KEVIN COOPER


inbrief... news


MAITLIS AT THE HELM OF BBC’S NEWSNIGHT Emily Maitlis has become the lead presenter for BBC Newsnight, with Radio 5 Live’s Emma Barnett joining an all-woman team alongside Kirsty Wark and editor Esmé Wren. Maitlis replaces Evan Davis, who moved to present Radio 4’s PM programme when long-serving presenter Eddie Mair moved to LBC.


MOVE FOR ‘SKETCH WRITER OF THINGS’ The Times’ Patrick Kidd has moved into a senior writer role at The Times after Quentin Letts took up the political sketch writer job that Kidd had previously held. Kidd has described himself as a “sketch writer of things other than politics” since Letts arrived at the paper.


TELEGRAPH EXPANDS ITS LUXURY BRAND The Telegraph is expanding its luxury lifestyle brand. Sasha Slater, head of magazines, is developing a membership programme and new digital offerings as part of Telegraph Luxury. She is no longer editing the Telegraph Magazine and has been replaced there by Marianne Jones, editor of Stella.


ECONOMIST REVAMPS LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE The Economist has relaunched its bi-monthly lifestyle publication 1843 (named after the year in which the current affairs magazine was founded). It says it aims to bring the rigour of the magazine to the areas of design, food and style.


JPI MEDIA SHAKES UP ITS INVESTIGATIONS JPI Media has reorganised its investigations team that works across the i and regional titles, appointing Claire Wilde as dedicated news editor. She is responsible for editing data and investigations at the publisher, working with a team of 10 reporters and correspondents from national and regional newspapers.


04 | theJournalist


Union backs Dublin’s University Times over investigation approach


THE NUJ’S ethics council has strongly defended the professional standards of The University Times, an independent newspaper published in association with Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union. Council chair Professor


Chris Frost described the way editorial staff investigated the practice of a secretive male-only society at the college, Dublin as being “beyond reproach and consistent with the highest professional standards of public interest, investigative journalism”. The investigation into activities by members of the Knights of Campanile was published in the March 19 edition of the newspaper. University Times reporters stood close to the


apartment of the society’s president and said that they overheard taunts, jeers and degrading insults as an initiation ritual was conducted. As a result of the investigation, The


University Times was accused of breaching ethical standards by the editor of rival newspaper Trinity News, while the students’


union called a referendum that could starve the newspaper out of existence. Chris Frost expressed grave concern at the


basis for the referendum and warned that forcing the newspaper to close would undermine the reputations of student journalism and of Trinity College Dublin. Frost is the former Head of Journalism at Liverpool John Moores University. He was chair of the Association for Journalism Education, which represents most schools of journalism in the UK and Ireland’s higher


education institutions. A recording device was left outside the


apartment. Editor Eleanor O’Mahony says it was intended for verification purposes – the door was wedged open and the ceremony was audible from the corridor. Chris Frost said: “It is perfectly acceptable journalism to use a tape recorder to record conversations that can be heard in a corridor. The overriding public interest is obvious, given that this is a high-profile society with a long history and large membership.”


“ Backing for documentary makers’


A LARGE number of supporters backed Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey outside a Belfast court hearing in March. The journalists were arrested and put on bail in August following their documentary No Stone Unturned on the murder of six men in Loughinisland. NUJ Irish secretary Seamus Dooley and Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty


International’s Northern Ireland programme director spoke at the event. Alison Millar, Irish Congress of Trade Unions vice president, also attended. Lawyers representing Trevor and Barry challenged the search warrants and


argued there was no evidence in the public interest to support the redactions made to the search warrant applications by Durham Constabulary and the Police Service of Northern Ireland. A battle journalism must win, Page 10


Welcome for Irish news group takeover


IRELAND’S LARGEST newspaper group – Independent News and Media – has been sold to Belgium’s Mediahuis. The NUJ has welcomed the


€145.6 million (£125.2 million) sale of the publisher of the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent, the Belfast Telegraph and many regional titles. Séamus


Dooley, NUJ Irish Secretary, said it “ends speculation about the future of the company. That uncertainty, against the backdrop of boardroom battles and the


surveillance of employees on the instruction of senior executives, has undermined the confidence of staff and been extremely damaging to morale.”


The overriding public interest is obvious, given that this is a high-profile society with a long history and la rge membership


Chris Frost, NUJ Ethics Council chair


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