Thursday morning headed to New Scotland Yard to meet senior police officers about our photo event on 16 February highlighting the introduction of new laws making it unlawful to photograph police buildings or officers. Then on to City Hall to meet Guto Hari, Boris Johnson's press head honcho to talk about ways the Mayor can promote quality journalism in London - the day the front page of the Evening Standard is dominated by Boris' alleged 'f-word tirade'. We've also written to the London Assembly urging them to take action to protect quality and diversity in London's media as more local titles are merged, offices closed and jobs cut. A full staff meeting at Headland House rounded off the day.
Friday morning I met with Morning Star Chapel officers about their dispute, sent the formal industrial action notice to the company, produced a newsletter for Johnston Press reps, met with representatives of the Journalist Editorial Advisory Board and had conversations with both the TUC and Unite about union recognition at Pearson Education (Oxford). The afternoon was dominated by a meeting with Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger and senior finance and editorial managers - during which they announced their plans for a pay freeze for all staff - we've not accepted the need for the freeze, instead asking them key questions about the company's finances. Further information-gathering meetings will take place before pay negotiations next month.
Spent several hours trying to deal with all the outstanding emails, correspondence, phone calls etc before heading home to prepare for my holiday...see you in three weeks!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
More on that BBC DEC decision
News reaches me from the BBC Director General’s meeting with staff on the corporation’s decision not to air the DEC appeal for humanitarian assistance.
I wasn’t there so others may have another view (feel free to post it here) but more than one source has confirmed this version of events…
“This was probably the most cynical piece of news management I think I've experienced at the BBC…..Thompson and Byford and their minders used every trick in the book to suppress genuine criticism and deeply felt anger directed towards them from BBC staff (as witnessed during two bruising encounters with staff at the BBC Arabic Service and BBC Monitoring last week).
To start off with, they buried news of this important meeting. A small notice was posted in the BBC weekly paper, Ariel, more than a week earlier and no further mention was made. There was no email sent out to staff to say it was happening. This is an astonishing omission given the seriousness of the allegations against Thompson and the level of staff criticism about this decision. Someone fortunately sent me a link on Wednesday to an announcement which was hidden on the Internal Communications website, otherwise I wouldn't have found out about it. (I was told it had been on the front page of the BBC intranet site Gateway on Thursday morning, but I doubt many members of staff would have seen it there and it was too late anyway).
If you were lucky enough to stumble on news about the meeting, you had to contact IC to ask to attend, and only then would they tell you about the venue. A number of my colleagues emailed on Thursday morning and were told it was full. This is an interesting concept, because the venue was in fact TC6, a huge studio at TV Centre that could hold at least 400 people. What they laid on was about 12 round tables with white tablecloths, which could have seated at least 12 people each but had only four to six chairs per table.
A nice "Audience Management" lady with a clipboard (with our names on - not on the list? no entry!) told me they had made places for 100 people. A couple of unsuccessful applicants who came along anyway were taken to a "holding area" and then allowed to fill empty seats. This bizarre gala dinner layout was, by the way, especially tailored for this meeting and it was cleared away afterwards. There were two red chairs allocated for Thompson and Byford on a stage on one side, but they never used them. Instead they wore radio-mics and stood, quite aggressively and confrontationally right next to the front table
Questions got an answer from both Marks, sometimes they had more than one stab at each answer. Their spiel was exactly what was expected - not about not wanting to be seen taking sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict, it's just that this is a "controversial" issue, an "on-going" news story, "consistent with 30-40 years of BBC policy", would do the same even if it wasn't Israel-Palestine. we would do the same even if Israel wasn't involved; there are no "innocent victims of war" in this conflict; Aid agency employees are not angels, but ambitious individuals who knew the BBC's position but called the appeal anyway.
Thompson said the Trust would rule in about two weeks whether the decision was correct and the complainants had pledged to take their case to judicial review if they failed with the Trust.
During the 80 minute session, several speakers managed to land punches from the floor, a few examples of which are below:
- Do they think all the resources we've put into covering Mid-East story have been wasted, if the audience cannot make their own judgments about things like this? (er no, but they had to do it anyway)
- Since when was our impartiality so fragile that we shied away from negative reaction for something we considered important?
- Why wasn't there an announcement before and after the film and a strap running through the film saying it wasn't BBC editorial content? (MB had apparently suggested this too, but MT said it was never done like that with DEC appeals)
- Was it worth the catastrophic damage to BBC reputation in the Middle East? (apparently it'll blow over - like Jerry Springer - apparently MT has an annual meeting with evangelical Christians and the atmosphere is improving)
- If as they claimed we were damned-if-we-did/damned-if-we-didn't on this one, why did they choose the option which meant not helping people?
- Why didn't they consult people meant to know about the Middle East who could have told them what a disaster this would be? (apparently because they wanted to protect them from taking this difficult, divisive decision)
- Weren't they worried about safety of staff in the region after such a provocative decision? (yes, but never mind, they'll look after them)- Aren't we putting the perception of impartiality over the need to provide food, clothing, shelter for needy people?
After this meeting the Arabic Service staff circulating petition deploring the decision and seeking its reversal."
Watch this space…
I wasn’t there so others may have another view (feel free to post it here) but more than one source has confirmed this version of events…
“This was probably the most cynical piece of news management I think I've experienced at the BBC…..Thompson and Byford and their minders used every trick in the book to suppress genuine criticism and deeply felt anger directed towards them from BBC staff (as witnessed during two bruising encounters with staff at the BBC Arabic Service and BBC Monitoring last week).
To start off with, they buried news of this important meeting. A small notice was posted in the BBC weekly paper, Ariel, more than a week earlier and no further mention was made. There was no email sent out to staff to say it was happening. This is an astonishing omission given the seriousness of the allegations against Thompson and the level of staff criticism about this decision. Someone fortunately sent me a link on Wednesday to an announcement which was hidden on the Internal Communications website, otherwise I wouldn't have found out about it. (I was told it had been on the front page of the BBC intranet site Gateway on Thursday morning, but I doubt many members of staff would have seen it there and it was too late anyway).
If you were lucky enough to stumble on news about the meeting, you had to contact IC to ask to attend, and only then would they tell you about the venue. A number of my colleagues emailed on Thursday morning and were told it was full. This is an interesting concept, because the venue was in fact TC6, a huge studio at TV Centre that could hold at least 400 people. What they laid on was about 12 round tables with white tablecloths, which could have seated at least 12 people each but had only four to six chairs per table.
A nice "Audience Management" lady with a clipboard (with our names on - not on the list? no entry!) told me they had made places for 100 people. A couple of unsuccessful applicants who came along anyway were taken to a "holding area" and then allowed to fill empty seats. This bizarre gala dinner layout was, by the way, especially tailored for this meeting and it was cleared away afterwards. There were two red chairs allocated for Thompson and Byford on a stage on one side, but they never used them. Instead they wore radio-mics and stood, quite aggressively and confrontationally right next to the front table
Questions got an answer from both Marks, sometimes they had more than one stab at each answer. Their spiel was exactly what was expected - not about not wanting to be seen taking sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict, it's just that this is a "controversial" issue, an "on-going" news story, "consistent with 30-40 years of BBC policy", would do the same even if it wasn't Israel-Palestine. we would do the same even if Israel wasn't involved; there are no "innocent victims of war" in this conflict; Aid agency employees are not angels, but ambitious individuals who knew the BBC's position but called the appeal anyway.
Thompson said the Trust would rule in about two weeks whether the decision was correct and the complainants had pledged to take their case to judicial review if they failed with the Trust.
During the 80 minute session, several speakers managed to land punches from the floor, a few examples of which are below:
- Do they think all the resources we've put into covering Mid-East story have been wasted, if the audience cannot make their own judgments about things like this? (er no, but they had to do it anyway)
- Since when was our impartiality so fragile that we shied away from negative reaction for something we considered important?
- Why wasn't there an announcement before and after the film and a strap running through the film saying it wasn't BBC editorial content? (MB had apparently suggested this too, but MT said it was never done like that with DEC appeals)
- Was it worth the catastrophic damage to BBC reputation in the Middle East? (apparently it'll blow over - like Jerry Springer - apparently MT has an annual meeting with evangelical Christians and the atmosphere is improving)
- If as they claimed we were damned-if-we-did/damned-if-we-didn't on this one, why did they choose the option which meant not helping people?
- Why didn't they consult people meant to know about the Middle East who could have told them what a disaster this would be? (apparently because they wanted to protect them from taking this difficult, divisive decision)
- Weren't they worried about safety of staff in the region after such a provocative decision? (yes, but never mind, they'll look after them)- Aren't we putting the perception of impartiality over the need to provide food, clothing, shelter for needy people?
After this meeting the Arabic Service staff circulating petition deploring the decision and seeking its reversal."
Watch this space…
Global response needs to be bolder
Am in Brussels at the grandly-titled Council of Global Unions - an attempt to bring together all the main international trade union groups. It's the follow-up to the Washington meeting I attended last December.
The global economic crisis is dominating our agenda - and how we respond. It's frustrating to see the bureaucracy of the global labour movement at work whilst out on the streets hundreds of thousands are striking, demonstrating and protesting. There are some startling statistics - 800,000 jobs lost in one month in the US, one billion people facing starvation - and our response needs to be bolder, quicker and more pro-active.
Last night I took the chance to do a meeting with NUJ Brussels branch members and try to address some concerns they have about how the union supports members in Continental Europe.
Due to the wonders of wi-fi i have also been able to write to Vernon Coaker about ongoing concerns about photographers' rights, to write to David MIlliband about the UK government's opposition to the draft Ministerial Resolution on developments in anti-terrorism legislation in the Council of Europe and its impact on freedom of expression and information. I've also sent emails to NUJ executive members, chapels, branches, councils about mobilising for a lobby of Parliament in March over the future of local media.
The global economic crisis is dominating our agenda - and how we respond. It's frustrating to see the bureaucracy of the global labour movement at work whilst out on the streets hundreds of thousands are striking, demonstrating and protesting. There are some startling statistics - 800,000 jobs lost in one month in the US, one billion people facing starvation - and our response needs to be bolder, quicker and more pro-active.
Last night I took the chance to do a meeting with NUJ Brussels branch members and try to address some concerns they have about how the union supports members in Continental Europe.
Due to the wonders of wi-fi i have also been able to write to Vernon Coaker about ongoing concerns about photographers' rights, to write to David MIlliband about the UK government's opposition to the draft Ministerial Resolution on developments in anti-terrorism legislation in the Council of Europe and its impact on freedom of expression and information. I've also sent emails to NUJ executive members, chapels, branches, councils about mobilising for a lobby of Parliament in March over the future of local media.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Snow joke (and a variety of snow-related puns)
Why is it the more you do the more interesting things you’d have to blog about but the less time you have to do it.
So, another quick catch-up, dominated by strike ballots.
Monday I braved the snow in suit and wellies – always a fetching look – only to find everyone I was due to meet hadn’t made it in to London. I did however manage to hold a telephone conference with Johnston Press reps about the latest situation and in particular building support for the strike ballots at the Derry Journal and Yorkshire Post/YEP and plough through weeks worth of outstanding correspondence and wrote and did the lay out for our NEC newsletter, Informed.
Tuesday I met with Pension Trustees followed by the NUJ Staff Pension Scheme AGM – an hour of answering questions about the performance of the pension scheme. Never the easiest task – in the middle of a global economic meltdown (or is it a depression?) an unenviable one. Wednesday we had a 3-hour management team meeting before heading over to The Independent for their chapel meeting that massively backed a motion to move to a ballot for industrial action.
Thursday morning I had negotiations with Morning Star management as part of the current dispute there. Some progress was made and talks are ongoing. After a meeting with NUJ staff unions over finance and budgets I went across to City Hall to talk to Guto Hari, Boris Johnson’s head press honcho (and a former Cardiff School of Journalism classmate of mine). But that damned snow – and Boris’ response to it – kept intervening so we’ve rearranged for next week. We wrote setting out our concerns at the closures of local newspapers, loss of jobs and merging of newspaper offices in London, seeking the support of the GLA and Mayor of London for a campaign to protect diversity and quality in London’s media. From there a quick phone call to the BBC regarding our industrial action ballot there and to see what progress could be made in negotiations in advance of ballot papers going out and then straight over to the Morning Star for their evening Chapel meeting to report back on negotiations. Hopefully more talks will take place in the coming days.
Missed the Money Programme on the future of newspaper industry last night but had some texts saying I looked like I was trying to hold up a building because of the way I was leaning against it – you know these TV types, getting you to pose for them. Hopefully that didn’t distract from making the important points about the damage being done to the industry by profiteering and unnecessary cuts.
And now it's snowing again. Great.
So, another quick catch-up, dominated by strike ballots.
Monday I braved the snow in suit and wellies – always a fetching look – only to find everyone I was due to meet hadn’t made it in to London. I did however manage to hold a telephone conference with Johnston Press reps about the latest situation and in particular building support for the strike ballots at the Derry Journal and Yorkshire Post/YEP and plough through weeks worth of outstanding correspondence and wrote and did the lay out for our NEC newsletter, Informed.
Tuesday I met with Pension Trustees followed by the NUJ Staff Pension Scheme AGM – an hour of answering questions about the performance of the pension scheme. Never the easiest task – in the middle of a global economic meltdown (or is it a depression?) an unenviable one. Wednesday we had a 3-hour management team meeting before heading over to The Independent for their chapel meeting that massively backed a motion to move to a ballot for industrial action.
Thursday morning I had negotiations with Morning Star management as part of the current dispute there. Some progress was made and talks are ongoing. After a meeting with NUJ staff unions over finance and budgets I went across to City Hall to talk to Guto Hari, Boris Johnson’s head press honcho (and a former Cardiff School of Journalism classmate of mine). But that damned snow – and Boris’ response to it – kept intervening so we’ve rearranged for next week. We wrote setting out our concerns at the closures of local newspapers, loss of jobs and merging of newspaper offices in London, seeking the support of the GLA and Mayor of London for a campaign to protect diversity and quality in London’s media. From there a quick phone call to the BBC regarding our industrial action ballot there and to see what progress could be made in negotiations in advance of ballot papers going out and then straight over to the Morning Star for their evening Chapel meeting to report back on negotiations. Hopefully more talks will take place in the coming days.
Missed the Money Programme on the future of newspaper industry last night but had some texts saying I looked like I was trying to hold up a building because of the way I was leaning against it – you know these TV types, getting you to pose for them. Hopefully that didn’t distract from making the important points about the damage being done to the industry by profiteering and unnecessary cuts.
And now it's snowing again. Great.
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