A motion proposed by South Yorkshire branch has instructed the union to take part in a fact-finding mission to Palestine/Israel with other trade unions.
Opposition
The National Executive Council (NEC) called on delegates to vote for an amendment which would have excluded the NUJ from the next trade union visit to the region.
“We want a freedom of action for our trade union that we’ve kept for 100 years and want to keep for another 100,” said one NEC member.
Other said they feared for the safety of their colleagues if they joined the delegation.
“I for one don’t want our colleagues to be put in danger just because want to nail our colours to the mast for the sake of our conscience,” said one NEC member.
Truth
But a number of speakers pressed home the importance of NUJ members taking part in the multi-union visit.
“The Middle East is not a football match where journalists can hold impartiality,” said David Crouch of the London Central Branch. “We must be on the side of those who suffer most.”
And another speaker added: “This is not about taking sides but taking a stand for the truth.”
Motion 146, which instructs the NEC to give assistance to journalists facing persecution in Sri Lanka and campaign against denial of basic rights, passed.
WELSH members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) are fighting back despite the “UK media ignoring and patronising Wales.”
Dangerous
Meic Birtwistle, National Executive Council member for Wales, told delegates Welsh democracy was suffering as the result of a lack of resources for Welsh journalists and London news outlets turning a blind eye to Wales.
“There is a dangerous situation in Wales,” said Birtwistle.
“Our society pays through the lack of representation, our democracy pays in terms of accountability, our journalists in job cuts but we are fighting back.”
Outpost
And Ken Smith, Chair of NUJ Wales Council, said the London media treated Wales as a colonial outpost.
He told us only the News of the World still maintains a journalist to cover Wales out of all the London papers, which had left parts of Wales as an information desert, and the Big Issue Cymru has moved production to Scotland.
Fightback
But Smith, who has lost his own job as a sub-editor at a regional Welsh newspaper in the last year, was ready to try new ways to resurrect Welsh media and democracy.
“We are looking to form an organic local news network in Wales based on a journalists’ co-operative, much like an actors co-op,” he said.
Smith also said any cooperative would be able to offer NUJ rates of pay and give journalists the environment to flourish without the pressure of a organisation obsessed with delivering profits to shareholders.
A FIERY debate erupted today after it was suggested the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) should adopt a no platform policy on reporting the British National Party (BNP).
A composite of motions, moved by the NUJ National Executive Council (NEC), which aimed to advise journalists on reporting the BNP responsibly eventually passed.
No platform
But a number of members spoke in favour of adopting a no platform policy which would mean NUJ members would refuse to give any coverage to the BNP.
Two amendments to the original composite motion were forwarded but eventually fell after an hour long debate.
The first from the Press and PR branch of the NUJ called on the NEC to “fully support any journalist who refuses to work with members of the BNP” and support “black members who refuse to allow BNP members to use their publication or TV/radio channel as a platform.”
The second amendment from the South Yorkshire branch called on the BBC “to reverse its decision to invite BNP leader Nick Griffin on to Question Time.”
Split
Never again was shouted by members arguing for and against adopting a no platform policy.
One member of the NEC asking delegates to reject the amendments said: “We live in a democracy, it’s a price we pay, it’s a price worth paying.
“I would find it disheartening if my union denied freedom of speech.”
However David Peel of NUJ Norfolk branch who spoke to support of one of the amendments said: “I fought the National Front in 1979 and it breaks my heart that I’m still in this fight.
“I will refuse to work with the BNP.”
Four other motions regarding the union’s policy on the BNP carried: 101, 102, 104 and 106 (agenda paper).
AMAZING – that’s how National Union of Journalists (NUJ) General Secretary Jeremy Dear described the achievements of John Ley after presenting him with the NUJ Gold Badge and honorary membership.
Ley, a member of the NUJ for 61 years, received a standing ovation from NUJ delegates in his hometown of Southport.
The NUJ’s General Secretary Jeremy Dear said:”It’s amazing for anyone to have 61 years membership of anything but having been a journalist since he was 15 covering war zones, covering a conflict in Northern Ireland and all that time doing voluntary work and helping other journalists is brilliant and it’s great we can recognise that.”
Grateful
And Ley said he was still grateful to the Southport Visitor, the paper he started out on as a 15 year old junior reporter, for launching his career.
“Frankly I will always be grateful to the Southport visitor for giving me the chance as a junior reporter at 15, it’s unheard of today,” he said.
“I feel I may have been a better journalist had I gone to university and had the chance to mature as a writer but there we are; I had to rely on experience on the ground and it stood me in very good stead.
“If I was able to turn the clock back I wouldn’t have changed anything at all, I think it is such a great job and it’s a pity today that it’s so hard to become a journalist.”
<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/24336339@N03/4120218796/” title=”NUJ ADM FRI-4320 by Pobble65, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2667/4120218796_8316700e79.jpg” width=”333″ height=”500″ alt=”NUJ ADM FRI-4320″ /></a>
