What the hell are you doing?

As NUJ General Secretary you could best describe my job as 'varied'. It ranges from managing the union's staff and budgets to speaking to a million-strong rally in Hyde Park, from complicated negotiations over new technology to petitioning companies, governments and even paramilitary organisations over media freedom and the safety of journalists, from addressing MPs to answering endless emails from students asking me to write their dissertation.

This blog is about what I and the union do - indeed sometimes irate members ask what the hell are you doing.

It is about not only giving members an insight in to the work their union carries out on a day to day basis far away from the headlines, work which improves the lives of journalists every day but also hopefully helping to increase the accountability of myself as the elected General Secretary and the union as a whole to its members.

I won't find time to write every day - but I hope the blog will give you a flavour of what your union does and how it is fighting day in day out for journalists and journalism.