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MEP Mairead McGuinness to open next Freelance Forum


Bookings will open shortly for Dublin Freelance branch’s next Freelance Forum, to be held on Monday March 23 in Buswell’s Hotel in Dublin. The forum will be opened by Mairead McGuinness MEP, First Vice President of the European Parliament and a former journalist who edited the Farming Independent . She was chairing the parliament on the final day


of British participation, when the Brexit Party staged a noisy intervention, waving flags and cheering. She clashed with party leader Nigel Farage and switched off his microphone as he spoke. “Please sit down, resume your seats, put your flags away. You’re leaving and take them with you if you are leaving now,” McGuinness said as the cheering Brexit Party MEPs walked out. She will speak in Dublin next month on the challenges facing the media post-Brexit. As the programme was being finalised, news


came that the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland had decided to renew its grant to Dublin Freelance for a further year. The grant supports two freelance forums, under the BAI sectoral funds heading, and the amount approved for 2020 is €5,000. “This is excellent news,” said branch treasurer


Kieran Fagan. “The BAI support means that our admission fee, €10 for members, does not deter people from attending and we can pay the cost of city centre hotel.” The purpose of this day-long event is to bring


freelance writers, photographers and broadcasters together and share knowledge about developments in the sector. A popular regular item is the ‘what editors want’ slot, in which those who commission freelances discuss their needs, and how the material should be offered and presented. Further details will be available shortly. Visit the


branch site, http://dublinfreelance.org/ or follow them on Twitter, @DublinFreelance, for more information.


Minister Bruton brushes aside NUJ concerns over Iconic takeover


Concerns raised by the NUJ about the potential takeover of the Midland Tribune and Tullamore Tribune newspapers by Iconic were brushed aside by then- Minister of Communications, Richard Bruton. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission cleared the takeover last October by Form Press Publishing (Iconic), subject to binding commitments. Each proposed merger is then passed to the Minister for Communications if it gets over the CCPC hurdle. Irish Secretary, Séamus Dooley, and Irish Organiser, Ian McGuinness, wrote to the minister in October to express the NUJ’s concerns about media plurality, editorial independence and staffing levels at the papers. The letter said the NUJ believed that if the merger


was approved it should stipulate that the two newspapers would remain independent of each other and not be merged; the two papers should remain independent of other Iconic titles and not be merged


or pool personnel; the current staffing numbers should be retained; and the company should commit to positively and actively engaging with trade unions. No response was received from the Minister, so the NUJ Irish Office was forced to write a second letter to the Minister in late November. A response, dated December 2nd, then arrived,


basically confirming that a decision had already been made to pass the takeover. It said: “My determination is that the proposed media merger will not be contrary to the public interest in protecting the plurality of media in the State.” The assessment report for the media merger has


not yet been published but the NUJ will be analysing the document when it is put up on the Department of Communications’ website. The NUJ officials’ October letter offered to provide


any further information or meet with the Minister or his officials, if they thought it would be beneficial to the decision-making process. That offer was not taken up.


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