The Journalist - October November 2015 by National Union of Journalists

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WWW.NUJ.ORG.UK | OCT-NOV 2015

changeoffocus Photographers under pressure

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Contents Main feature

14 Bringing down the shutters

Staff photographers are endangered

t’s not every day that the secretary of the NUJ parliamentary group becomes the leader of the Opposition. Many congratulations to NUJ member Jeremy Corbyn and his team for a truly remarkable campaign and victory. But should his resounding win have been as big a surprise as it was? In his feature ‘Why did no-one see the Corbyn train coming?’ Denis MacShane argues that political journalism is not keeping pace with big changes in political life. He says that political reporters really need to get out more and their news organisations need to give them the resources to do so. Resources, and the cutting and redeploying thereof, is the reason publishers often give for the massive downsizing – and sometimes elimination – of staff photography. Newsquest is currently cutting photographers’ jobs across the country as we report in our news section. And photographer Philip Wolmuth takes a close-up look at the state of photography in newspapers in our cover feature Bringing Down the Shutters. And we can’t and shouldn’t forget the BBC. Chris Coneybeer, a seasoned BBC correspondent, writes our Viewpoint column on why the BBC belongs to all of us. Our campaign to defend the BBC – Love it or Lose it – is growing. See what you can do to be part of it by emailing campaigns@NUJ.org.uk and let us know what you’re doing around the country.

Christine Buckley Editor @mschrisbuckley

Editor journalist@nuj.org.uk Design Surgerycreations.com info@surgerycreations.com Advertising Melanie Richards Tel: 01795 542417 ads@journalistmagazine.co.uk Print Warners www.warners.co.uk Distribution Packpost www.packpostsolutions.com

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News

03 BBC: Love it or lose it

Help defend broadcasting treasure

04 Opposing Welsh job targets

Politicians unite to support NUJ

05 Newsquest attacks photographers More jobs threatened by cuts

06 Reports from the TUC conference

News from the NUJ and 0ther unions

Features

10 Let’s go to Aberdeen

What it’s like to work in the Granite City

12 Why did no-one see the Corbyn train? Political journalism was wrong-footed

18 It’s a family affair

Challenges of reporting the family courts

Regulars 09 Viewpoint 17 NUJ and me 26 and finally

Arts with Attitude Pages 22-23

Raymond Snoddy Page 21

Letters & Steve Bell 24-25

news

Love it or Lose it: NUJ fights to save the BBC

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he NUJ, along with the Federation of Entertainment Unions, is ramping up its Love it or Lose it campaign to help protect the BBC. Amid continuous attacks on the corporation from many newspapers the union is trying to harness union and public support for the BBC as it faces charter renewal. The NUJ is urging branches and workplace chapels to link up with their local BBC chapel and hold public events in support of the BBC. The attacks on the BBC come from media groups and politicians opposed to its size and structure. On one day alone in the summer, the Sun had had three: Priest in blast at the BBC; Fury after BBC serve stars Wimbledon freebies; BBC chiefs search for £100,000-a-year PR guru. The government’s green paper made it clear it intends to cut the BBC down to size as a ‘narrowly-focused’ broadcaster. Culture secretary John Whittingdale has waded in by trying to interfere with the scheduling of Strictly Come Dancing and the News at Ten. The union, in public inquiries into the BBC’s future, has defended the BBC as excellent value at 40p a day for the four TV channels, 10 national radio stations, network of local radio stations, an internationally-acclaimed website, BBC Parliament, the World Service, S4C, BBC Monitoring and five orchestras and choirs.

L VE IT OR LOSE IT N UJ

in brief...

U N UJ N

The BBC is the largest single investor in TV news. Every £1 of licence fee spent by the network generates £2 of economic activity. The licence fee is the single biggest investor in the arts and creative industries and the biggest commissioner of new music in the world. It is free from shareholder pressure, advertiser influence and the chase for ratings. You can follow the campaign on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bbcloveitorloseit and on the NUJ website campaign page https://www.nuj.org.uk/campaigns/love-it-orlose-it/ For campaign materials please email campaigns@nuj.org.uk

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Every £1 of licence fee spent by the network generates £2 of economic activity

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Want to receive a print copy of The Journalist?

ew NUJ members will no longer receive automatically a print copy of The Journalist after a decision by the union’s executive council. However, if they or anyone else prefers to have a print magazine they can email journalist@nuj.org.uk and copies will be sent. Previously, when the union has encouraged members to take

the magazine online only, many people have subsequently contacted us to say they prefer print because they forget to open the online link; don’t have the time when the email is sent; simply prefer a print copy to read at more leisure; or want to take the magazine into their workplace to encourage others to join the NUJ. If you want a print copy or know anyone else that does please contact us.

CORBYN HAS A JIBE BACK AT THE MEDIA

eremy Corbyn began his first conference speech as Labour leader by making fun of media coverage of him. Mr Corbyn had been the subject of many negative stories in the run-up to his decisive election. He joked to delegates about reports that he

backed the planet’s annihilation by an asteroid, a story claiming the prospect of him in Number 10 would result in the end of the Premier League and the description of his chosen mode of transport as a “Chairman Mao style bicycle”. Mr Corbyn, an NUJ member and a

former long-standing secretary of the union’s parliamentary group, said that the former Labour leader Ed Milliband had also endured negative media coverage. Why did no-one see the Corbyn train coming? Page 12

NOBEL PRIZE FOR BELARUSIAN WRITER Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian journalist, won the Nobel Prize in literature. She has written about the collapse of the Soviet Union; the Second World War, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and Chernobyl.Her first novel, The Unwomanly Face Of The War, published in 1985 was based on stories of women who had fought against the Nazis. DAILY STAR WEEKDAY PRICE IS CUT TO 20P The Daily Star has halved its cover price on weekdays from 40p to 20p. But some newsagents have said that they won’t stock the title as they will now only get less than five pence per copy. Sales of the Daily Star stand at 416,800, down 11.6 per cent year on year. SUNDAY SHOWING FOR MORNING STAR The Morning Star was published for the first time on a Sunday last month. It was published on 13th September as a one-off so it could report the result of the Labour leadership election. The socialist daily was backing Jeremy Corbyn, the victor, for the leadership. Mr Corbyn writes a column for the newspaper. EX SUN EDITOR LEADS PR GROUP OUTSIDE Former Sun editor Dominic Mohan has become the new chief executive of PR firm the Outside Organisation. Mohan left The Sun to be a senior advisor to News Corp chief executive Robert Thompson in 2013. He worked for The Sun for 17 years and took over as editor from Rebekah Brooks in 2009. NEW FREE SPORTS TITLE IN THE WEST Two local newspaper journalists have launched a new free sports magazine for the West Country. XtraTime is a monthly title covering Bristol, Bath, Swindon, Gloucester and Cheltenham. It is run by Neil Beck, who was head of sport at the Bath Chronicle, and Andrew Kerslake who also worked for the Chronicle and has been a local cricket commentator for the BBC. theJournalist | 03

news

All parties oppose Trinity Mirror’s Welsh initiative

in brief... BBC IS URGED TO HELP HYPERLOCALS The BBC should help fund hyperlocal journalism, according to a report from Cardiff University and innovation charity Nesta. It says that urgent intervention is needed to ensure that hyperlocal journalism can become financially sustainable. It suggests that the BBC could buy content from the 500-plus hyperlocal websites and to more actively link to them. NUNEATON LOSES ONE OF ITS FREE WEEKLIES Trinity Mirror has closed one of Nuneaton’s two free newspapers – the Tribune. Last year, the Tribune’s circulation was reduced from 35,000 to 15,000. Nuneaton is now left with Local World’s free weekly paper the Nuneaton News which has a circulation of 30,000. EASTBOURNE TO GET NEW WEEKLY TITLE... Newsquest is planning to launch a free weekly newspaper in Eastbourne to compete with two paid-for weeklies published by Johnston Press. The move follows Johnston Press’s purchase of a free weekly newspaper in Brighton where Newsquest operates the Argus. ...AND A RELAUNCH INTO BROADSHEET The Eastbourne Gazette is following the move by the Wall Street Journal and is to relaunch as a broadsheet paper. Gary Shipton, editor of Johnston Press Sussex titles, said the move was in response to readers’ wishes and that the paper would include more features, news and information. MAKEOVER FOR 10-YEAR-OLD CITY AM City AM, the free London financial newspaper, marked its 10th birthday with a redesign. The new look for the newspaper also features what it says is it first leader column. Christian May, who became editor in September, said: “After ten years of delivering the sharpest news, analysis and views, we now have an equally smart and sharp layout.” 4 | theJournalist

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It reflects the widespread concern that individual ‘click’ targets for journalists will lead to a race to the bottom in terms of quality

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ll the major political parties in Wales have united to condemn Trinity Mirror’s plans to give journalists individual audience targets. Trinity Mirror plans to give journalists individual audience growth targets and to make more job cuts as part of its Connected Newsroom plan. It owns the Western Mail, South Wales Echo and other titles in Wales. Martin Shipton, chair of the NUJ’s Trinity Mirror group chapel, said: “We are grateful for the support offered to our campaign by all four parties represented in the National Assembly. It reflects the widespread concern that individual ‘click’ targets for journalists will lead to a race to the bottom in terms of quality. “A sustainable future for media groups like Trinity Mirror will be determined by the level of their commitment to high quality journalism, not by a crude measure of website clicks from no matter where and no matter whom.” Ann Jones, Labour Party Welsh Assembly Member, said: “We are concerned that proposals to assess content and journalists based on the number of ‘clicks,’ will inevitably incentivise journalists to steer away from more complicated stories as well as changing the way they cover stories, potentially solely focusing on more ‘sensational’ elements. “We urge Trinity Mirror to reconsider

and discuss these matters further with its employees in Wales.” Andrew Davies, a Conservative member, said: “Placing an emphasis on ‘popularity’ above public interest sets a precedent that will be difficult to reverse. “I don’t doubt that a list of celebrity fashion faux-pas would attract more clicks than a thoughtful analysis of the Welsh government’s proposals for council reorganisation – but which is more important?’’ Simon Thomas, a Plaid Cymru member, said: “The diktat coming out of the Canary Wharf headquarters of Trinity Mirror is aimed at boosting the website clicks at Wales Online, yet it is once again cutting the workforce at Wales’s largest newspaper centre.’’

Fall in the numbers of journalists

he number of employed journalists in the UK has dropped by 6,000 from a peak of 70,000 in 2013. The latest figures from the Labour Force Survey, for the year to June 2015, estimate that 64,000 people are “journalists, newspaper and periodical editors”. This is a slight increase on the figure for the year to June 2014 of 60,000, but still a decline on the 2013 total. Those people describing themselves as “public relations professionals” has jumped from 37,000 in 2013 to 55,000 in the last data. The Labour Force Survey found that of the 64,000 journalists: 40,000 are employed full-time and 5,000 are employed part-time; 8,000 are self-employed full-time; and 10,000 are self-employed part-time. The Labour Force Survey is based on a quarterly sample of approximately 100,000 people.

HAPPINESS IN THE NEWSROOM

early nine out of 10 journalists say that they enjoy their job, according to a survey by Press Gazette. The result comes from an anonymous online questionnaire that was

answered by more than 700 journalists. In response to the question “Do you enjoy your job?” some 611 (87.6 per cent) said yes and 86 said no. Of those surveyed, 677

rated their place of work out of 10. Some 43.3 per cent gave a mark of seven or eight. At the top and bottom of the rankings, some 8.6 per cent awarded their workplace a 10 and 3.5 per cent gave it a one.

news

Newsquest takes axe to photographers’ jobs

ore photographers’ jobs are being cut by the regional publisher Newsquest in a move that the NUJ has warned is undermining journalism. The company intends to reduce the pictures department at the Brighton Argus from three full-time photographers to one full-time picture editor as part of its policy to use readers’ pictures and freelance contributions. It is also cutting up to nine jobs at titles in York, Bradford and Darlington with each centre keeping just one picture co-ordinator. The titles affected include the Bradford Telegraph and Argus, The Northern Echo in Darlington, and The Press in York. And in Southampton, following the abolition of the posts of picture editor and deputy picture editor at the Southern Daily Echo, three staff photographers are at risk of redundancy with only one position to be retained. The NUJ chapel in Darlington said: “The centre will have lost six out of seven photographers in less than a year, leaving only one photographer in place in a newly-created ‘co-ordinator’ role. It is a further blow to the editorial department, which is already

reeling from the consequences of staff cuts during the year.” Chris Morley, NUJ Northern and Midlands organiser, said: “Newsquest is clearly stripping away its support for quality, professional staff photography. This leaves this business reliant on the public or submitted pictures from vested interests or freelance photographers, often those it has made redundant. “This is detrimental to the journalism being produced because independence of content creation is compromised. Reporters cannot, and will not, take up the slack as they do not have the time and have not had the training or support or equipment. This represents Newsquest completing the first part of making its news an amateur pursuit.” Bringing the Shutters Down, page 14

in brief...

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Newsquest is clearly stripping away its support for quality, professional staff photography

”

ANGER AS EXPRESS PROFITS JUMP TENFOLD

orthern & Shell, owner of the Daily and Sunday Express and Star newspapers, has come under fire from its journalists after reporting an almost tenfold increase

in pre-tax profits year to £333.7 million for last year but still offering staff no pay rise. A spokesman for the Express Newspapers NUJ chapel said: “Even very senior executives on

our four titles have been spitting blood after seeing these figures. Neither they nor the rest of the staff have had even a cost of living rise since April 2008. As a consequence, most of us are

around 20 per cent worse off. Experienced journalists with years of service on national newspapers are having to remortgage or downsize just to pay the bills.”

NUJ

Go-ahead for the NUJ’s redevelopment

lans to redevelop the NUJ’s London headquarters are to go ahead after Camden Council granted planning permission for the project that will include a café and drop-in media centre along with refurbished office space. The union’s NEC backed the plans, which are designed to

utilise a large surplus which has built up, and increase the value of Headland House in King’s Cross. Headland House has five floors but the union has been letting out two floors because staff numbers have reduced. The union is now putting the construction work out to tender.

BUZZFEED RECRUITS MORE BRITISH STAFF Buzzfeed is expanding its British editorial team by more than a quarter. It is hiring 14 new positions including four “regional beat reporter” positions. The US news organisation, which began in 2006, was launched in the UK in March 2013 with three editorial staff. This number has now grown to around 50 before the latest round of recruitments. FROM TIME OUT NYC TO EMPIRE MAGAZINE Time Out New York editor-in-chief Terri White is to be the new editor of Empire magazine. She replaces Morgan Rees, who left Empire’s publisher Bauer Media in the summer after becoming Empire editor-in-chief last year. Ms White is a former editor of Shortlist and The Sun’s Buzz and a deputy editor of Maxim. BBC LONDON RADIO ENDS THE REBRANDS The BBC’s local radio station for London has returned to its original name, BBC Radio London after more than 25 years. The station, whose last name was BBC London 94.9, relaunched as GLR in 1988, featuring a line-up including Chris Evans and Danny Baker. STERN BECOMES THE NEW HIGH PAY CHIEF Stefan Stern, the business and management writer and visiting professor at Cass Business School, is the new head of the High Pay Centre, the group which argues for greater pay equality. He has also worked for the FT. NUJ BACKS VANUNU’S BID TO LEAVE ISRAEL The NUJ is backing a request by Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu to leave Israel. He is an honorary member of the NUJ and the union has supported him since he was abducted from Rome by Mossad agents and taken to Israel where he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for telling the Sunday Times about Israel’s secret nuclear programme. He was released in 2004. theJournalist | 5

tuc news in brief... UK ‘SHAME’ OVER REFUGEE CRISIS The Government’s response to the refugee crisis had been ‘shameful’. It should work with other EU member states to establish Europe-wide evacuation and resettlement, the TUC decided. Britain should make tens of thousands of refugees welcome whether from camps in the Middle East or Europe and fully fund refugee resettlement, avoiding extra pressure on poorer inner-city communities. JOINT ACTION CALL IN PUBLIC SECTOR Delegates called for ‘co-ordinated industrial action and mass demonstrations’ in protest at the public sector pay freeze which has been extended until 2019. PCS civil service union general secretary Mark Serwotka called for a repeat of the kind of action taken against pension cuts in 2011 when more than two million workers went on strike. STATE SHOULD TAKE STAKE IN ROYAL MAIL The Government and postal workers should take a stake in the Royal Mail, the TUC affirmed. A resolution called on ministers to protect daily postal deliveries and stop private operators ‘cherry picking’ profitable rounds. CALL TO ONE-NATION PARLIAMENTARIANS “The new Trade Union Bill and imminent threats to the Human Rights Act represent a spiteful and ideological attack on rights and freedoms that must have Disraeli and Churchill spinning in their graves,” director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti told delegates. She urged ‘one nation’ parliamentarians to defeat them. OLD ETONIAN IN MANNERS SHOCK TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady, who represents unions covering more than six million workers, revealed that she had written to Prime Minister David Cameron requesting a meeting to discuss the economy. “Nearly 18 weeks later I still haven’t had the courtesy of a reply.” 6 | theJournalist

Union bill may be illegal, says new Labour leader

he Tories’ draconian Trade Union Bill could well be unlawful under the European Convention on Human Rights, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told TUC delegates. Speaking at the annual conference in Brighton, Mr Corbyn, an NUJ member, said the Government had declared war on organised labour and the party would fight it all the way. Mr Corbyn told Congress: “It is quite interesting how the Tories champion deregulation wherever regulation is ever mentioned. How many times have we heard that, ministers for deregulation, departments for deregulation, ministers who will tear up all regulations? “But one thing they really want to regulate is organised

labour and the trade unions in this country. I think that sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, don’t you?” He quoted Tory MP David Davis who said that some of the proposals were reminiscent of Franco’s Spain. Pickets would be obliged to give their names and addresses to the police and the introduction of tight

restrictions on the use of social media during disputes. Unions would be required to give 14 days’ notice that they intend to use Twitter, Facebook, websites and blogs during strikes. They will also have to set out what they intend to say in such postings and indicate whether they are going to use ‘loudspeakers, props, banners etc’ on picket lines. Unions would face unquantified fines if they infringed such regulations. Mr Corbyn said: “Are we really going to have teams of civil servants or lawyers or police or somebody trawling through massive numbers of twitter messages, Facebook messages, to find something somebody said about their employer or about an industrial dispute?”

WE MIGHT HAVE TO FLOUT LAW

he leader of Britain’s largest union warned the Government that the labour movement might defy the proposed trade union legislation. Raising the possibility in a keynote speech to congress, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said the Suffragettes were right to

flout the law in Britain 100 years ago and so were African-Americans fighting for equality in the southern states of the USA in the ‘60s. “Our history, and that of the world, is littered with brave men and women who have defied bad laws and who fought and yes died to

ALL IMAGES MARK THOMAS

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It is quite interesting how the Tories champion deregulation wherever regulation is ever mentioned

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give us our heritage,” he said. Congress unanimously passed a resolution declaring that the bill was an attempt to ‘outlaw legitimate protest, stifle free speech and choke off the resources of political opponents’.

Don’t take pro-EU vote for granted

he TUC reserved the right to oppose EU membership if David Cameron succeeds in watering down workers’ rights. A statement agreed by congress said the TUC would campaign against attempts to undermine ‘social Europe’, adding that votes of trade unionists could not ‘be taken for granted’. The position was a compromise between a GMB general union motion explicitly calling for

a No vote if Cameron succeeded, which was withdrawn, and one from shopworkers’ union Usdaw urging a Yes vote, which was remitted. GMB general secretary Paul Kenny told delegates: “Whatever the great vision of a democratic European Union was, what we have is not it.” But Usdaw leader John Hannett said: “Many of the protections against discrimination at work all flow from staying in.”

tuc news

BBC got just 10 minutes to agree massive cuts

he BBC is facing the biggest threat in its history at the hands of the Government, NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet warned TUC delegates. The corporation had allowed itself to be browbeaten in recent licence fee negotiations by the ‘bully

boy’ tactics of Chancellor George Osborne, Michelle told the opening session of the Congress. Proposing a motion aimed at protecting the integrity of the corporation, she said the settlement was reached in secret with a ‘gun placed to the head’ of director general

Tony Hall, who was, she understood, given 10 minutes to rubberstamp a deal or face even deeper cuts. Michelle said licence-fee payers had never been asked whether the BBC should only create content that the ‘market’ couldn’t be bothered with. And they had never been asked whether they backed cuts and job losses that would inevitably lead to parts of the BBC shutting down, poorer quality programming and poorer journalism. She said the NUJ was challenging the Government’s idea of forcing the BBC to take on responsibility for a welfare benefit – free licences for the over 75s – through a judicial review.

She added: “The BBC is ours. It’s not this Government’s, it doesn’t belong to the trust or to the organisation’s executive board. It’s ours.” Musicians Union general secretary John Smith said: “The BBC is one of the jewels in our culture, we cannot let the Tories tear it apart.” Delegates passed a resolution declaring that the deal would have a ‘catastrophic impact’, causing the privatisation of parts of the service. The Reithian values of ‘informing, educating and entertaining’ were in danger of being abandoned by those who fail to value a public service that was respected and loved around the world, the motion said. Congress called on the TUC to campaign vigorously to defend ‘the integrity, the breadth and the future of the BBC’.

Spooks draw up list of suspect journalists

he security services are probably keeping a secret ‘blacklist’ of journalists, a senior NUJ activist told the conference. Speaking to a motion condemning blacklisting – largely involving trade unionists in construction – Anita Halpin said the NUJ had grave concerns about the covert surveillance of journalists. Anita, who said that her husband Kevin had been blacklisted in the 60s by engineering employers, told how the NUJ had taken legal action on behalf of six NUJ members who had been monitored by the Metropolitan Police.

She said that all six had worked to expose corporate and state misconduct. When the journalists gained access to their files they discovered their sexual orientation, ex-partners’ names and in one instance a family member’s medical history had been recorded. Anita said the NUJ would be seeking core participant status at the Pitchford Inquiry into undercover policing. The union would be campaigning to ensure the law is sufficiently robust to allow journalists to work ‘freely, unfettered and without fear’.

BACKING FOR LOCAL NEWS CAMPAIGN

he TUC pledged unanimous support to the NUJ’s Local News Matters campaign. Proposing the motion, NUJ jointpresident Andy Smith said: “Local newspapers provide a vital part of the glue that holds our communities together.” Without quality local news coverage, power would not be held to account, he said. The motion acknowledged that the Government had drawn up proposals

to support local newspapers through business rate relief, but said that the move fell far short of the inquiry into their future called for by last year’s congress. Congress welcomed the crossparty support from London Assembly members for journalists involved in disputes at Newsquest in London and backed the idea of further work by the London Assembly into the health of local newspapers in the capital.

in brief... ‘PREVENT’ STRATEGY BOOSTS EXTREMISM The Government’s counterextremist Prevent strategy is partly responsible for the rise in extremism among young people, according to teachers’ union NASUWT. A resolution which was passed unanimously by TUC delegates warned that the strategy ‘could destroy relationships between teachers and learners’. Provisions requiring teachers to report pupils to the police could destroy open discussion, the motion argued. EXPORT BENEFITS FROM ARTS OUTPUT Congress called on the Government to restore arts funding by central and local government to its level prior to the 2010 emergency budget. A motion from Bectu pointed out that the creative industries account for nine per cent of all UK exports. STORM OVER BBC’S MET OFFICE MOVE Congress urged ministers to intervene over the BBC’s decision not to renew its weather forecasting contract with the Met Office. The resolution, which was tabled by scientists’ union Prospect, said that the decision showed ‘blatant disregard for the scientific skills and experience of Met Office staff’. BLACK FIREFIGHTERS UNDER SUSPICION Workers have been prevented from doing their jobs by racist stop and search methods used by the police, the conference heard. Fire Brigades Union delegate Micky Nicholas said police officers attending fires had often questioned the authenticity of black firefighters. RMT TAKES SAFETY A STEP FURTHER The RMT transport union gave away 5,000 condoms on the Brighton seafront outside the conference. The packets were emblazoned with the slogan ‘Be safe, be in a union’. Some delegates were reported to be taking as many as 10 each. theJournalist | 7

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08 | theJournalist

Standing up for you

viewpoint Chris Coneybeer fears for the future of a cherished institution

The BBC belongs to us, not to politicians

ll I wanted to say was: “Get your hands off! Leave my BBC alone!” That was my reaction to the various consultations presently reviewing the future of the BBC. But of course you have to say a bit more than that. The forces of political ideology and commercial interest are threatening what for most of us is something quite precious. And that makes me angry. I don’t work for it anymore so I don’t have to say this. But the fact is, I love the BBC. I know it has its faults. I’ve spent much of my career criticising the way it’s run and the people who run it. Sometimes we’ve been led with intelligence and wisdom. Sometimes, senior management have behaved as though living in a privileged world of their own. Thousands of jobs have been lost in recent years and the remaining staff required to work even harder to make up the difference. And they’ve responded as they always have by putting their work responsibilities before their personal wellbeing. Not for the first time we also find ourselves – as members of the NUJ – arguing the BBC’s case for it. It is almost beyond belief that the BBC accepted the licence fee freeze and the extra cost of funding the World service, S4C and more. And now, incredibly, it’s agreed to fund the over-75s licence, something the NUJ is quite rightly challenging through the courts. And with the Charter Review, the forces of evil are seeking more ways to reduce the “size and scope” of the BBC. The BBC is at risk but its survival is vitally important. It is part of the daily lives of almost everyone in the UK. We need to make it clear to every single MP that it is not their BBC, it is

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The BBC’s enemies are big. And nasty. They have an agenda and will pursue it ruthlessly

8 For all the latest news from the NUJ go to www.nuj.org.uk

Chris Coneybeer is a former BBC correspondent.

MARK THOMAS

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ours! When politicians say it’s too big, I say: “Too big for what?” And when they say some programmes are suitable for public funding and some not, I say: “That’s none of your business! Who are you as politicians to tell me or anyone else what I should or should not be receiving through the licence fee?” Nor must we allow them to use past errors by the corporation to justify damaging change to what many regard as the world’s leading broadcaster. It matters on so many levels. The Beeb tells us what’s happening around the world and at home and why. It brings us amusement. And it actually affects people’s lives. BBC local radio for some older people is a lifeline. They might not see anyone at all some days. But they hear the voices they know and that keep them company, keep them going. It sounds pathetic but it’s true and it matters. We need to alert the public. Mostly, they’re not aware of what is going on. One day, people will wake up, find that a programme, channel or entire service they used to like has gone. Too late by then. The recent “British, Bold and Creative” document proposes cutting some existing services for ill-thought out new ones which would be funded by the BBC and given free to other organisations. Vague ideas our leaders hope will pacify the enemies of the BBC. But it won’t. The BBC’s enemies are big. And nasty. They

have an agenda and will pursue it ruthlessly. The people who run the BBC should stand up for it, not seek appeasement. They should tell the Government the BBC is not too big, that it provides what people want and that people like it. Love it, actually. The BBC doesn’t belong to politicians. It belongs to the people who pay for it. It is my BBC, thank you very much. And everyone else’s. So kindly get your hands off it!

theJournalist | 9

Linda Harrison chips away at the Granite City to find that the newsbeat includes oil, Balmoral and Donald Trump’s golf course

19TH ERA 2 / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

10 | theJournalist

he Lonely Planet describes Aberdeen as a place that people either love or hate. ‘While some extol the many tones and colours of Aberdeen’s granite buildings, others see only uniform grey and find the city grim and cold,’ it states. ‘The weather doesn’t help: Aberdeen lies on a latitude north of Moscow and the cutting wind and driving rain (even if it does transform the buildings into sparkling silver) can be tiresome.’ According to journalists in the Granite City, the weather can certainly be a challenge. But look beyond the wind and rain and it has plenty to offer. “We often get four seasons in one day,” says freelance editor Katherine Trail. “Being right by the sea, one has to get used to having a windswept barnet much of the time. When the sun

does come out though, the city is glorious, mainly due to the vast amount of granite buildings that sparkle when the sun shines on them and the lovely parks dotted all around.” Iain Hepburn, a former Aberdeen journalist, says the city could be described as “grey” – but not in a dull sense. “The combination of overcast skies and granite buildings does give it a decidedly monochrome feel,” he explains. “It’s cold and miserable at times weather-wise. But the city itself has a weird sort of charm, and once you’re outside the boundaries into Aberdeenshire it’s beautiful – lots of coastline, countryside and hills to explore.” Indeed, in 2012, Lonely Planet rated Aberdeen the fifth most ‘unsung’ destination in the world, praising its ‘stately’ university and twomile beach. Katherine adds: “I’m originally from Glasgow, so the thought of moving up to the frozen north was a bit daunting at first and I worried it would be a shock to the system. However, I was happy to discover that Aberdeen is a vibrant and interesting city in which to live, and importantly for me as a former newspaper chief sub-editor and now freelance editor, has an incredibly rich media scene.” DC Thomson is the main media employer in the city. It owns major newspaper titles The Press and Journal and Evening Express. Daily morning newspaper the Press and Journal – or P&J – was established in 1747 and claims to be Scotland’s oldest newspaper. Some famous names have worked at the paper, including new Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who was a trainee at the Press and Journal. He went on strike over union recognition for the NUJ while working there. Radio 4 Today presenter Jim Naughtie also started his career at the paper. Other DC Thomson titles include free paper the Aberdeen Citizen. Meanwhile, both STV and the BBC have offices in the city. STV produces broadcast and digital news while BBC Scotland has news, radio and TV production in the city. Local radio includes independently owned Original 106 and Bauer’s Northsound. Magazines in the area include Leopard, a glossy title for north-east Scotland covering news, culture and history that’s owned by the University of Aberdeen. Iain, previously digital editor at Aberdeen Journals –

news hub Words from the streets running their oil industry website Energy Voice – says it’s a busy news patch. “Within fifty miles or so you’ve agriculture, high technology, the Royal Family at Balmoral, Donald Trump’s very controversial golf course and the fishing sector. And the core of the UK’s oil and gas industry alongside your busy traditional city beats like crime and local government. “I learned my trade in Aberdeen as a trainee in the 90s, and it’s always been a busy beat. There are a lot of diverse issues to cover, so hacks shouldn’t be short of a story. In terms of

Where the work is D C Thomson:

About 350 employees in its Lang Stracht office in the Mastrick area of the city, plus regional offices. The company produces a range of titles, including The Press and Journal, Evening Express, free newspaper the Aberdeen Citizen and Scot-Ads. The Press & Journal has six daily editions, circulated across the north and northeast of Scotland, including Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Inverness and the Highlands (with Orkney and Shetland). DC Thomson also has national weekly titles the Sunday Post and The Weekly News. Its online title, Energy Voice, is an extension of The Press and Journal’s monthly Energy supplement. The company moved printing from Aberdeen to Dundee a couple of years ago.

BBC:

A total of about 40 staff and freelance work across news, radio and TV. The

Aberdeen office produces a range of broadcast programmes, including music, history and lifestyle, as well as having links with independent media companies in the wider area. The news team file stories for network, BBC Radio Scotland, Reporting Scotland and online and produce local opt-out radio bulletins. History programmes are produced in Aberdeen plus BBC Scotland’s countryside magazine programme Landward. Radio output includes local stalwart Robbie Shepherd’s Take the Floor and international music series Travelling Folk.

STV:

About 40 staff producing broadcast and digital news for STV North. STV also won its bid for City TV in Aberdeen (it already has the STV Glasgow and STV Edinburgh channels). It aims to launch its Aberdeen channel in early 2016.

outlets you’re limited – the agencies hoover up the bulk of the content for the nationals, with very few of them having a permanent presence up there now.” Fiona Stalker, a BBC Scotland TV and radio journalist and also a presenter, says the political scene in the city is rarely dull. She says: “I cover anything from politics, to oil and gas stories, to flooding, to aggressive seagulls. Anything the news throws up! The local council has made some controversial decisions over the years, which have made national headlines. It has some strong characters MP and MSP-wise, which also makes it interesting.” Stephen Walsh, a reporter at The Press & Journal, says Aberdeen and north-east Scotland played an important part in the lead-up to both the referendum and the general election. He adds: “There’s a good network of people working here as PRs and in communications who have worked for the P&J or the Evening Express. They are generally more understanding and helpful than the people I have dealt with in previous years.”

way from work, one downside is property prices. The city’s selling point of Europe’s oil capital means it attracts a lot of well-paid oil executives, which means high property prices. “Although stabilising in recent years, buying a property in Aberdeen itself can be out of reach for many – especially those on a journalist’s salary – and even rental prices can make the eyes water,” explains Katherine. “Suburbia and surrounding towns do offer slightly cheaper options, but be prepared to pay big if you want to live right in the city centre.” The city’s not short of places to eat and drink either, with a vibrant bar and club culture. Katherine says she’s continually amazed by the wealth and diversity of bars and restaurants to be found within a relatively short distance. And it’s not all granite. “Aberdeen has some of the most beautiful parks and green spaces I’ve ever seen in a city,” says Fiona. “From the busy city centre you can be at Aberdeen beach within about five minutes. The harbour mouth is one of the best places in Europe to spot dolphins from.” Meanwhile, the surrounding countryside is a big bonus, with some of the best scenery and walking routes in Scotland. The Royal Family have been holidaying in Royal Deeside since the middle of the 19th century – the area was a particular favourite with Queen Victoria. Katherine adds: “Overall, the positives far outweigh the negatives for me and I really do enjoy living in Aberdeen. It’s a beautiful city with a close-knit and vibrant media industry.”

Stephen Walsh, Press & Journal reporter:

“The people here seem proud to be from Aberdeen. I would say more so than in Glasgow, where there has only recently been a bit of a surge in the wake of the Commonwealth Games/Clutha disaster.”

Fiona Stalker, BBC journalist and presenter:

“The beach is a big draw, miles of sand along the beachfront running along to the sand dunes of Balmedie. The city has abundant and highclass golf courses too. People often remark on the good quality of life.”

Iain Hepburn, ex-digital editor at the Journal

“It’s a very odd city at times - there’s areas of real poverty and neglect, yet the city is supposedly bulging with wealth from oil. It makes coming into Aberdeen very hard - oil money skews property prices and travel costs.”

Katherine Trail, freelance editor:

“Royal Deeside is truly stunning, and I count myself lucky to live so nearby.”

theJournalist | 11

Denis MacShane says that the new politics needs new political journalism

Why did no-one see the Corbyn train coming? S

o why didn’t they see Jeremy coming? There can be few bigger failures in political journalism in recent years than the failure of the press to analyse the profound changes in the political landscape that have given rise to the Corbyn earthquake. It is all the more odd as Corbyn was secretary of the NUJ group in the Commons which tries to reach out to the hundreds of political correspondents and reporters registered in the Westminster Lobby and get them to take an interest in the worries and concerns the union has about problems and assaults by government and media-owners on journalists and their profession. It is part of the wider problem that just as politics doesn’t seem to be working so too is political journalism unable to adjust to the needs of modern citizens. This is not about the diligence and integrity of most journalists who write on politics. But they are trapped in old structures like waiters in a greasy spoon café who work hard and serve ageing customers well but cannot work out why everyone is in Itsu, Pret a Manger or Café Nero. Already the papers have type-casted Corbyn as either the mad leftist peacenik as unelectable as George Lansbury in the 1930s or Michael Foot in the 1980s or the decent doddering do-gooding evangelist of lost causes unlikely to lay a finger on the ex-Bullingdon clubbers who govern us. Corbyn is the antithesis of Westminster politics. He is right on much of his analysis about poverty, inequality and systemic unfairness in much of the economy and society though his challenge will not be to interpret the world but offer policies that can change it on the basis of attracting more voters than the Tories or SNP. But a political culture is shaped by its interpreters. Politics is what people are told it is. The commentators can sometimes be political loyalists with laptops – can it really be right that a major commentary perch is occupied by someone who takes the Tory whip in the Lords? – or those who cannot get over their own brilliance in writing PPE essays in Oxford as they strive for contrarian effect and cute conclusions. 12 | theJournalist

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A standard MP’s joke is that the best way to keep a secret is to make a speech in the Commons

At times every comment article appears to have been written by Sir Maxwell Jenkins or Sir Simon Hastings – or is it the other way round? – and other than the ubiquitous Owen Jones the commentators seem to have remained unchanged or unrenewed since the days of John Major and John Smith. But the bigger problem is the failure to report politics outside the narrow confines of the Commons. Even inside Westminster there is no reporting of what is said in the Chamber outside the pantomime of prime minister’s questions. A standard MP’s joke is that the best way to keep a secret is to make a speech in the Commons. In fact, there is a great deal of potentially first-rate stories in day-to-day parliamentary proceedings in the Chamber itself, in committee hearings and the many fascinating and newsworthy meetings addressed by outside speakers, specialists and campaigners who speak in Westminster. The Press Gallery is like the summit of Everest, empty save for a few minutes once a week. The excellent Hansard team puts speeches up very fast now and the best political reporting are the rolling blogs by journalists like the Andrew Sparrow in the Guardian who can do all his work without setting foot in Westminster. In fact, the political reporting class is just as much part of the bubble as the MPs they decry. The unelected Lords where rich men can buy the right to be a legislator by writing a big enough cheque is not so much a story as a scandal but as long as proprietors and senior journalists have the prospect of ermine in front of their noses the Lords will never face scrutiny. The best political stories are not in Westminster but buried deeper in political structures. The tabloid press love scandals about politicians – from pigs’ heads to snorting coke off a woman’s breasts – which titillate but do not alter the balance of power and between those with money and authority and the other 99 per cent of the population. The biggest political upheaval is not Jeremy Corbyn’s arrival as Labour leader but the mammoth geo-political, economic and UK constitutional upheaval that will follow a vote to leave the European Union. There are plenty of comments on Europe, mainly hostile in

political journalism mark thomas

the offshore-owned press, but no reporting on what has been happening within the Conservative Party or the exact nature of the new populist xenophobic Eurosceptic ideology that has sunk deep roots. There are academic commentators such as Professor Matthew Goodwin who predicted the arrival of a number of UKIP MPs in this year’s general election. Goodwin has many useful insights but he has almost an exclusive franchise on discussing the issue because papers don’t allocate resources to anything outside Westminster or the transplanted Westminster bubble events such as party conferences. Since the death of Hugo Young there is no major journalist writing on politics who stand backs to analyse and make judgments based on wide reading and interviewing. The Hugo Young Papers published after his death, showed the extraordinary detail of his reporting work as he interviewed and checked facts and arguments. As a result a Hugo Young column had real authority all the more so as when you began reading it you were never quite sure where he would take you. Most citizens live in a multi-hued landscape and make a variety of often contradictory choices. So to read that anything a Labour (insert Tory as you please) government/ party does or says is all bad or all good just does not make sense to ordinary voters. But it seems impossible for anyone writing on politics to admit that some government measures or reform may make sense if they are proposed by Blues not the Reds and vice versa. It is so much easier to take the pre-digested media release from the party or government spokesperson, get a quote or two, snap out a tweet and prepare for the real work of the day – going on 24 hour TV to discuss the political stories your friends have decided to write. In the past, the New Statesman or the Spectator, were seized upon because they reported politics that was not covered in the daily press and their editors cultivated fine writing. Now all the weekly and monthly political journals just seem the same as the daily and Sunday papers. Good prose has been relegated and wordmakers like Christopher Hitchens or Frank Johnson are in their pantheon not appearing in print. Meanwhile, out in the real country, politics is evolving. UKIP, the SNP, the Corbyn surge, Tory liberals, even in their day the Greens and BNP are altering the political landscape but because the electoral system gives them little or no voice in Westminster the deeper texture of politics is simply not reported. This is worrying as a dialogue between citizens and MPs mediated by thoughtful journalists is essential to democracy. Maybe it doesn’t matter. National politics is less and less important as power has gone to money, to Google, and moved offshore. And yet we still need government and it will choose how to spend 40-50 per cent of national income. There is a new way of doing politics in which the political journalists bemused by their Trollope style focus on an empty Commons or the gossip in Portcullis House seem badly out-of-touch. But this new politics does not yet have a new political journalism. As a result the public is ill-served. Denis MacShane is a former Labour MP and journalist. theJournalist | 13

Staff photographers are an endangered species. Philip Wolmuth looks at why their numbers have fallen so sharply

ast year a remarkable picture of the staff photographers on the Daily Express appeared on the letters page of The Journalist. The black and white image, taken in 1960 and shot school photo style, was not remarkable for its composition or technique, but because of how many staffers were lined up in front of the camera: 64 of them. Today the paper has two. This change is not unique to the Express. The number of full-timers employed on national papers has been falling for years, but has plummeted over the last ten. There are now fewer than 20, excluding those at the Daily Mirror, whose regionally based team of 13 work across both regional and national titles in the Trinity Mirror group. Several nationals, including the FT, the Telegraph and the Independent, have none. Much of the work once done by salaried employees is now done by freelances, or bought in from the big picture agencies, one area of the industry that has not seen extensive job losses. Recent years have also seen waves of photographer and editorial redundancies in all the major regional publishing groups, as many titles have been restructured or shut down. In the last year alone more than 40 photographers at Newsquest, Local World, Trinity Mirror and Johnston Press have been laid off. The fundamental reason for the retrenchment in both sectors is not hard to find. In 1961 the Express had a circulation of 4.3 million; in January this year it was 457,914, a drop of almost 90 per cent. It is not unique, circulation figures and print advertising revenues are falling across the board as readers and advertisers migrate to the web. In fact, even in 1960 the Express was unusual in having so many photographers on its payroll and, according to Brian Harris, when he joined The Times as one of five staff in 1976, the Express still had more than 40, compared to around 20 each at the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror. Harris moved to The Independent in 1986, when it launched with three staff plus a group of regular freelances, and quickly acquired a deserved reputation for exceptional photography, at least part of which he attributes to the freedom of its photographers to “take a sideways glance” at the stories they covered. Made redundant in 1999 and now freelance, he deplores the loss of staff jobs and the heavy reliance of all the nationals on the big agencies, which he believes “has led to a level of uniformity and the pictures are anodyne. They all look the same; they all have the same weight. It’s not that the Getty guys and the AP guys don’t understand the story – of course they do. But they have to serve a hundred different masters. So they’ve got to tell the story, but they can’t do it to the point where they’re almost editorialising, taking the reader to another level of understanding”. 14 | theJournalist

Bringing

the shu

g down

hutters

photography DAILY HERALD ARCHIVE/SSPL

Sophie Batterbury, Head of Pictures at The Independent who, according to Harris “produces magic with no budget”, has a different take on the agencies: “We have subscriptions with PA, Reuters, AP, EPA and Getty, and I’ve seen some of the most fantastic pictures coming from wire photographers via the agencies. Of course there are some individual photographers that are much better than others – sometimes a picture will smack you between the eyes, and when you open it you will not be surprised at who took it. So I don’t entirely disagree with Brian’s point, but there are people whom the agencies are employing who have the talent to transcend that”. Interestingly, Batterbury doesn’t see the loss of staffers as a problem either: “I couldn’t justify employing a staff photographer now. There are days when I would have no idea what to do with them, and others when I’d need them in four different places at once. It’s not simply that the agencies are so good. Things move so quickly now. The combination of rolling TV news and social media means that everything is so immediate. Now things are out there on Twitter, on Sky News, it’s common knowledge. There might be the odd occasion where you would have someone with a writer for a period of time, working on a long story, but even then it wouldn’t be staff – because you might have two of those happening at once, and then nothing for six months”. The Daily Mirror, which in 1960 had a circulation of 4.6 million, the biggest in the country, has taken what looks like a different approach. With circulation down to just under 1 million, it is now published by Trinity Mirror PLC, which also owns the Sunday Mirror, the People, the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail, and 240 regional papers. According to picture editor Ben Jones, the paper currently has 13 photographers on its payroll (with one post under review), which makes its photography department by far the largest on what many still call ‘Fleet Street’. However, they work within the ‘One Trinity Mirror’ strategy, devised by CEO Simon Fox when he took over in 2012, and also support regional titles, so it’s hard to know whether they should all be considered Fleet Street staffers, or how many posts on regional papers they have replaced. And according to Jonathan Buckmaster, who started at the Daily Express in 1987 and is one of its two remaining staff photographers, implementing the strategy meant: “The Mirror got rid of all their photographers in London, then re-employed 12 around the country. The people they got rid of were big names, in their fifties, probably earning a good salary. They were made redundant, and then they brought in 12 at much lower salaries”. For Buckmaster this was not surprising: “In recent years styles have gone out the window. Quality as well. Newspapers will use any picture they can get their hands on, from Twitter or wherever. And it’s cheaper and easier to have freelances coming in when they need them, than finance a staff man and all the pensions, insurance and God knows what. Staff photographers in Fleet Street are just hanging on at the moment, not knowing from each year to each year how long they’ve got. It’s a case of when, not if.” What does all this mean? Does it matter who is taking the pictures, or on what basis they get paid for their work? Clearly it is very bad news for those being made redundant – turning freelance has never been easy, and in an era of microstock, theJournalist | 15

photography Bringing down the shutters

falling rates and the web awash with free or stolen images, is now even less so. But what are the consequences for everyone else? Across the nationals, the big photo agencies appear to be the winners. The major news stories of the day, both domestic and foreign, are now almost entirely illustrated with agency pictures. The ease, speed and low cost of digital distribution allow a relatively small number of photographers to supply a worldwide audience. Given the financial pressures resulting from the decline in print revenues, it makes sense for picture desks to cut costs by signing up to agency subscription deals. As one picture editor (who wished to remain nameless) told me: “Agencies are coming up with such good deals – they’re virtually giving the stuff away.” The downside is a loss of distinctive visual styles, and of capacity to pursue stories other than those the agencies choose to cover. Also, the newly powerful position of the agencies has allowed them to drive down reproduction fees to levels that are unsustainable for individual freelances, whether competitors or contributors. But the ongoing transformation of the regional press is much more radical than anything seen on the nationals. The roll call of newspaper closures and job losses listed by the NUJ’s Your Local News Matters campaign is truly depressing, with new announcements running at more than one a week. Traditionally the grassroots of the industry, holding local government to account and feeding local stories of wider interest up to the nationals, many titles seem to have forgotten what they’re for, turning to their readers to supply photographs, videos and stories. The strapline for Archant’s iWitness24 platform is “Your news is the news”. Aimed at encouraging its readers to submit photos for publication and syndication, its introduction in 2012 was swiftly followed by photographer redundancies. Laura Davison, NUJ national organiser for newspapers, believes the strategy will unravel: “Why should I submit material for free, and then pay to buy it back again? It’s really short-sighted of the industry, cutting back on professional staff photographers, because the quality of pictures in print, but also obviously online, is really important”. This is borne out by Anne-Marie Sanderson, chief photographer at North London & Herts News. One of three photographers on the payroll when she started in 2004, since 2011 she has been working on her own, also acting as picture editor: “We have always prided ourselves on not using readers’ pictures unless necessary (a birth, marriage or death collect, for example). However, with diminished staff, a tight freelance budget and limited access to agency pictures, user-generated content is on the increase. People I’ve photographed for years are telling me that the local papers don’t look as good as they used to. About six months ago I was asked to launch a community page where people could send in their own pictures from events. It hasn’t been a success: people tend to post their images straight on to social media. One of my good local contacts runs a community arts club, and even she was saying ‘we love your paper and it’s brilliant when we get publicity, but if we’ve been to an event and we’ve got loads of people doing our mosaics and crafts, 16 | theJournalist

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Agencies are coming up with such good deals – they’re virtually giving the stuff away

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all our pictures just go straight up on Facebook that night, and we get more feedback from that than we do from the paper’. Because if the event happens on a Saturday, by the time the paper comes out on a Wednesday it’s old news” The web is central to all this, pulling readers and advertisers away from print, accustoming users to free content, speeding up the news cycle, making social media platforms almost universally accessible, and global distribution of images possible at the touch of a button. These are the forces driving down the numbers of photographers employed by national and regional titles. The consequences for regional papers look likely to be the more severe: it’s hard to see many surviving unless there are better print and online strategies. On the nationals, heavily dependent on agencies and freelances, what photographers now do has changed. According to Antonio Olmos, one of 11 contract freelances at The Guardian and Observer (which also employ two staffers), “If you want to be a photojournalist and cover news all the time, you pretty much have to work for the wires. Editorial photographers like me – I do mostly features and portraits – don’t really cover news anymore”. Olmos believes there are some good changes, as well as bad: “The Guardian is a great platform. Could you imagine the Manchester Guardian having an audience of 30 million people? I’ve never had such a big audience, and such a huge social media profile. On the other hand, I’m still struggling to make a living – I can’t monetise that popularity.” That mismatch is as much a problem for the industry as for any individual photographer.

The agencies and libraries The major photo agencies in the UK – the

Press Association (PA), Getty Images (which also markets the images of Agence FrancePresse (AFP) here), the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA), Reuters and the Associated Press (AP) – employ staff photographers and also take in work from regular freelance contributors. They offer a range of flat fee subscription deals for their wire feeds, a strategy that has driven down prices for images by 90 per

cent or more. PA has 26 staff in the UK, Reuters 14, and the others have roughly 10 between them. Worldwide, Getty has 120 staff (plus thousands of freelances), EPA has 400, and Reuters has 247. The stock libraries don’t employ photographers, but licence images from their photo archives and distribute the work of

freelances. Alamy, which claims to be “the world’s stock photo collection”, launched a live news service in 2011. In 2012 Corbis, the digital content licensing company, bought Demotix, which describes itself as “The home of World-Leading Photojournalism”. Like Alamy, its 30,000 contributors include many non-professionals. Also driving down reproduction fees are the libraries selling royalty-free microstock, such as iStock, which is owned by Getty, and Shutterstock.

Q&A

What made you become a journalist? I failed to make it to the sixth form, so no chance of going to university and I needed a job. I followed in the family footsteps. My father joined the Cambrian News at 16. I became an editorial assistant in London at 17, and at 18 signed up for three years as an indentured apprentice on The News, Portsmouth.

Who would you invite to a dinner party? The election-winning strategists of Margaret Thatcher – Lord Maurice Saatchi and Lord Tim Bell; of Tony Blair – Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell; and of David Cameron – Lynton Crosby and Jim Messina.

What other job might you have done?

What is the best place you’ve worked in?

I realised I was a hopeless salesman after a month’s work experience touring sports car specialists in south London trying to sell advertising space for Car Mechanics. Never again!

The House of Commons press gallery, which I first joined as parliamentary reporter for The Times in 1968. Working with so many friends and rivals was always a great inspiration.

What are your short-term hopes for journalism? A reliable income stream must be found to safeguard BBC journalism. A universal licence fee guarantees editorial independence.

When did you join the NUJ? My first job was on Advertisers’ Weekly where the staff were strong in the trade and technical branch. I was elected a probationary member in 1961, subscription seven shillings a month. Getting my Press Card – then much respected – was a proud moment.

Who would you most like to see in the NUJ? We must find a to way appeal to the army of activists in social media, writing for community websites, pressure groups etc, who aspire to understand the basic standards and principles of journalism.

NUJ & Me Nicholas Jones is a former BBC political and industrial correspondent

And fears? The haemorrhaging of staff jobs The haemorraging of jobs is threatening newsgathering. My fear is we will all end up either on contract or as freelancers, and be in the same perilous position as in Charles Dickens’ day when jobbing journalists had to line up for work.

Who is your biggest hero? I respect Rupert Murdoch’s lifelong commitment to journalism, his massive investment in newspapers, and development of television channels such as Sky News.

ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

What’s been your best moment in your career? Reporting for BBC Radio the industrial disputes of the 1980s was a defining experience. The Thatcher decade refashioned British industrial relations. The defeat of union militancy and the break-up of the nationalised industries seems like history now, but back then it was headline news

And villain? Rupert Murdoch’s encouragement – and continued condoning – of journalists paying for information became a cancer, eroding trust and credibility. A culture of buying up stories morphed into phone hacking, poisoning the well of British journalism. theJournalist | 17

It’s a family a There are moves to make the family courts more transparent. But reporting them is not easy, says Louise Tickle

ecently, I was in front of a judge for the first time in my life. I was applying to the family court to relax section 12 of the Administration of Justice Act, because I wanted to report on the details of care proceedings that saw a local authority remove a newborn baby from his mother, and her struggle to get him back. As it turned out, while I was in the air flying to the city in question for the hearing the judge sent an email saying that he would not be able to determine the application, because the local authority had filed its response so late that he had only that morning been able to read all submissions together. I practically exploded on the tarmac. An earlier hearing had already been adjourned at the last minute for similar reasons. My application, the email explained, was now to be heard by a high court judge in mid October at the earliest. The situation is immensely frustrating, and has been extraordinarily drawn-out. But it’s necessary, because it is only if my application succeeds that I will be able to see the court papers detailing social workers’ arguments for why they felt this baby needed to be taken into care, the reasons for their recommendation that he be adopted, read transcripts of what was said in front of the judge – and report it all. If the high court judge refuses my request, I very much hope I will still have the opportunity to tell the mother’s story, but there is no point pretending that the wealth of detail surrounding the decisions that led to her baby being taken by the state, and the swift judgment that he should be placed for adoption, will be anything but harder to explain. As I write the piece, and deliberate over what information to include and what to leave out, I will also be laying myself open to considerable risk if I make the wrong call. Contempt of court is serious, and the sanction is stiff. A fine is possible. So is jail. At the limited “directions” hearing which did take place, it became apparent that the local authority is seeking a reporting restriction order that would ban me from reporting many of the details of the case that I currently, lawfully, may. The paperwork associated with my application is now well over an inch thick. It will have taken 15 weeks from filing my official request in July until my arguments are heard, as well as – conservatively – six days of my time spent just on the legal aspects of trying to tell this story. 18 | theJournalist

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By the end of the forthcoming hearing I will have done around three weeks’ worth of work. For a freelance, it’s a significant investment

There has been a wasted return flight for the earlier abandoned hearing, and some considerable worry and effort to reassure my editor. I have been the fortunate recipient of six days of pro-bono advice and representation given by barristers Lucy Reed and Sarah Phillimore: both are cofounders of the Bristol-based Transparency Project, which aims to increase public understanding of the family courts. All this is in addition to the time it took to research the idea and pitch it to one of the only truly long-form feature opportunities available in the press. Even though I already had some experience of attempting to report private family cases, I had little idea of just how difficult covering public care proceedings in such detail would be. By the end of the forthcoming hearing I will have done around three weeks’ worth of work. And that’s before I find out if I can tell this story in the way I want to. For a freelance, it’s a significant investment. There are, of course, compelling arguments in favour of restricting reporting of family matters. Having your dirty linen washed in public view would be a painful blow at an already emotional and traumatic time. It could in some circumstances harm children if anonymisation failed to operate effectively because of jigsaw identification. But there are also excellent reasons for reporting more details of what happens to families in crisis. In January 2014, England and Wales’ most senior family judge, Sir James Munby, issued an initial Practice Guidance on increasing transparency. His guidelines made it plain that he wished to improve public understanding of the family court process and so increase confidence in the system. In the case of Re J, which Munby had heard the year before, the judge had already stated: “one [aspect] is the right of the public to know, the need for the public to be confronted by, what is being done in its name. Nowhere is this more necessary than in relation to care and adoption cases. Such cases, by definition, involve interference, intrusion, by the state, by local authorities and by the court, into family life. In that context, the arguments in favour of publicity – in favour of openness, public scrutiny and public accountability – are particularly compelling.” In balancing the public interest with the potential harm to vulnerable children and families, Munby’s guidance explained that while a great deal of information about the history of the case could be set out in rulings that he was encouraging judges to publish, minors and their relatives should be anonymised. Importantly, however, he said the local authority and any expert witnesses involved should normally be named. This is welcome and I have reported several times on local authority abuses of power and shocking derelictions

court reporting CATCHLIGHT VISUAL SERVICES / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

affair of statutory duties thanks to judgments, which are now published on the British and Irish Legal Information Institute. But being able to report such judgments is not, I’d argue, enough. Munby himself stated that “with the state’s abandonment of the right to impose capital sentences, orders of the kind which family judges are typically invited to make in public law proceedings are amongst the most drastic that any judge in any jurisdiction is ever empowered to make.” There will be situations where proper accountability is impossible without journalists being able to report the detail of what happened throughout the months and sometimes years that a family case goes through the courts. The problems of reporting how family law affects people’s lives go wider than contested care proceedings and adoption applications. Reporting restrictions mean that the effects of highly controversial government policy cannot be properly scrutinised either. I recently spent hours awake and worrying after filing a 3,000-word piece that examines the effects of cuts to private family law legal aid. These cuts mean that distraught parents who are splitting up and cannot afford a lawyer have no option but to represent themselves as “litigants in person” in court at one of the most stressful points in their lives. Often they are fighting for the right to see their children. The stakes are high. Seeing an individual with no legal expertise or experience trying to make their case in court, and in one instance, observing a woman alleging domestic violence who did not have English as her first language attempt to secure access to her children, could not have been more telling of the effects of legal aid cuts on ordinary people. But having filed the feature, I suddenly became very scared indeed that, even though I had kept the descriptions of the hearings themselves as general as possible, my article still might be seen as a contempt. To a journalist, this is chilling. It can lead to significant self-censorship, perhaps even beyond the bounds of what is required by the law. It is also perfectly possible that editors will simply say “too hard, ” when faced with a journalist wishing to write this kind of story. Reporting on the family courts is without a shred of doubt the hardest reporting I have attempted in 14 years as a journalist. For a freelance, it might seem like madness to pursue: I have a mortgage to pay, children to support and there are plenty of other worthwhile social issues I could write about. The reason I persist is that I believe how family law applies to private citizens and children at their most vulnerable is a vital area of public policy that cannot remain closed off from scrutiny. The problem is, can I really afford to carry on?

Knowing the rules of engagement Since 2010 journalists

have had the right – subject to strict and limited conditions – to be present in family courts hearing either private cases (child arrangements, ﬁnancial settlements in divorce or protective injunctions for domestic abuse, for example) or public ones (such as care proceedings). However, under the Administration of Justice Act 1960, the media is not allowed to report

virtually anything of what happens in front of the judge, or indeed the information which is contained in court papers. Therefore, the right is rarely exercised. Judge Holman recently commented that, “to permit the presence of accredited journalists but then tightly to restrict what they can report, creates a mere illusion of transparency.” In his transparency guidelines, Munby urged

family judges to publish their rulings, and many have now started to do so in particularly notable or controversial cases. However, any journalist who wishes to dig deeper is dependent on a judge deciding whether the public interest in knowing what happened plus a parent’s Article 10 right to freedom of expression in telling their story outweighs the children’s Article 8 right to respect for their privacy.

theJournalist | 19

first person

StartingOut Nicola Slawson left a life in Spain to follow her dream. Her reward was a Scott Trust Bursary

n the first day of my MA in newspaper journalism, we were asked to introduce ourselves. After the first few had all started their speeches with “I’ve just graduated from …” followed by mentioning a top university, I started to realise that my worst fears were confirmed. Not only was I a relative dinosaur at 30, but I was probably the only person in the room whose alma mater, De Montfort University, was an ex-polytechnic. And so began the baptism by fire that was City University. It didn’t take long for me to also learn that many of my peers were privately educated and some were even related to well-known journalists. By contrast, my Dad is a mechanic and I was the first in my family to go to university. I’d also spent my twenties trying out different countries before finally deciding to make my longest held ambition – to be a reporter for the national press – a reality. After a day at City though, I started to wonder whether 30 was too old to start out in journalism. So what took me so long? I still remember the thrill of first seeing my name in print and imagining who was reading my words. I was 11 and the article in a local magazine was about my rabbit, Henry. At university I became editor of the student newspaper, The Demon. By 23 I was working in an arts centre. After a few years and due to itchy feet, I moved abroad. In total I lived away from home for just over three years with stints in the US, South Korea and Spain among others, working mainly as an English 20 | theJournalist

teacher. I continued to write, though, and I even challenged myself to blog every single day of the year in 2013. It was during that year that I decided I needed to change my life. My dream to become a journalist wasn’t going to magically come true sitting in Spain simply wishing for it. The first step was to google how to get a job as a national reporter. I came across the Scott Trust Bursary and suddenly I wanted it and a place at City University more than anything I’d ever wanted before. For me it wasn’t just about the money – although there is no way I could have done the course without it – it was because I wanted to be the best of the best. I wanted to win awards. I still do. So I made a plan and moved home to the UK.

he thing I’ve learned most about starting out in journalism is that you have to be incredibly determined to make it happen. When I arrived in London, I saw a quote written on a board at Kensal Green station. It said: “Good things come to those who wait. Greater things come to those who get off their arse and do anything to make it happen.” That mantra kept me going during those first six months when I often worked round the clock looking after teenagers at a boarding school (where I also lived) by night, and learning the ropes as an editorial assistant at a niche publication, Positive News, by day. Whoever said only the rich can do unpaid internships was wrong, but for those who want to try, it isn’t for the faint hearted. Ultimately it paid off, I

not only won the place at City University, but I also won the Scott Trust Bursary.

“

I came across the Scott Trust Bursary and suddenly I wanted it and a place at City University more than anything I’d ever wanted before

”

here are times, however, when I do wish I was as young as my course mates, a lot of whom are just 21. Why did I waste those nine years not doing something this great? But I’m also grateful that I took the time to really decide what I actually wanted to do in life because if I had been unsure in any way, then I wouldn’t have been able to plough on when things got tough. The other benefit of being older was pointed out to me by one of my course mates. Most of her friends, she said, were students or interns. In contrast, my friends are already working in a really diverse range of sectors across the globe. In other words, I already have a lot of very useful contacts. I also have the benefit of having heard lots of amazing stories over the years. In the newsroom, ideas are the currency, and I’m lucky to have lots of life experience to draw ideas from. Now that my MA has drawn to a close, I’m working on building a name for myself and there have been so many highs since starting out. My age doesn’t seem to be making the novelty of seeing bylines wear off any faster and I still try and imagine who is reading the words I’ve written like I did when I was 11.

@nicola_slawson

on media Raymond Snoddy looks at key a obstacle to the digital dream

It’s not just the ads that adblockers hit

ot many journalists lie awake at night worrying about online adblocking technology, technology that blocks the adblocks, or programmatic advertising where online ads are automatically bought by computer. Because advertising still helps to pay for the journalism that engages us in more ways than one, it might be worth paying attention for a moment. Adblocking has been around for a decade but its effect has been gradually increasing and has just been given a boost by Apple adding an integrated adblocking feature to its mobile operating system. Already around 20 per cent of Britons are believed to be using adblocking systems and this can only rise. The blockers may be behind the slowing of digital advertising revenue growth at the apparently allconquering Mail Online. Recent monthly traffic has soared to 200 million but digital ad revenue only rose by 11 per cent compared with growth rates of 50 per cent in the past. The adblocker users don’t know, or couldn’t care less, about the age-old implicit contract between publisher and reader that you consume ads to receive expensive content. There is now an ‘everything for free’ generation who aren’t interested in paying subscriptions. They see ads as an intrusion that eats up bandwidth and limits download speeds, particularly on mobile. It’s a problem for all publishers who obviously hope that digital advertising, particularly mobile advertising, will counteract the steady decline of print. And if digital isn’t the get-out-of jail

“

Already around 20 per cent of Britons are believed to be using adblocking systems and this can only rise

”

card for publishers, then just what is? You can put online content into walled gardens not to charge subscriptions like The Times, but to ensure viewing of ads. You lose impact and reach that way. There would also be both a cost and an irritation factor to entering a software arms race to block the adblockers. Then on a slightly different issue there is a danger that computer programmes are gradually taking over the buying and deployment of online ads. The online editions of high quality publishers could lose out in such an undifferentiated melee – the victory of bulk over quality. Luckily some advertisers are starting to turn against the automated nature of programmatic and the fact that many of the hits achieved are either fraudulent or merely bogus. In the brains of the smarter bears there should be a growing realisation that only one form of advertising is untroubled by either adblocking or programmatic and that is print. In the mad rush to digital, a necessary pursuit, there has been nonetheless a tendency to take the importance of print, both for editorial and advertising, more than a little for granted. Recent ads in the national press emphasising the attention, concentration and impact of print are to be welcomed. They are only a small step in the right direction. With high quality colour printing the impact of modern

newspaper advertising is outstanding – quite apart from the editorial power on more serious matters of single static images of the three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi. On more mundane matters the launch of the new Apple iPhone 6S has prompted record sales. Full-page broadsheet ads in papers such as the Daily Telegraph helped significantly. The ads were able to show, point by point, exactly what the new phone could do in a way unlikely in any other medium. And above all they couldn’t be blocked by Apple adblocking software.

For the latest updates from Raymond Snoddy on Twitter go to @raymondsnoddy theJournalist | 21

arts by Amy Powell Yeates This autumn you can catch: touring shows exploring immigration; a world where the Queen is dead and post election issues in the view of a comic socialist; and pop art meeting WWII in a floating exhibition in Liverpool.

King Charles III National tour Until December Lauded by critics and loved by audiences when it opened at London’s Almeida Theatre, award-winning playwright Mike Bartlett’s comedy imagines a world in which the Queen is dead and Prince Charles ascends to the throne, comically interrogating our current systems of democracy and royalty. Directed by Almeida artistic director Rupert Goold, it quickly secured a West End run upon opening and now embarks on a tour of the UK. www.kingcharles3play.co.uk 22 | theJournalist

The Bogus Woman National tour Until November Krissi Bohn delivers Kay Adshead’s poetic monologue about an African woman who arrives on a strange shore seeking safety and asylum. She has committed no crime but is confined and interrogated as she witnesses the cruelty of the authorities and their institutional disregard for human rights. The country she has reached is England. Following a successful run at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick in 2008, where it was seen by more than 3,500 people, this powerful and political one-woman show is now touring. www.theboguswoman.com

Barbarians Young Vic, London 27 November-19 December Each year, the JMK Award is given to an emerging director of great promise, who is provided with a month-long slot in the Young Vic programme to direct a production. This year’s winner, Liz Stevenson, has chosen this trilogy of acclaimed plays by Barrie Keefe (The Long Good Friday) about three unruly school-leavers in 1970s Lewisham. Darkly comic anarchy ensues as a life of petty crime beckons and the three disaffected lads enter a world of

email: For listings NUJ.org.uk journalist@

unemployment, which will no doubt be starkly resonant 40 years on from its original setting. www.youngvic.org Comedy Nish Kumar: Long Word… Long Word… Blah Blah Blah… I’m So Clever National tour Until December Fresh from his hit run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, leftwing comedian Nish Kumar takes his

indepth

Best of Enemies

A new documentary by award-winning filmmakers Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon explores the Buckley vs Vidal debates of the late 1960s. “Now listen, you queer – stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I will sock you in the face and you’ll stay plastered.” Unexpected, controversial and uncharacteristically harsh words from William F Buckley Junior who was, otherwise, every bit the grinning politician. Not quite as calm and collected, though, as the man at whom the words were directed: novelist, playwright, screenwriter

and political journalist Gore Vidal. This new documentary gathers the debates that took place between the two men with opposing political views over the Republican and Democratic conventions of 1968, which respectively took place in Miami and unsettled Chicago, where protestors chanted that the ‘whole world’ was watching. Interspersed are interviews with a range of contributors – from Buckley’s own brother Reid to modern political commentators such as Christopher Hitchens. Viewers also gain insights into the very similar boarding school upbringings of the pair and of their failed political ambitions prior to the debates; Vidal ran for Congress before a major falling out with Bobby Kennedy, while Buckley had run for mayor of New York City. The film also goes into detail on Vidal’s prolific and successful career as a writer, including

publication of his highly progressive and controversial novel Myra Breckinridge, and Buckley’s highly successful Conservative magazine, National Review. The debates touch on a number of key issues of political history, including the continuing prejudice experienced by black American people, the Vietnam War and the question of the American Empire. However, the film is as much a compelling series of dramatic exchanges between two men at loggerheads – who, it is apparent, ultimately also admired each other – as it is a piece of political history. As each of the two men endeavours to outwit and surprise his opponent, the debates are as engaging now as they must have been when they caused the struggling ABC network’s viewing figures to soar back in 1968. Best of Enemies is released on DVD in November.

www.bestofenemiesfilm.com

SIMON KANE

Theatre The Deal Versus the People Bradford City Hall/West Yorkshire Playhouse 21-24 October A brand-new site-specific, immersive production from award-winning Bradford company Common Wealth. The show explores TTIP – a planned US-EU trade deal that will give corporations more power over governments – and will feature a live, electronic sound score and epic visual design. The production will present a cast of five non-actors who are underrepresented in politics, and will tour to the European Parliament in Brussels. www.wyp.org.uk

with attitude

he Some of t s to best thing h a o wit see and d al bite ic it l o p f o bit

arts latest, dismissively titled show on a tour of the UK. He covers a range of hot topics, from the NHS to climate change to the oft-made claim by capitalists that they are ‘oppressed’, and challenges the theory of privatisation. Critics so far have praised the morally and intellectually switched-on comedian for his show, even suggesting that this may be his best to date. www.nishkumar.co.uk Books Testing Times Peter Brookes The Robson Press A new collection of sketches of political life by satirist Peter Brookes features highlights from his cartoons in The Times. Political figures are shown no mercy as they are subject to brutal lampooning. With witty sketches taking the reader deep into the general election and beyond, the multiple winner of the British Press Awards Cartoonist of the Year ridicules those who profess to lead, and holds those in power to account. www.therobsonpress.com

The Reproach of Hunger David Rieff Verso Books In 2000 the world’s leaders and experts agreed that the eradication of hunger was the essential task for the new millennium. Yet in the last decade the prices of wheat, soya and rice have spiralled, and have been cited as a major cause of the widening poverty gap and political unrest from the Arab Spring to Latin America. David Rieff, a leading expert on humanitarian aid and development, explores the failure to respond to the food security disaster and the fundamental cause of this grotesque world inequality. www.versobooks.com The World at a Crossroads Peter Fieldman Austin Macauley NUJ member Peter Fieldman looks at some of the major issues facing the modern world, politically, morally and financially, and examines the approaches taken by different countries on immigration, the

environment, social and economic development. The book also deals with the prevalent issues with the global banking system, taxation and the effects of the recession being suffered by many countries since 2007. www.austinmacauley.com Film The Danish Girl From 1 January 2016 Working Title Oscar and Bafta award-winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) stars as Einar Wegener in 1920s Copenhagen whose wife, artist and illustrator Gerda Wegener, asks him to stand in for a female model while she paints. Thereafter, she only paints her husband as a woman. Einer decides to take steps to make his female physical appearance more permanent and becomes one of the first known individuals to undergo gender reassignment surgery. It is directed by the acclaimed Tom Hooper (Les Misérables, The King’s Speech). www.workingtitlefilms.com

Visual art Everybody Razzle Dazzle River Mersey, Liverpool Until December 2016 Peter Blake, the godfather of British Pop art, was co-commissioned by Tate Liverpool and Liverpool Biennial 14-18 NOW, WWII Centenary Art Commissions to transform Snowdrop, an active Mersey ferry. Spectators can view the exterior of the floating artwork for free or purchase tickets to step aboard for an exhibition that explores both the artistic approach to transforming the ferry and the role that Liverpool’s much-loved boats took in the First World War. www.tate.org.uk

Can you trust your sources? Think tanks can be valuable sources of analysis and research. But some are more open about who funds them than others. We shine a light on the most and the least transparent. Who Funds You? promotes funding transparency among UK think tanks and political campaigns. We ask organisations to publish their annual income and declare their major funders.

WhoFundsYou.org wfy-nuj-ad-half_horiz.indd 1

12/02/2015 14:00

theJournalist | 23

YourSay... inviting letters, comments, tweets

Please keep comments to 200 words maximum

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ TIM ELLIS

How to count on local newspapers? Local newspapers are in decline. Each week sees more redundancies. But what’s the problem? From one point of view they are doing very nicely. Mine, the Romsey Advertiser, is increasingly a ‘10-minute read’ – the low story count is in contrast with the amount of display and small ads. Of the Advertiser’s 64 pages, the equivalent of 42 is advertising. Six editorial pages have less than 25 per cent of editorial space. A further four pages are devoted to wedding, care home and home decor advertising features. Even the What’s On Page is paid for with ‘guaranteed listings costing £8.40, including VAT.’ Of course, historically local newspapers have always been subsidised by local advertising. But traditionally, there is a line in small type on the back page of most newspapers: “Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper.” Once upon a time, woe betide any paper that allowed an apparent excess of advertising over editorial content. An official could, and did, measure the content and remove that status which gave newspapers cheap postage. In these days of worldwide readers on the web, postage is perhaps a thing of the past, but the status of ‘newspaper’ should still be important in local journalism. Could some other Journalist readers look at their local paper and see if the Post Office should have registered it as a newspaper? Jeff Wright Hampshire

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ The road to equality needs charting correctly One of my pleasures in life is seeing Reeta Chakrabarti presenting the BBC news. She does it with real grace and confidence. Twenty years or so ago, she sat at my desk in the Commission for Racial Equality’s media office. She was applying for the post of Community Affairs Correspondent at the BBC and wanted a briefing from the CRE’s point of view. Despite the efforts of successive diversity officers, the BBC was not changing. Reeta wanted to be accepted as a journalist of quality like any other. Her route there was a stint as 24 | theJournalist

Community Affairs correspondent – and in the media ‘community affairs’ means ethnic minority community affairs. We did our homework, unlike Donald Crighton (letters, September/October). We know that six per cent does not ‘fairly accurately’ reflect 14 per cent. The dismantling of the barriers of discrimination is never automatic. There is a deep frustration among those who face these barriers, whether they be women, the disabled, those of different ages, religions, sexuality or ethnic backgrounds. They have faced them for the whole of their working lives. Those who continue to demand

that this changes, are not ‘rushing into print’ with ‘inaccurate, divisive and misleading’ propositions. They just know their elementary arithmetic. Chris Myant Paris Branch

TUC march shouldn’t be marred by one incident We condemn spitting on journalists but we can recognise that one person’s actions can’t undermine an otherwise peaceful demonstration of 60,000 in defence of our rights as workers. Sadly, the isolated incident at the TUC demonstration in Manchester on October 4 led some journalists to

Email to: journalist@nuj.org.uk Post to: The Journalist 308-312 Gray’s Inn Road London WC1X 8DP Tweet to: @mschrisbuckley

condemn the protest and all protesters as a result – rather than condemn the spitter, as TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn did. I was on the demonstration with other journalists, carrying an NUJ flag; I didn’t spit and wasn’t spat upon. It seemed, though, being called “Tory scum” on entering the Tory ring of steel didn’t warrant the explanation, “I’m a journalist here to report”, nor inspire reporters to talk to protesters but led to some tweeting casual condemnation of protesters, adding to a narrative that Manchester was unsafe and the protest verging on violent. Meanwhile Greater Manchester Police tweeted “the majority of people have exercised their democratic right to protest with dignity and good grace”. Whether we think the abuse stems from anger or ignorance, as professionals we should rise above it. Journalists report from war zones without being personally upset by local people’s anger. If we fear public protests we’ll fail to do our jobs. Rachel Broady Manchester and Salford branch

North-south divide? Just move the goalposts! Having been a poacher turned gamekeeper – spending 25 years in local and central government PR – I enjoyed Chris Proctor’s piece (‘Now for something completely different’ – Sept/Oct issue). When I first entered the civil service, there was a big flap on about European funding for the West Midlands. Birmingham seemed to be slurping up all the money, while poor old impoverished Stoke-on-Trent in the north was only getting a small fraction. There was a ‘north-south divide’ in the region, our critics and the media said. An internal crisis meeting was called with our Regional Director (a ‘Grade 3’, second only to God in the Civil Service). He simply said: “Who decides what is north and what is south?” We

inbox looked at each other and said, well, we do. “Ok”, said the Grade 3, “put the ‘border’ below Cannock – what do the figures look like now?” Sure enough, the new ‘north’ was getting nearly as much as the new ‘south’. Crisis over, treble gin and tonics all round. We also became very adept at what became known in the Civil Service as the ‘Tony Blair Apology’: “I am sorry if you think I am wrong”. Those wishing to practice spin need only study Humpty Dumpty in Through The Looking Glass, who offered this sage advice to Alice: “When I use a word…it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” Bob Wade Birmingham

with Thompsons, one of the leading personal injury solicitors, gave me free advice and representation. I can only speculate on how I would have fared without the NUJ and how much I would have paid in legal and medical fees. I joined in 1967, when membership was taken as read. How thankful I am that I stayed on board while so many jumped ship over the years. Now, as a life member, I advise all journalists to join the NUJ – you never know when you may need support. And I urge existing members: stick with your union. Who knows what might be around the corner? I certainly didn’t. Andrew Collomosse Hebden Bridge

The NUJ is there when things just aren’t cricket

Ken Morgan: fine trade unionist, superb reporter

In September two years ago, I reported for duty at Headingley cricket ground to cover Yorkshire’s match against Middlesex for the Daily Telegraph. Less than an hour later, I walked into A&E at Leeds General Infirmary. I was nursing a serious facial injury after falling from a platform in the ‘Press Box’ – actually a converted classroom in the building Yorkshire share with Leeds Met University. The cut below my right eye required 14 stitches. Almost two years later, and after 18 months’ physiotherapy on a neck injury resulting from my fall, I agreed a settlement with the cricket club.It was facilitated by the NUJ, whose link

Ken Morgan, the NUJ’s former general secretary who died recently, was one of the most decent trade unionists the Labour movement ever produced. He came from a different northern post-war culture in which unions were organisations of and by workers existing to defend them from exploitation and unfair treatment. Ken was general secretary in the 1970s when a new militant university educated leftism emerged – with its good and less good components – and he gently maintained the traditions of an older trades unionism before going off to run the Press Council. He was a kind, considerate man who always put himself in the shoes of a

STEVE BELL

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Peter Yeung @ptr-yeung Pleasingly cutting critique of John Whittingdale’s ‘misguided desire for a smaller BBC’ from @RaymondSnoddy in @NUJofficial’s The Journalist Ailbhe Jordan (@amjordo) 22/09/2015 23:15 @NUJofficial enjoyed reading some words of wisdom from one of my journalistic heroes @johnpilger in #TheJournalist pic.twitter. com/3VI9MkdrAb S Ennis @SEEnnis The @NUJofficial peddles John Pilger’s stupid Corbynesque lies about Russia and Ukraine. Who needs @RT_com? Will Hazell (@whazell) 16/09/2015 21:06 Thumbing through @NUJofficial The Journalist & pleasantly surprised to see this! @nursingtimesed @mjauk pic.twitter. com/5LHcmjHlzG Jan Ní Shuilleabháin (@Sharrow_ie) 16/09/2015 09:19 Tea, toast and the latest @NUJofficial magazine to read. It’s interesting being a student member. pic.twitter.com/LkCfSPxObm @mschrisbuckley @NUJBook @NUJBrighton and Sussex branch sneaked a banner into June #EndAusterityNow march – inspiring day

member in trouble and was staunch in his support. He was also a superb reporter and has a footnote in political history as PA’s man at a meeting in Manchester in 1948 where Labour’s Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan said “Tories were lower than vermin”. Ken was

the only reporter present and no one could challenge his shorthand note so Bevan’s insult became front page headlines. Tories formed “Vermin clubs” and were energised by Bevan’s insult into defeating Labour in 1951. Denis MacShane NUJ President 1978-79

THE OWNERS

theJournalist | 25

and finally

e g a tr u o f o s le ta ay d ry e v e f o h In searc Chris Proctor ponders the media’s obsession with Labour’s new leader

more concerned ‘He says the people he talks to are ances.’ orm perf ision about housing than telev ld anyone be wou Why to. talks he ‘OK. Find out who than television? more interested in accommodation rs. They are the only Or wait ... maybe they’re develope sing. Someone hou in people I know with an interest what he knows see and ster r ring the Duke of Westmin ight. Let’s get cracking. What are you e?’ clos they about Corbyn. Are Corbyn stories?’ what I can do.... ‘I don’t think they’re close. I’ll see of ring Shuffling of feet. Clea ce in his cabinet.’ Oh, and there’s a gender imbalan by throats. Well, chief, he was elected in?’ ‘You mean he’s letting women a big majority....’ men.’ ‘It seems he’s got more women than are of amateurs ng on that?’ ethi som ‘I said stories. Not facts. What kind up Dig . erer ‘OK. He’s a philand e. I don he’s t wha w kno to t wan ’t ce.’ you people? I don ‘And he went to the TUC’s conferen I want to know what do that. They ers lead want the spicy, interesting stuff. ur Labo All s. new not ‘That’s ide his house the outs were You ! You e! don r heads ’t thei hasn he tell ‘em to tighten their belts, keep t happened?’ ey.’ day after the election result. Wha mon down and keep sending the nt people ‘He came out of the door...’ ‘But he told them they were dece ‘In a bullying, intimidatory way?’ .’ them ind and he’s right beh snappers. ‘No, he sort of shuffled....’ ‘So: he must be a drinker. Get the He nt. eme stat a was It n. stio que a n’t was t ure of him ‘Tha How long will it take to get a pict ory way. What emerged in a bullying and intimidat with a Methuselah of Moet?’ e got him if it’s else? What kind of car’s he got? We’v ‘That could take some big. Or new. Or blue. Or foreign.’ . You see...’ time he ng sayi past us ‘I’m afraid to say that he hurried trot out that ‘And t wen He bus. his s didn’t have time to talk or he’d mis old stuff about holding ral to the bus stop. He got on a bus.’ the country to ransom, barons, gene the Trots. out A pause. Silence. trot , strikes: all that stuff. In fact ‘What’s a bus?’ ily?’ fam And what about the a wife.’ ‘It’s a big, red...’’ ‘We’re onto that. We think he has ’ ign! fore gs like thin ‘Red! I knew it! Please God make it Just e. usiv intr too hing ‘OK. Not bies, hob ds, ‘I think they are often Mercedes.’ her dress size, musical tastes, frien ! God d goo ‘Got him! Anything else?’ d ...’an occupation, social standing orial service...’ Is n, stio que ‘He went to a Battle of Britain mem ious obv t I’m forgetting the mos ‘Hide that.’ someone checking his expenses?’ any MP.’ ‘Yes but he didn’t sing.’ ‘He’s claimed less expenses than t’s your point?’ Wha . John n Elto not yn, Corb is really is s ‘Thi ‘Less expenses than any MP! That em.’ on that. I him ‘He didn’t sing the National Anth get to suspicious. We must be able nel Blimps to out it with s ense ‘Splash that. And dig out some Colo exp s want to know how he claim e who wants him . Does cash the ng be outraged. And furious. Someon hidi he’s re whe t more showing up, and wan I per snap the tell And . shot you?’ taken out and he look like an offshore investor to ter’s got badges. I he doesn’t time medals on Blimp than a trainspot the Half . does he say t ‘I can’ want a human magnet.’ even wear a tie.’ Andrew Marr against ‘Got it. Oh, and he didn’t go on the ‘It looks to me like he has a grudge can up, that w Show straight after his election.’ Follo rs. ture garment manufac we dealing with ten writ this t ‘He didn’t.... What kind of loser are wan I d: wor nal fi one you? Oh, and turns down and biz show in job a g gets bein e He ! we’r k here? Jeez properly. I don’t want people to thin arians, but it’s agen non diss a to g got e thin we’v one It’s that ! er gigs nsive. Rememb lty like Marr. That gratuitously offe much worse to be offensive to roya reputation to live up to....’ ide.’ is two fingers to TV viewers nationw

26 | theJournalist

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