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1968’, it says: “In 1945, even before the Nazis fell, the [UK] TUC was helping to re-establish effective union organisation in war-devastated Europe. The German union movement had been suppressed by Hitler and most leaders were annihilated. The general council was quick to respond to the call for advice in establishing the new German movement.”


Not only that but “the Germans,


freed from the hindrance of history and the problems of compromising between long-established unions, were able to build a model trade union movement reflecting the idea of one union for each major industry”. Roy Jones North Wales Coast branch


Play ball on referring to rugby union or league In Jonathan Sale’s excellent article about the BBC’s inaugural sports commentary you refer throughout to ‘rugby’. There is no such sport as rugby, but two sports that use the name rugby in their titles: rugby union and rugby league (in this case, you meant rugby union). Rugby union was the game of the


establishment played in public schools and universities from which the mainly working class game of rugby league broke away in 1895. They have different rules and different numbers of players. Tennis would not be mistaken for badminton and, although newspapers such as the Daily


Telegraph and the Daily Mail routinely use ‘rugby’ as shorthand for rugby union, The Journalist should insist on accuracy. The BBC always distinguishes between the two these days. It’s important politically too. Rugby league people do not like being linked to rugby union, the major sport of both the apartheid regime in South Africa and the collaborationist Vichy regime in wartime France (rugby league was banned under both these governments). Rugby league, on the other hand, gave Britain its first black captain of any national sports team (Clive Sullivan) and its first black coach (Ellery Hanley). Michael O’Hare Middlesex


Where are the quality images in The Journalist? I can’t be the only one disappointed with the content of The Journalist magazine? As a former full-time press


photographer for over 20 years and former newspaper picture editor, I find myself constantly shaking my head whilst flicking through the magazine as the pictures are so poor. Last month’s edition only had one page with two ‘news’ style images, one badly pixelated photo of Michelle Stanistreet and the other was badly exposed with half a head chopped off. It seems the content budget has gone the way of local papers, all the money going on the copy and nothing on


twitter feed Tweet us your feedback: @mschrisbuckley


kieran dodds @kierandodds Most insightful column I have read about journalism in ages. Outside the cosmopolitan media bubble “small-town journalists have a contact with people that bigger-time journalists rarely do” from The Journalist magazine. @NUJofficial @EvanstheAirwave @mschrisbuckley


Charlie Lait (@charlielait) 1/12/2018, 10:13


Glad I actually sat down and read @louisetickle’s story in @NUJofficial on #MeToo in media industry+what @the2ndsource is doing to support victims. Grateful to those who spoke for the piece @jennymco @EleanorMills +especially Noelle Jarvis for bravely talking about her assault pic.twitter.com/8xrvkPUFGd


quality images. Using Alamy photos is a way of filling the pages, but big headshots make for a dull design. Alamy had announced a few weeks


before I received the magazine that they were cutting commissions and the NUJ had called for them to reconsider. There was no mention of that in the magazine although it would have seen photographers’ Alamy income reduced by 20 per cent. Nor was there much about Johnston


Press which went into administration. That was the perfect opportunity to get someone to write a comment piece on the state of the industry.


The NUJ should be producing


something better. Paul Jacobs Gosport


The content budget of The Journalist


was last year cut by 15.6 per cent – equivalent to the total cost of one edition – because of renewed financial difficulties at the NUJ. Therefore, we cannot afford very much photography. The news photos you refer to are ©NUJ photos which were used on the website. You may not like big headshots but when a story is about an individual I’d argue they are entirely apposite.


STEVE BELL


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