new members from the BBC (167) and freelance (171) was noted.


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