news Branch victory over Reform reporting ban


THE NUJ Nottingham branch has secured a government pledge after the leader of Reform UK in Nottinghamshire imposed a ban on reporters from the Nottingham Post and Nottinghamshire Live news website. The branch – which


represents 200 journalists and broadcasters in the region – had written to Mick Barton (pictured), leader of the ruling Reform UK group on Nottinghamshire County Council, protesting at his order not to send council news releases to the Post and its reporters. Invitations to council


events were also withdrawn and Barton imposed a ‘boycott’ on speaking to the Post’s politics editor and its three BBC-funded local democracy reporters. The branch alerted Nottinghamshire MPs and the


issue was raised in the House of Commons on November 12. James Naish, Labour MP for Rushcliffe, said that Reform’s ban was “a dangerous moment, where local accountability was not being adequately recognised”. He secured a commitment


from Chris Ward, cabinet office minister, that the government planned legislation to strengthen “objectivity, accountability and transparency” in our local councils. The proposed law will also


give powers to suspend councillors who breach a new mandatory code of conduct for a maximum of six months. Councillors’ allowances will be withdrawn for the most serious breaches. Benedict Cooper, Nottingham branch chair, said the new code of conduct


measures would “better reflect the modern world and the new pressures on journalism. As a branch, we will always defend local journalists who experience the kind of hostility Reform UK has demonstrated towards our great profession since being in office.” Reform UK’s ban followed a


Post article claiming there were divisions within the group over local government reorganisation. Barton lifted the ban after Reach, owners of the Post and Nottinghamshire Live, threatened legal action.


Call to reclaim founder’s fire


THIS YEAR’S Claudia Jones lecture, organised by the NUJ black members’ council, focused on learning from the journalist in the current fight against the far right. Guest speaker Bell


Ribeiro-Addy MP called on black and trade union


Rule 24 appeal


Following Alan Davies’ rule 24 appeal on October 16 2025, the tribunal panel found that, on the evidence, Davies did not act in accordance with his membership responsibilities at the union’s biennial delegate meeting on 25-27 April 2025 and by his subsequent behaviour on


activists to “reclaim Claudia Jones’ fire”. The MP for Clapham and


Brixton Hill paid homage to Jones’ work as a feminist and black nationalist who co-founded the Notting Hill Carnival and the UK’s first black newspaper, The West


social media; his appeal was not upheld in this regard. In respect to his appeal against expulsion, the appeal was upheld and the panel decided to replace expulsion with the following:


1. Censure in the strongest possible terms 2. Suspended from membership for 12 months 3. Fined £1,000.00.


Indian Gazette and Afro- Asian Caribbean News. She said: “She told the truth when it wasn’t safe and she organised when it wasn’t popular. She built movements from nothing: a newspaper, a carnival, a community.


• Nation.Cymru, the Welsh


news website, hit back at an attempt by Reform to silence their reporting. The site, where NUJ activist


Martin Shipton works, had warned that the naming of the party’s director of communications in a report about the suspension of a member of the Senedd had breached his privacy. Shipton said that instead of succumbing the site published an article that called out the attempt to suppress its journalism.


“Out of sheer courage and


conviction, she taught us that joy can be revolutionary, that solidarity can be stronger than fear, that resistance can be beautiful.” Ribeiro-Addy, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan reparations, called for recognition that resisting the far right is a global fight.


Global demand to free Cumpio


THE NUJ has joined the International Federation of Journalists in calling for the immediate release of Frenchie Mae Cumpio and the dropping of all baseless charges against her. A court in the Philippines on November 6


dismissed a murder charge against Cumpio, a jailed community journalist. Cumpio was arrested on February 7 2020 alongside four human rights activists, who have become known as the Tacloban 5, in a series of police raids, and has been in detention since. The Laoang Regional Trial Court Branch 21 rejected Cumpio’s murder charge, which


alleged she joined an ambush against state forces in 2019, owing to a ‘glaring disparity’ regarding identity. The complaint was addressed to someone called Frenchie Armando Cupio, who the court agreed was not the detained journalist. There was more positive news for Cumpio.


On October 29, the court of appeals reversed a lower court decision to freeze her bank account and oblige her and jailed human rights activist Mariel Domequil to pay a combined sum of PHP 500,000 (around £6,400) on charges of ‘terrorist financing’.


theJournalist | 05 “


Reform’s ban is part of a sinister, wider trend of politicians taking an increasingly belligerent attitude towards journalists


Benedict Cooper chair, Nottingham branch


DAVID WOOLFALL


NOTTINGHAM POST/ JOEL MOORE


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