Informed 07


News Update


Harold Evans (1928-2020)


Tim Dawson pays tribute to the buccaneering journalist


Two years ago, Harry Evans visited the union’s headquarters for an NUJ Extra fundraising event. Tree former colleagues from his editorship days in Darlington travelled south to catch up with their old boss. Within a heartbeat, Harry, almost 90 at the time, recalled their names before heaping praise on stories they had submited more than half a century earlier. Te reverence he atracts among journalists is rooted in the energy and innovation he brought to creating newspapers. His triumphs were the ground-breaking stories at the Sunday Times: thalidomide and its victims; the exposure of Kim Philby; and publication of Richard Crossman’s diaries. Less celebrated was his interest in domestic


mores and social issues; Jilly Cooper was as integral to his Sunday Times as was Phillip Knightley and the Insight team. Te son of a Manchester railwayman, he entered the inky trade as a 16-year- old reporter on an Ashton-under-Lyne weekly. He won a place at the University of Durham and by 1952 returned to journalism at the Manchester Evening News. His first editorship at Darlington’s Northern Echo (1961-67) was marked by campaigning national stories that few regional titles have matched since – pushing for NHS cervical tests and the pardoning of Timothy Evans who was wrongly convicted and hanged for murder. It was his brush with Rupert Murdoch, set out in his book, Good Times Bad Times, that placed his integrity beyond


Assange fate hangs in the balance


Julian Assange will most likely take his own life, if he is convicted, an online meeting atended by nearly 100 NUJ activists heard. Jen Robinson, lawyer to the Wikileaks founder, told members her client “had hardly been able to hold a conversation when he was in solitary confinement in Belmarsh”.


Te meeting provided an update on the extradition


hearing and called on journalists to campaign for his release. Former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said: “Te move to extradite Julian Assange is disturbing – as is the mute response among journalists. If we allow him to be convicted, it will have huge implications for anyone who wants to do investigative journalism.”


NEC member Tim Dawson, who observed the extradition


question. Te Australian mogul bought Times newspapers in 1981 and moved Evans to the daily. Tey quickly clashed over his coverage of the newly elected Margaret Tatcher and he leſt. He reinvented himself aſter arriving in Manhatan, becoming a power couple with second wife Tina Brown – he taught at Yale, founded Condé Nast Traveller and was president of Random House. He inspired journalist generations to come with his manuals on the craſt of news writing and design. He will be remembered


for making newspapers the most relevant and exciting part of the media just as they


faced serious challenge from television. And throughout it all, his torrent of


energy and ideas kept colleagues and friends panting to keep up until the very end. It is unlikely he will ever be equalled as a newspaper editor.


hearing on behalf of the union and the IFJ, said: “Te Espionage Act of 1917 under which he is charged has far more oſten been used to prosecute trade unions and working class leaders than it has spies. It is a discretionary


cosh used to harass civic activists. Extending its scope to journalists, as this prosecution would, is a terrifying prospect.” Séamus Dooley, NUJ assistant general secretary and meeting chair, said: “Te barbarous treatment of Julian Assange, whose sin has been to expose truth, means that this is an issue with which journalists cannot become bored. He must not be extradited.” A demonstration has been arranged outside the Old Bailey for the ruling on Monday 4 January.


Tim Dawson


Everet Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo


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