The NUJ is compiling evidence to submit to a TUC commission on vulnerable workers. They would like to hear from any freelance workers on their experiences of being denied basic employment rights at work. If you have any experiences to share in confidence about abuses in the workplace please email campaigns@nuj.org.uk
Fancy being one of the President’s Men for the weekend? A Course is being run to develop and update investigative skills, and hear speakers including Seymour Hersh - who revealed the torture at Abu Ghraib - and David Leigh on BAE systems. Three days of intensive training with a reduced rate for NUJ members of £200, 20- 22 July at City University. For more information or to book visit www.tcij.org
Copies of the NUJ history are still available to buy online.The book tells the dramatic story of the union’s first 100 years. The book is published by Profile Books at £17.99 but is on offer to NUJ members for the special price of £10. To buy online there is an extra £2 charge for post and packaging, making the full price £12. Click here to place your order now!
This year is already on course to surpass 2006 as the deadliest year for journalists, as the plight of Alan Johnston shows, and many governments and even news organisations don’t appear to take this seriously.
According to the International News Safety Institute (INSI), 101 journalists and media staff lost their lives in the first six months of this year. Last year, 168 journalists were killed while on duty. Iraq is by far the deadliest country, accounting for 40% of fatalities.
“Journalists are in more danger now than ever before,” INSI director Rodney Pinder told the BBC . He said more attention needed to be given by media organisations to the security of their staff. Journalists are in more danger now than ever before Rodney Pinder, ISNI Director “The BBC is one the most careful organisations when it comes to ensuring the security of its journalists, but many others are not”, Mr Pinder said. INSI, which describes itself as “a non-governmental organisation dedicated to the safety of journalists and media staff and committed to fighting the persecution of journalists everywhere”, highlights the dangers facing journalists and the hotspots. Besides Iraq and the Middle East, danger zones include Somalia, the Philippines, Mexico, Colombia, Russia and Haiti. The number of journalists and media staff killed per year has risen sharply in the past five years, from 70 in 2002 to 168 in 2006 and, if current trends for the first half of 2007 are confirmed, it could go over the 200 mark.
Apart from murder, journalists face abductions, beatings, threats and acts of intimidation in most of the countries mentioned in the INSI statistics. Although the overall picture looks grim, Mr Pinder thinks there is some scope for optimism. “We have succeeded in persuading the UN Security Council to adopt in 2006 Resolution 1738, which condemns attacks against journalists in conflict situations,” he said. “We need to persuade governments to bring to justice all those who kill or assault journalists.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/6268864.stm
NUJ BRISTOL BRANCH MEETING; WEDNESDAY 11TH JULY 2007;
THE HUB, 35 KING STREET, BRISTOL, BS1 4DZ; 7PM.
Hello to all our members,
Our next NUJ Bristol Branch Meeting is on Wednesday 11th July 2007, 6.30pm for a 7pm start. We are having this meeting at a new venue, The Hub, 35 King Street, Bristol BS1 4DZ, which is two doors down from the Old Vic Theatre.
The Hub is part of a network of physical and virtual spaces connecting social innovators around the world, and provides office and meeting facilities. (http://www.the-hub.net). They have a bar onsite to buy drinks. After the meeting we can explore the delights of King Street on a summer evening.
This will be our first Branch meeting since our AGM in May. We will be taking forward our ideas and plans for the coming year, and hearing about what has been happening within the Branch, the Chapels, and Freelance issues.
We can also celebrate the news that NUJ recognition has finally been achieved at the Bristol Evening Post and the Western Daily Press. This is a major victory for union rights and will extend NUJ negotiating rights across both papers to cover all the company’s editorial staff.
There are also vacancies available on the NUJ’s Councils if anyone wants to be nominated. So please come along, share your thoughts and ideas and help make your union work for you!
We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday 11th July. You’ll be very welcome.
Anti-nuclear campaigner and whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has been sent back to jail for six months with a further six month suspended sentence, after giving interviews to journalists in the international media in breach of his parole conditions. These forbid him from talking to the press or having contact with foreign nationals.
“The International Federation of Journalists today condemned as “senseless and inhumane” the decision by an Israeli court to send Mordechai Vanunu, the man who told the world that Israel has developed nuclear weapons back to jail – three years after he ended an 18 year sentence for the original offence.
“Mordechai Vanunu has served his sentence and now he is being victimised for the crime of speaking to journalists,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. “It is senseless and inhumane to return him to prison because he acts according to conscience.”
While Israeli officials insist he still poses a security threat, Mordechai Vanunu says he does not want to divulge any more classified information about the Dimona nuclear plant where he worked. He is banned from leaving Israel but wants to start a new life abroad. His lawyer said that Vanunu was convicted for the mere act of speaking to non-Israelis, rather than the content of those conversations.
Despite the heavy price he had paid with his prison sentence he said he had no regrets.
http://ifj.org/default.asp?Index=5080&Language=EN http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6261204.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6607199.stm
The BBC correspondent Alan Johnston has been released at last after 114 days of captivity in Gaza. Having literally dreamt many times of being free during his “living nightmare” at the hands of his kidnappers the Army of Islam, only to find himself back in the same room upon waking, his dream of freedom is now a reality. The support of journalists around the world, including the BBC, the NUJ, and the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, global rallies and demonstrations around the world, and an online petition of 200,000 names in his support were a source of comfort to him. He was able to learn of efforts to free him by listening to the BBC World Service on radio.
At times Alan was hooded and handcuffed, kept in chains for 24 hours, and had what appeared to be an explosives belt put on him with his captors threatening to detonate it if they were attacked. He did not see the sun for several months and described his ordeal as “like being buried alive”.
The Army of Islam is a a shadowy militant group dominated by Gaza’s powerful Dugmush clan. After the Hamas takeover of Gaza, Alan Johnston’s kidnappers had become less comfortable and secure. Hamas demanded Alan’s release and he was handed over to their officials, holding a press conference with the former Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya from Hamas. Alan is now in the British Consulate in Jerusalem.
Jeremy Dear, NUJ General Secretary said: ““This is a dream come true. We have all campaigned, lobbied, appealed and worked for Alan’s release - and now we look forward to welcoming him home. “The criminals who abducted Alan should now face justice and a strong warning be sent to all those around the world who target journalists that such threats and actions will not go unpunished.
“Alan’s freedom is what we have wished for for the last 114 days - but we also know there are hundreds of other journalists in captivity around the world - we must redouble our efforts to secure their release too”.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6267928.stm http://ifj.org/default.asp?Index=5089&Language=EN http://www.nuj.org.uk/
NUJ members at two Bristol papers are celebrating after scoring a major victory for union rights.
Journalists at the Northcliffe-owned Evening Post and Western Daily Press voted 2:1 in favour of extending NUJ negotiating rights to cover all the company’s editorial staff.
Despite a fierce campaign by senior managers to prevent the NUJ from securing bargaining rights editorial staff voted 74-37 in favour of NUJ recognition in a ballot organised by the Central Arbitration Committee. NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: “I offer my congratulations to members at Bristol for the magnificent work and campaigning they have done to secure this fantastic result. It shows that even in the face of a concerted campaign by senior managers journalists can see that their interests are best protected by having a strong and active union presence.
“With poor pay and long hours all too often the norm for too many journalists staff in Bristol have given themselves the means to begin negotiating to improve their terms and conditions. The NUJ will be fully committed to providing support to the chapel to help them achieve real benefits for editorial staff”.
Press Freedom House, a safe house for exiled journalists, is to start in Bristol. The project, set up by Bristol-based Exiled Journalist Network (EJN), is based on the 15-bedroom Maison des Journalistes in Paris and has the support of Channel 4’s Lindsey Hilsum, who is also a patron of the 200 members of the EJN, and The Independent’s Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.
It will provide 6 to 8 beds and assistance to journalists who have been forced out of their own countries, says Bristol NUJ branch member Forward Maisokwadzo.
There is a story on the BBC website here.