news


Reporter complains to the Police Ombudsman


AN AWARD-winning Northern Ireland journalist has lodged an official complaint to the Police Ombudsman after experiencing a “year of inaction” by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) over a threat of rape to her baby. NUJ member Patricia Devlin, a


crime reporter for the Sunday World, received death threats and other threats of violence, and said that the police failed to investigate a threat to rape her baby made in October last year via a message to her personal Facebook account. The message was signed with the name of a neo-Nazi terror group, Combat 18, which in the past has had links to loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. The NUJ and Amnesty International are


supporting Ms Devlin’s complaint and have called for threats to journalists to be taken seriously.


Ms Devlin, said: “Because of my job as a journalist, exposing criminals and paramilitaries, I have been on the receiving end of threats of violence and death threats for years. In Northern Ireland, that now seems to go with the territory.” “But, when I received a threat


to rape my newborn baby, also identifying my grandmother and the location of where the sender believed she lived, I had enough. I reported the threat to the PSNI and was able to name the person I suspect was behind the threat.


“The police have had this individual’s name all this time yet, a year on, no one has been brought in for questioning, never mind arrested. Meanwhile, the police have given me a constantly changing and contradictory story as to why they have not acted. The PSNI has said it encourages anyone


with concerns to contact the Police Ombudsman.


Don’t scrap Union Learning Fund, says TUC


EMPLOYERS and the TUC have joined forces to fight a government plan to close the £12m Union Learning Fund.


The TUC was ‘stunned’ to hear of the plan from the


Department of Education as there had been no prior discussion or consultation on the fund’s future. It argued that the fund


was achieving its targets, was supported by employers


and provided a net gain to the Exchequer. The TUC’s campaign has been backed by unions including the NUJ and the Federation of Entertainment Unions. It has also been


RSA fellowship for freelance


NUJ member Lynsey Ford has been honoured with a fellowship from the Royal Society of Arts for ‘contributions to social progress and development’. A member of the London freelance branch since 2018, she has


written for, among others, the British Film Institute, The Museums Journal and The Culture Trip. Highlights of her career include assisting the Mary Seacole Statue Trust with their fundraising campaign for a £500,000 statue on the grounds of St Thomas’ Hospital, and writing about the plight of the Cinema Museum in Kennington in consultation with Charlie Chaplin’s estate. She said: “I’m delighted to receive


this great honour. I hope to share my passion, tenacity, knowledge and skills to bring about social change for the greater good.”


supported by employers including Tesco, Heathrow Airport, Tata Steel and Arla Foods, as well as training organisations and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.


CITY AM EDITOR QUITS FOR NEW ROLE Christian May, the editor of City AM, has left the paper and journalism. He edited the free business daily for five years but left in November before taking up a role next year. His new job has yet to be announced. May told UK Press Gazette that it was not in the news industry. Deputy editor Andy Silvester has become acting editor.


“


The police have given me a constantly changing and contradictory story as to why they have not acted


Patricia Devlin Crime reporter, Sunday World


inbrief...


NEWSQUEST PROFITS PLUNGE BY 88% Regional publisher Newsquest saw its pre-tax profit fall by 88 per cent to £13.4 million last year, according to its Companies House filing. The group’s turnover fell by five per cent to £187.7 million and operating profit fell from £78.2 million to £9.7 million.


FUTURE TO RECRUIT 150 EMPLOYEES Future plans to hire more than 150 people by early next year with most of the jobs in editorial. The publisher is aiming to expand despite the effects of coronavirus. The majority of the roles will be in specialist editorial in titles covering technology, games and entertainment, music, home and gardens, sports, TV and film, real life, women’s lifestyle and B2B.


Depp to appeal libel judgment


Johnny Depp plans to appeal against a


high court libel judgment that found against him and vindicated a Sun article calling the Hollywood actor a ‘wife beater’. Depp said he


resigned from Harry Potter author JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts movies because of the judgment. He sued Sun publisher News Group Newspapers and its


executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article that referred to ‘overwhelming evidence’ that he had been violent


towards his then wife Amber Heard.


2020 GETTY IMAGES theJournalist | 07


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