obituaries


out, Pat put the pictures on the page.


The Star is a national daily so he


covered the big national stories, such as the Iranian Embassy siege, as well as those when the labour movement hit the front pages. from the Grunwick dispute in the 1970s to the miners’ strike in the 1980s. But I was more likely to see


Pat Mantle


You can’t imagine a daily paper without pictures and, for decades, you couldn’t imagine the Morning Star without Pat Mantle, who died in August. There were other photographers of course – Alex Apperley, Sheila Gray, Ernie Greenwood and more. But Pat was the mainstay and also doubled up as picture editor. Day in, day out, week in, week


him when he was covering a small picket line, a minor dispute or a protest that the rest of the world ignored. Pat would be using minimal, old-school kit as befitted an old-school photographer. I’d see him with a Leica and – you’d have to be an older photographer to remember this one – the much cheaper and smaller Minolta CL, complete with a set of tiny lenses. Those rangefinder cameras took real skill when working fast. This was in the days of film and


knocking out prints on deadline in the darkroom, which is ancient history to most working today.


In later years, though, Pat


relented and finally gave in to modern and more expensive autofocus technology – a Nikon SLR. Nonetheless, he always trod his


own path. While the world was focused on some major news story, Pat would be drawn to what he believed were the most important issues of the day – the struggles of working people for a better life and a better world. To that end, he’d be in some remote corner of London for the Morning Star, with perhaps photographers from News Line, the Workers Revolutionary Party paper, and myself from Report, but no one else. Except maybe someone from Socialist Worker or Militant. For Pat, this world was no backwater – this was his world. For he was a life-long


communist, a vocation every bit as important to him as his press photography. You don’t earn much at the Star. Like so many at the newspaper, he was there for the cause. He was never drawn to the


higher pay, travel and hotels of the mainstream press to which his undoubted talents could have taken him. He stayed true to his principles from leaving school to near retirement in the 1990s, when he left for Ireland. Retirement was not for Pat. A second life beckoned, supplying a wide range of trade union and labour movement publications as well as the local Southern Star newspaper from his new home in County Cork. That was not all. With his second wife, the late Phil O’Flynn, he ran two local antique shops, The Overmantle and Hobbits. And, as if those were not enough, he gave his time to public service, acting as chairman of the parish council. Pat, an NUJ life member, died on


August 22 2024. He is remembered by his daughter Kate, her husband Adrian and their children James and Donnacha.


Andrew Wiard


Members of the National Union of Journalists are expected to abide by the following professional principles


A JOURNALIST 1


At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom


of expression and the right of the public to be informed.


2 3


Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed,


accurate and fair.


Does her/his utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies.


4


Differentiates between fact and opinion.


5


Obtains material by honest, straightforward and open means, with the


exception of investigations that are both overwhelmingly in the public interest and which involve evidence that cannot be obtained by straightforward means.


6 7


24 | theJournalist


Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress


unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest.


Protects the identity of sources who supply information in confidence


and material gathered in the course of her/his work.


8 9


Resists threats or any other inducements to influence, distort or


suppress information, and takes no unfair personal advantage of information gained in the course of her/his duties before the information is public knowledge.


Produces no material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the


grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed, legal status, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation.


10 11 12


Does not by way of statement, voice or appearance


endorse by advertisement any commercial product or service save for the promotion of her/his own work or of the medium by which she/he is employed.


A journalist shall normally seek the consent of an


appropriate adult when interviewing or photographing a child for a story about her/his welfare.


Avoids plagiarism.


Te NUJ believes a journalist has the right to refuse an assignment or be identified as the author of editorial that would break the leter or spirit of the code. Te NUJ will fully support any journalist disciplined for asserting her/his right to act according to the code.


☞


CODE OF CONDUCT


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