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Transgender guide blocks fair, accurate reporting…


The NUJ code of conduct’s first rule states that a journalist “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”. The second rule states that reporting should be honestly conveyed, accurate and fair. Reporting of cases such as White’s (Fair reporting


and transgender trials, August/September) cannot adhere to these rules until Ipso’s biased guidelines are ditched; they are inimical to fair and accurate journalism. Rape is a sex offence carried out by males against


females and other men. Telling the public — because of Ipso guidance — a male rapist used ‘her’ penis to penetrate a woman obfuscates the issue and misinforms readers by pandering to the feelings of the rapist over those of his victim. To demand that such a male be referred to as if he were female is compelled speech and obscuring his sex can only be offensive to the victim and most of the public. Alan Henness London


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… but has protected highly vulnerable people Prejudiced reporting of transgender men and women has real-world consequences, as I know from personal experience as the son of a transwoman who, together with her immediate family, was massively damaged by negative media representation. That was in the early 1970s. Today the situation is much improved, thanks in part to editorial guidelines and transparent lobbying from the likes of Trans Media Watch. As a member of the NUJ equality


council in 2014, I was responsible for the union’s transgender reporting guidelines. Much background work went into that document, which was


22 | theJournalist


well received by reporters looking to resist management pressures to produce sensationalist material. Various individuals and groups both within and without the union contributed to the discussion, including specialists in journalism ethics. I find it odd that an NUJ activist writing in an NUJ journal makes only passing reference to the union’s own guidelines, and chooses not to discuss the matter with the current equality and ethics councils. Reporting guidelines are problematic for a number of reasons not outlined in Rachel Broady’s article but the NUJ and Ipso efforts have, arguably, contributed to an improvement in media portrayals of highly vulnerable people.


The situation in 2020 has degenerated markedly, in my view due to a combination of hysterical ‘debate’ in antisocial media and the cynicism of media owners and editors for whom controversy and sensation sells product. Dr Francis Sedgemore Former member of NUJ Equality Council


Dr Rachel Broady writes: The article considers what guidance is available to journalists, including those not members of the NUJ, when navigating a difficult and emotional subject. I referred to a number of available guidelines, including the NUJ’s current guidelines, to inform that discussion. The article was not part of


Email to: journalist@nuj.org.uk Post to: The Journalist 72 Acton Street, London WC1X 9NB Tweet to: @mschrisbuckley


my own trade union activism but is a piece of journalism for which I intentionally sought the opinions of transgender journalists.


You cannot call a lost election a success Re ‘‘Sympathetic writers’ do not help Labour cause” (Your Say, August/ September). Roy Jones writes of “Corbyn’s successful 2017 general election campaign”. It wasn’t successful. He lost. There are no prizes for coming second in UK general elections. Simon Hardeman London Freelance Branch


Stalwart who kept a diverse branch united I was sorry to read of the death of Sidney Rennert (Obituaries, August/ September page 18). Sidney was a stalwart of the Press and PR Branch for many years. As our secretary, he kept together a


group of journalists who plied their trade on behalf of organisations as diverse as the TUC (where I worked), the CBI, political parties, public companies, local authorities, nationalised industries, pressure groups and charities. Yet it was in part thanks to Sidney’s skills that the branch was never beset by the factionalism that plagued some of the other London branches in the 1970s and 1980s. Sidney was kind, gentle and


welcoming to newcomers like myself. He had a fund of stories from his time on the industrial beat and, as his son Jonathan rightly says in his obituary, Sidney brought his reporting skills to the world of investment analysis – he did so not by poring over figures but by asking a company’s executive what he thought of the current share price and reporting what he said – a practice that would be frowned on these days. I fear I became the subject of one of Sidney’s stories when, as a new and precocious chair of the branch, I asked one of the senior members whether he


DENIS CARRIER


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