news in brief...


LABOUR RESEARCH MARKS 100 YEARS Next month, Labour Research magazine celebrates its 100th anniversary. The magazine, which focuses on trade union news and information, began in July 1917 as the Monthly Circular of the Fabian Research Department. The organisation was renamed the Labour Research Department the following year as its membership broadened.


BOOK SALES BOOST FOR UK AND IRELAND Sales of books rose in the UK and Ireland, helped by political events. In the UK, parodies such as Five on Brexit Island, as well as children’s titles and lifestyle books, helped sales climb by 2.3 per cent. In Ireland, book sales increased by nine per cent between 2015 and 2016, partly because of books marking the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising.


Istanbul court on April 12 in the OdaTV case. They had been charged with being members of a terrorist organisation and had been on trial for six years. Among those acquitted was


T


Muysser Yildiz, who was “adopted” in a solidarity move by the NUJ in 2012. The journalists now have


Court acquits Turkish journalists in OdaTV case Strengthened by their


welve Turkish journalists were acquitted unanimously by an


the right to file a claim for compensation. The court also ordered a


legal complaint be filed against those who faked digital evidence and sent it to the journalists’ computers. The case was started in


2011 after police raided the the journalists’ addresses. At the time, they were making broadcasts and writing articles criticising the Ergenekon trials, which


followed the arrest of more than 200 suspects over allegations that they were aiming to overthrow the Turkish government. The journalists were


supported by the European Federation of Journalists the affiliated Turkish Journalists’ Union.


This is a positive


development amid the bad news for journalists coming out of Turkey.


UK FALLS IN PRESS FREEDOM LIST B


ritain fell two places to 40th out


of 180 countries in the league of press freedom, compiled by the campaigning group Reporters Sans


Frontières (Reporters Without Frontiers). New government


surveillance powers helped push the UK down the rankings of the World Press Freedom Index and


RSF said it would have fallen further had it not been for a decline in freedom in other countries. In the past five


years, the UK has slipped 12 places


down the index. RSF said there had been a decline in media freedom in English-speaking, democratic countries. The US, which has been regarded as


narrow victory in the controversial referendum on changes to the constitution in April, the authorities have launched further waves of dismissals, detentions and arrests of journalists under state of emergency powers. To date, some 150 journalists have been detained. More journalists are


imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country.


a champion of free speech because of the first amendment of its constitution, also dropped two places, to 43rd. Canada fell four places to 22nd, and New Zealand slipped eight places to 13th.


4 | theJournalist


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