02 Informed


Séamus Says


Imagine a world where you can’t trust the news


and to undermine the media. The threats are felt at local level, nationally and globally. In Northern Ireland female journalists


As DM looms, the union has a lot of batles to fight and issues to debate, says Séamus Dooley, assistant general secretary


And so, it’s nearly time to head for Southport again.


The union’s biennial delegate


conference is a time to take stock, to celebrate success, review failures and plan for the future. As evident in this edition we can be proud of what we have achieved against enormous odds. Inevitably the focus this year will be on the financial challenges facing the union as we seek the support of delegates for an increase in membership subscriptions so we can continue serving members throughout the UK and Ireland. We will also look at how we recruit and


organise, how we run our chapels and branches, how the NUJ serves you, the member. As we prepare for DM it feels like journalists and journalism are under siege at home and abroad. On every front there are attempts to thwart journalists, to make it more difficult to do our jobs


have been the target of vicious online abuse. NUJ intervention has been crucial in securing police action. In Derry, where Lyra McKee was killed last April, another female journalist has been the subject of sectarian abuse and threats of intimidation. Leona O’Neill, who witnessed Lyra’s


killing, was branded a “tout” and “an informer” on walls in the Creggan and denounced as “a shit stirrer”. The graffiti also falsely and dangerously linked Leona to MI5. For Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, the battle to secure justice following their vindication by the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland is still going on. The Police Service of Northern Ireland has still not returned materials seized in the unlawful raid on their homes and offices and the makers of No Stone Unturned have yet to secure justice. As a global union the NUJ is mindful of the threats to colleagues around the world and the news from Iran is cause for grave concern. Since the beginning of the year the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have raided the homes of at least six journalists in Tehran, confiscating documents and reporting equipment. These arbitrary raids are part of a disturbing pattern of behaviour in the run up to this month’s general election, which saw hardline conservations elected to power with the lowest turnout since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. A report by the UK government’s Independent High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, set up last year by the UK and Canada to advise


governments on how to better protect journalists and media freedom, has called for targeted sanctions as a tool to enforce governments’ international human rights obligations, including their obligation to respect free speech and protect the media. The report, authored by human rights


lawyer Amal Clooney, said: “Media freedom has been in decline for a decade, through systemic censorship as well as relentless attacks on journalists ranging from online harassment to arbitrary detention and extra-judicial killings. Many governments are refusing to hold perpetrators of such attacks to account, and in many places the governments are the perpetrators. International sanctions targeting individuals responsible for the abuses can highlight their misconduct, limit their impact and act as a deterrent to future misdeeds. Such sanctions are indeed, in the current global political climate, often the only way to hold those responsible to account.”


This is something the NUJ supports;


there must be a real commitment by governments to fight impunity for crimes committed against journalists. That is why the NUJ is working with the Federation of International Journalists to promote a UN Convention to protect journalists and media workers. In America Trump continues his nasty


verbal assaults on the media and we can expect his behaviour to worsen as November’s election looms into sight. Indeed, the UK government and its aides have been accused of playing by the Trump playbook in its treatment of journalists. Against this backdrop the importance of public service broadcasting is reinforced and for the NUJ the threats to public service broadcasting in the UK and


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