24 Seeking members’ thoughts on stress in the workplace


The Irish Executive Council wants to hear from members about their experiences with work-related stress, and the tools they believe would be useful in addressing those pressures. The Irish Executive Council is planning to organise a


seminar around well-being in the workplace, in light of increasing demands on members. At the December 6th meeting of the IEC, the council


agreed on the seminar and established a working group to begin planning discussions for the event. IEC


members Siobhan Holliman, Carolyn Farrar, Phil Mac Giolla Bháin, Emma Ní Ríain, and Anton McCabe were named to the working group. The group would like to hear from members as they


discuss plans for the event, to see what members feel would be of use to them. They hope to hear from people who are on staff and from freelancers. Members are urged to send any suggestions to irishjournalist@nuj.ie by June 15th.


Call to survey members in online and social media


The IEC has been asked to gauge the extent of union membership in online journalism and social media, and to survey journalists’ experiences in those fields. The Dublin Freelance branch has passed a motion


calling on the IEC to ascertain membership in the sectors and consider running a 32-county survey of those members to determine their experience in the sectors, how the NUJ can help them, and how their co-workers who are not members might be encouraged to join. The motion was proposed by Derek Speirs and


seconded by Gerard Cunningham. Gerard said: “Clearly the industry is changing and changing very fast and very dramatically, and that


obviously also has an impact, particularly on freelances – how copyright is now dealt with in a business where it takes two keystrokes to reuse a photo, for example.” He said because of the level and rate of change, the


branch felt the union should get an update on where the industry is, where people are working, and where the NUJ’s resources should be targeted. The motion arose from discussions at branch


meetings and the joint NUJ-SIPTU freelance meeting held in 2018 on whether the NUJ could more effectively organise potential union members working in precarious and low-income jobs in the online journalism and social media sectors.


NUJ welcomes Belfast ruling on protection of sources


The National Union of Journalists has welcomed the judgement in the Northern Ireland Crown Court which recognises the right of journalists to protect confidential journalistic sources and material. In February, Mr Justice Colton rejected the


application brought by Alex McCrory, one of the co- accused in an ongoing criminal trial involving Colin Duffy and Harry Fitzsimmons, against a Sunday World investigative journalist and NUJ member Paula Mackin.


Irish Secretary Séamus Dooley paid tribute to Paula Mackin and Northern Editor of the Sunday World Richard Sullivan for their strong stand in defence of media freedom. He noted that Mr Justice Colton, in setting out his reasons for rejecting an application to have the journalist hand over material and disclose information to the applicant had drawn heavily on the landmark Goodwin case, which the NUJ had successful taken to the European Court in defence of press freedom. The application sought three things, an order compelling the journalist to disclose source material; an order compelling the disclosure of journalistic source(s) who provided journalistic information; and compelling that journalist to attend the criminal trial and give evidence about the former matters. The Defendant’s application arose out of a series of criminal investigative reports published by the Sunday World.


The Court heard evidence from the investigative journalist and remarked that the journalist in reporting about certain events “was simply doing her best to recollect and communicate the gist” to her readers, and that the newspaper articles “related to a wide range of individuals who may be classed as dissidents”. When asked under cross-examination to disclose


her sources she emphatically told the court that she was not prepared to disclose any sources. In protecting her sources and source material she informed the court of the confidential nature of sources and of their source material, and also of the risk to her life and also to her source’s life. Justice Colton stated that Paula Mackin gave truthful evidence and he declined the defendant’s application. The defendants in the criminal case also made an unsuccessful attempt to compel disclosure of confidential journalistic source(s) and source material in the High Court. Séamus Dooley said: “Paula and her editor stuck by the fundamental principles of the NUJ Code of Conduct. Coming in a week where members Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey have secured the right to a judicial review of police actions against them this is a good week for journalism in Northern Ireland.” He said, “Journalists must be able to do their work without fear of compromising their professional standards.” IEC joint Cathaoirleach Gerry Carson had represented the NUJ at the hearing.


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