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Gender pay gaps widen at news media groups


GENDER pay gaps increased last year at more than 60 per cent of UK news media companies, according to the latest figures. The figures cover only 14 media


organisations overall because the Government said companies no longer had to report pay differences between women and men for 2019 to help them focus on surviving the effects of the coronavirus crisis. Of the 14 media


companies that decided to publish their figures anyway, 64 per cent saw an increase in pay inequality. If the four subsidiaries of Reach – Mirror


Group, Express Newspapers, Media Scotland and Local World – are treated separately, the total rises to 18 companies. Last year, the BBC and the Guardian


reported significant reductions in their pay gaps after the BBC reduced the earnings of many of its top-earning male employees.


Earlier this year, BBC presenter Samira Ahmed won a landmark victory for equal pay when, backed by the NUJ, she took the corporation to an employment tribunal because she was being paid substantially less than Jeremy Vine for fronting similar programmes. The tribunal ruled decisively in her favour. The Economist Group


continued to have the highest median gender pay gap at 29.5 per cent. It also recorded the biggest rise in the median bonus pay gap, up from 15.7 per cent to 38.3 per cent. The median gap at Express Newspapers grew from 14.6


per cent in 2018 to 23.3 per cent. The biggest movement towards parity was at STV, where the median pay gap fell from 18.5 per cent to 11.9 per cent.


CNN had the biggest median bonus pay gap


for the third year running at 57.3 per cent.It said this was affected by women who had recently joined and were not yet eligible.


Pearl accused rearrested after acquittal


FOUR men accused of the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002 were rearrested on April 4, two days after a court


overturned their convictions.


On 2 April, the high


court of Sindh province acquitted the four, including Briton Ahmed


Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was sentenced to death in 2002 for organising the murder. The other three were sentenced to life imprisonment.


Pearl was investigating Islamist militants in Karachi, after the September 11 2001 attacks on the US. He was kidnapped in January 2002 and beheaded weeks later.


“ Remembering Lyra one year on


NUJ MEMBERS and many other people marked the anniversary of the death of Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee on April 18. Lyra was 29 when she was shot in the Creggan area of Derry by republican group the New IRA while observing clashes with police. Tributes to her journalism and her spirit were shared on social media. Séamus Dooley, NUJ Irish secretary, said: “Lyra had an


unrivalled zest for life and for living. That is what makes her senseless killing so cruel. In her journalism, she combined her passion for journalism with a deep commitment to social change.


“In her writing, in her approach to issues of poverty, equality and exclusion, Lyra was not afraid to ask difficult questions, to challenge the conventional and accepted wisdoms and to look for new and imaginative solutions to problems. That’s her legacy.”


Of the 14 media companies that decided to publish their figures, 64 per cent saw an increase in pay inequality


inbrief...


STAR EDITOR GOES TO BELFAST TELEGRAPH Eoin Brannigan, editor of the Irish Daily Star, has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life. He hadedited the Irish Daily Star since 2017 and has worked at the paper for 23 years. The Telegraph marks its 150th anniversary this year.


POLITICS EDITOR TAKES A PUNT ON PR Kevin Schofield, Politics Home editor, is to become director of communications and digital at the Betting and Gaming Council, a new standards body set up to build public trust in the gambling industry. He will start in the summer.


RADIO 4 PRESENTER GOES TO TIMES RADIO Broadcaster Aasmah Mir, who has presented Radio 4’s Saturday Live for six years, has left the BBC after almost 20 years to join News UK’s Times Radio, which will be launched in the summer. Channel 4 News’ Cathy Newman is also joining the station and will interview politicians and discuss the news on Fridays. She will still present Channel 4 News from Monday to Thursday. John Pienaar, the former BBC deputy political editor who joined the station this year, will present the drivetime show from Monday to Thursday.


Rebellion at Russian paper Journalists at the Russian business


newspaper Vedomosti have publicly declared their opposition to new management. This follows the paper’s editor being accused of banning criticism of constitutional


amendments backed by Vladimir Putin and the use of data from an independent pollster. In an opinion article on the paper’s website, the editorial staff said the new editor had undermined trust


by intervening in coverage of state energy company Rosneft.


theJournalist | 07


TREVOR MCBRIDE


ITAR-TASS NEWS AGENCY / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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