Great steps were made on the issue of media freedom, specifically relating to the Freedom of Information Act and the Terrorism Act on Saturday afternoon at the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Delegate Meeting.
Freedom of information | photographers’ rights | New media
Freedom of Information
The Campaign for Freedom of Information was started by the union 25 years ago and now the NEC will work to ensure that information does not come at a cost due to the cuts and that the people who are employed to respond to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests are not made redundant.
Mark Watts, who moved the motion on behalf of London Freelance, spoke of the government’s views on the act.
“The serious mistake Tony Blair admitted to making was the Freedom of Information Act”, he said. “Governments do not like the Freedom of Information Act, because it exposes their incompetence and dishonesty.”
Di Harris, seconded the motion on behalf of the Freelance Industrial Council. She said: “Information is power, and if we don’t have it we become weaker. We can’t have that.”
Motion 104 also related to the FOI Act in the Republic of Ireland and to how two major organisations are not included in it. The National Asset Management Agency and National Treasury Management Agency are felt to be behind the current economic climate in Ireland and journalists feel that they should have the right to investigate this.
The Irish Executive Council will lead the campaign to get these organisation included in the FOI Act, and the NEC will now support them after the motion was carried.
Freedom of information | photographers’ rights | New media
Photographers’ rights
Composite I, which covered motions 107 and 109, as put forward by London Photographers and Glasgow branches respectively, outlined the problems photographers and journalists face under the Terrorism Act.
Many photographers are detained under the Terrorism Act, when in fact they are not contravening the law. Marc Vallée, from London Photographers, cited the fact that there has not been one terrorist caught under section 44 of the terrorism act, nor had there been any terrorists who were found to be journalists.
Vallée added in his proposal for the composite: “It’s surprising to remember sometimes, that we all have a common law right to take a picture in a public place.” He added later that “anyone who believes the Terrorism Act protects us from terrorism is deluded and naive”.
The composite was passed, apart from the last three paragraphs, which related to journalists and photographers being issued with a ‘Rules of Engagement’ card so that they know their rights in situations where the police have detained them wrongly.
The remittance of the last section of the composite caused some issues, as London Photographers wished to remit it, but Glasgow did not agree.
Freedom of information | photographers’ rights | New media
New media
Motion 112 was proposed by the New Media Industrial Council and the discussion included a speech by one of the student delegates, Sam Butler, from the Bristol branch.
The motion related to how journalists should exercise caution when using whistle blowing websites, and mandated the NEC to issue guidelines to journalists as to how to use them well.
Butler asked while addressing the meeting: “Do we want to entrust the reputation and credibility of our profession to a third party? Especially a third party that, while working for transparency, is by its very nature clandestine and opaque.”