Someone Googled 'NUJ, Ross, Brand, Obscene' and got a story saying NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear branded Jonathon Ross's comments obscene. I nearly went running to Ofcom or the Press Complaints Commission (fat lot of good that would have done) to complain I had been misquoted, having spent the past few days trying to avoid saying anything on the puerile schoolboy banter of Mister Ross and Mister Brand.
Actually the story was old - and was our reaction to Jonathon Ross's last obscene comment that he was worth 1000 journalists. He's proved he's worth nothing of the sort. But the thing that really annoys me about this story is the hypocrisy and the opportunity it has given to those who want to undermine the BBC - it is a gift to the Murdoch-owned papers who are busy trying to persuade the government to cut the BBC down to size and to the Mail who pursue a similar agenda, as Roy Greenslade set out today. Ross and Brand simply give them easy ammunition at a time when all of us who believe in public service broadcasting - and that means from time to time risk-taking comedy, drama and current affairs - should be defending the BBC from the self-serving vitriol of some newspaper proprietors or rival broadcasters.
There has also been an extraordinary amount of hypocrisy. I love the fact that someone who performs with the Satanic Sluts is distressed and being "comforted" by Max Clifford. You don't go to Max Clifford to be comforted - you go because he's the best in the business at getting a whopping deal to sell your story.
Anyway, as I say, I'm not commenting on it. D'oh!
So the rest of the week so far:
Saturday up early to go to Paris for the NUJ's Continental European Council meeting. Good discussion on a number of industrial issues and campaigns but then I spent hours on the way back stuck on a Eurostar after the toilets caught on fire while we were in the tunnel. Home at 1am.
Sunday - Wake up to news Tottenham have sacked their manager - delight in first win of the season later that day.
Monday - Met with staff reps to talk about pay grading issues and then on to lunch with the union's lawyers, Thompsons. Straight from there to the Frontline Club to meet Peter Mcintyre and IFJ General Secretary Aidan White to offer my comments on a draft of a book they are putting together on ethical journalism. It's excellent and the campaign that goes with it will tie together lots of the current issues we are facing - protection of sources, staffing cuts, public service broadcasting, privacy, regulation and much more.
Then Aidan and I met with Colombia campaigners to talk about the legal case against Carlos Lozano, editor of Voz and see what support we could offer.
Tuesday - morning meeting with campaigners to talk about the Press Complaints Commission and the future of regulation and then on to the Home Office to meet Minister Vernon Coaker and senior police officials to highlight our ongoing concerns about harassment and intimidation of photographers, use of the terrorism act to restrict photography and our fears for the future of investigative journalism in the light of the Shiv Malik judgement. The meeting was relatively constructive but we will see what happens on the streets and in the courts - that's the only place we can judge the results. Past attempts to get this addressed haven't made any real difference - in fact the situation has got worse.
Back to Headland House to meet with an Egyptian journalist to talk about the serious situiation facing media there.
Wednesday - In at 8am to start interviews to fill two staff vacancies at the NUJ - campaigns officer and PA to the General Secretary's Office. We see a number of excellent candidates over several hours - and offer the two posts - let's hope they both accept!
Thursday - Morning meetings at The Guardian - meet our new Deputy MoC and along with Michelle Stanistreet catch up with management. Back to meet with NUJ President James Doherty and Vice-President Pete Murray and Deputy General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet to go through tomorrow's NEC agenda - spend the afternoon catching up on writing the reports I haven't done yet. Phew!
Today the NUJ has launched an excellent new equal pay campaign - there's some excellent material including video of an interview with a member who won more than £25,000 in back pay and an £8,000 a year pay rise. Who says unions make no difference?
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Coming up with a cunning plan...
Spent the whole of Tuesday in Parliament - a day which showed the range of work the NUJ is involved in.
First up was a briefing/lobby meeting organised by the Federation of Entertainment Unions on the future of public service broadcasting. I spoke in the opening panel alongside BBC Director General Mark Thompson, Stewart Purvis from Ofcom and Tony Robinson (yes, Baldrick..and yes, he did have a cunning plan!) from Equity. It was an excellent discussion with Ofcom coming in for strong criticism over their failure to stop the current cuts at ITV and proposals for the future funding of psb. The unions put forward a strong case for a more serious look at the question of levies and will be lobbying the Minister Andy Burnham and MPs over the coming weeks in support of a comprehensive strategy for funding psb which saves not only ITV but ensures the BBC is properly funded and Channel 4 escapes privatisation.
There's some other press coverage of it here:
http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/22176/robinson-attacks-tvs-lack-of-risk-taking
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/21/bbc-ofcom1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/21/nationalunionofjournalists-bbc
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=42279&c=1
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2008/10/robinson_bbc_may_become_mugabefigure.html;jsessionid=06372F51B9737EDFF247D2D725A2EF32
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/21/bbc-television1
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=42281&c=1
My part-reported comments on local newspaper companies' campaigns to prevent the BBC expanding its online service and providing more local video and audio content caused some controversy. I even got a letter from the Director of Corporate Communications at Trinity Mirror setting me straight. I simply asked him the question that if we believe in media plurality and we accept that commercial local TV and radio can exist alongside the BBC what is so different about online? I've not had a response yet.
My point is that the local newspapers campaign is for their own vested interests - they don't care about ensuring local people have a variety of sources of news, comment and entertainment. They want to be able to capture the market themselves. I fully support the newspapers' expansion in to online media and I hope they capture a significant part of the audience - but it has to be done through quality content, with enough staff and resources to win "eyeballs" not by stopping the licence fee payer being able to access BBC local services. There's room for everyone in the 'market'.
After that I went to give evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights as part of their enquiry in to policing and protest. I was on a panel with one of the most objectionable people I've ever had to sit and listen to - Richard North. He even made the bloke from Huntingdon Life Sciences look like a liberal.
My remit was to highlight the attacks on photographers and other journalists covering protests - the routine stop and search, the denial of access, the confiscation of data, the physical assaults, the surveillance and intimidation. I did ok and have been asked by the committee to provide them with further information. I hope out of this the guidelines agreed between police and us and others will finally become part of the routine training and briefing of those police covering protests and will stop the harassment and allow photographers to get on with their job without fear or risk of assault.
A video of the session is available here.
The NUJ's film about police harassment of photographers is available here.
From there it was straight to a meeting with Madeleine Moon, the MP for Bridgend to talk about how we can build on the work done in Scotland around media coverage of suicide. Madeleine is looking to work with the union to improve the coverage of suicide and help bring home to journalists the impact stories on such a sensitive subject can have.
Apart from meetings in Parliament this week I've also had meetings with the GFTU and BECTU and then our staff unions to talk about a possible new building and alternatives to save money rather than moving. I've also chaired the TUC's Trades Councils' committee.
Today I'm tied up all day interviewing for a Head of Administration and Personnel as Linda York retries at the end of the year. She'll be mighty hard to replace but we've some good candidates to see today.
First up was a briefing/lobby meeting organised by the Federation of Entertainment Unions on the future of public service broadcasting. I spoke in the opening panel alongside BBC Director General Mark Thompson, Stewart Purvis from Ofcom and Tony Robinson (yes, Baldrick..and yes, he did have a cunning plan!) from Equity. It was an excellent discussion with Ofcom coming in for strong criticism over their failure to stop the current cuts at ITV and proposals for the future funding of psb. The unions put forward a strong case for a more serious look at the question of levies and will be lobbying the Minister Andy Burnham and MPs over the coming weeks in support of a comprehensive strategy for funding psb which saves not only ITV but ensures the BBC is properly funded and Channel 4 escapes privatisation.
There's some other press coverage of it here:
http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/22176/robinson-attacks-tvs-lack-of-risk-taking
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/21/bbc-ofcom1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/21/nationalunionofjournalists-bbc
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=42279&c=1
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2008/10/robinson_bbc_may_become_mugabefigure.html;jsessionid=06372F51B9737EDFF247D2D725A2EF32
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/21/bbc-television1
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=42281&c=1
My part-reported comments on local newspaper companies' campaigns to prevent the BBC expanding its online service and providing more local video and audio content caused some controversy. I even got a letter from the Director of Corporate Communications at Trinity Mirror setting me straight. I simply asked him the question that if we believe in media plurality and we accept that commercial local TV and radio can exist alongside the BBC what is so different about online? I've not had a response yet.
My point is that the local newspapers campaign is for their own vested interests - they don't care about ensuring local people have a variety of sources of news, comment and entertainment. They want to be able to capture the market themselves. I fully support the newspapers' expansion in to online media and I hope they capture a significant part of the audience - but it has to be done through quality content, with enough staff and resources to win "eyeballs" not by stopping the licence fee payer being able to access BBC local services. There's room for everyone in the 'market'.
After that I went to give evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights as part of their enquiry in to policing and protest. I was on a panel with one of the most objectionable people I've ever had to sit and listen to - Richard North. He even made the bloke from Huntingdon Life Sciences look like a liberal.
My remit was to highlight the attacks on photographers and other journalists covering protests - the routine stop and search, the denial of access, the confiscation of data, the physical assaults, the surveillance and intimidation. I did ok and have been asked by the committee to provide them with further information. I hope out of this the guidelines agreed between police and us and others will finally become part of the routine training and briefing of those police covering protests and will stop the harassment and allow photographers to get on with their job without fear or risk of assault.
A video of the session is available here.
The NUJ's film about police harassment of photographers is available here.
From there it was straight to a meeting with Madeleine Moon, the MP for Bridgend to talk about how we can build on the work done in Scotland around media coverage of suicide. Madeleine is looking to work with the union to improve the coverage of suicide and help bring home to journalists the impact stories on such a sensitive subject can have.
Apart from meetings in Parliament this week I've also had meetings with the GFTU and BECTU and then our staff unions to talk about a possible new building and alternatives to save money rather than moving. I've also chaired the TUC's Trades Councils' committee.
Today I'm tied up all day interviewing for a Head of Administration and Personnel as Linda York retries at the end of the year. She'll be mighty hard to replace but we've some good candidates to see today.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Making capitalism history...
You spend your whole life campaigning for the nationalisation of the banks - and they go and do it while you're away on holiday! What an astonishing two weeks.
Yesterday I made history - and it's not every day you can say that at work. Matt Wrack the General Secretary of the FBU and myself became the first two trade union general secretaries to address a meeting at the SNP conference in Perth. We even had the First Minister Alex Salmond introduce us.
It was an initiative of the SNP Trade Union Group and reflects the constructive working relationship the NUJ in Scotland has developed with the new government over key issues of media ownership, quality in journalism and health and safety issues such as stress at work. My speech was well received and our attendance has certainly helped opened more doors for our activists and officials in Scotland to push the NUJ's case on core issues affecting our members.
Came back overnight on the sleeper from Perth before meeting with Tim Bowdler and Malcolm Vickers from Johnston Press this morning.
Earlier this week I attended the TUC Executive and raised the need to urgently lobby around amendments to the Employment Bill and met with ITV M/FoCs as we step up our campaign against the 420-plus job cuts and the axing of local and regional services across the group. Ofcom have given the green light for the cuts but we're still intensively lobbying the politicians and setting out alternatives in a bid to save ITV news.
I've also been shortlisting and interviewing for a number of vacancies and/or new posts at the NUJ. At least one of those new posts will replace Tania Caporaso who as well as having been a key part of our campaigns team has also taken on the dubious pleasure of being by PA for a long time. I'll be really sad to see her go, she's been fantastically hard-working and a good friend.
Apart from that it's catching up on correspondence and emails - and there's plenty of it after being away for two weeks.
Among the more interesting invites I received while away is to give evidence on Tuesday to the Joint Committee on Human Rights over our concerns about surveillance of journalists and police harassment of photographers. As if I needed more evidence there were further incidents earlier this week.
Yesterday I made history - and it's not every day you can say that at work. Matt Wrack the General Secretary of the FBU and myself became the first two trade union general secretaries to address a meeting at the SNP conference in Perth. We even had the First Minister Alex Salmond introduce us.
It was an initiative of the SNP Trade Union Group and reflects the constructive working relationship the NUJ in Scotland has developed with the new government over key issues of media ownership, quality in journalism and health and safety issues such as stress at work. My speech was well received and our attendance has certainly helped opened more doors for our activists and officials in Scotland to push the NUJ's case on core issues affecting our members.
Came back overnight on the sleeper from Perth before meeting with Tim Bowdler and Malcolm Vickers from Johnston Press this morning.
Earlier this week I attended the TUC Executive and raised the need to urgently lobby around amendments to the Employment Bill and met with ITV M/FoCs as we step up our campaign against the 420-plus job cuts and the axing of local and regional services across the group. Ofcom have given the green light for the cuts but we're still intensively lobbying the politicians and setting out alternatives in a bid to save ITV news.
I've also been shortlisting and interviewing for a number of vacancies and/or new posts at the NUJ. At least one of those new posts will replace Tania Caporaso who as well as having been a key part of our campaigns team has also taken on the dubious pleasure of being by PA for a long time. I'll be really sad to see her go, she's been fantastically hard-working and a good friend.
Apart from that it's catching up on correspondence and emails - and there's plenty of it after being away for two weeks.
Among the more interesting invites I received while away is to give evidence on Tuesday to the Joint Committee on Human Rights over our concerns about surveillance of journalists and police harassment of photographers. As if I needed more evidence there were further incidents earlier this week.
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