Guy Smallman’s speech to conference
Redwatch Refuted
Journalist Peter Lazenby has spoken out against the far-right after a photograph from outside NUJ conference appeared on the extreme nationalist website Redwatch.
The picture (above), taken by NUJ student David Hedges, was taken without permission and appeared on Redwatch yesterday afternoon.
Mr Lazenby, who has been involved in investigating the extreme-right since the 1970s, wants the website shut down. He said: “The NUJ wants the site banned as it’s picking on journalists in particular. It’s incitement to bloody violence, but the government say they can’t do it because it’s sourced in the United States. But we know who runs it locally.
“One is Kevin Watmough, who is a Bradford based Nazi, now associated with a group called the British People’s Party, and the other is a bloke called Simon Sheppard, both of whom have spent time in prison.”
Intimidation
Redwatch is used as a resource to compile personal details and images of suspected anti-fascists and other political opponents. Although the site claims this is for the sake of information gathering only, there have been several incidents of violence in the past.
Mr Lazenby’s image appears on Redwatch as an alleged “Red Journalist”. He said: “I’m not paranoid and I’m not going to let these people affect my life but things do happen.
“In Leeds there were two teachers who were active anti-fascists. Their details appeared on the site and three nights later their car was petrol bombed. A guy in Liverpool also had his details published and somebody turned up on his doorstep and stabbed him in the face.”
As a reporter for the Yorkshire Evening Post and Chairman of the NUJ’s branch in Leeds, Mr Lazenby has none-the-less been a target for Redwatch activists in the past: “They once published an address that I have lived at previously. At that point I had to get in touch with the police and tell them that this place might come under attack. Since then I have moved several times and fortunately they have never found me.”
The appearance of the photograph on Redwatch initially caused dismay among some NUJ delegates, who called yesterday for a general ban on photography whilst conference was in session.
Such fears were countered this morning in a speech by student-journalist Elizabeth Houghton. She said: “I am not one of those student photographers but I, like the rest of you, stand by them. If you say that photography must be banned because Nazis may, at a later point, use any photo to intimidate journalists, you might as well grab their cameras now and throw them on the funeral pyre of freedom of expression.”
ZUJ welcomes the support of NUJ
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Annual Delegate Meeting (ADM) heard from the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists Secretary General, Foster Dongozi.
Speaking to delegates at the Southport Convention Centre, Foster expressed his gratitude for the solidarity offered by the NUJ. He said: “I stand before you humbled and honoured by the support the NUJ offers to the ZUJ.”
Journalists in Zimbabwe are working in an environment where the work they carry out is viewed with extreme hostility by the government. In the 2002 Presidential election the newly formed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were able to offer a serious challenge to Robert Mugabe’s government.
The Daily News, Zimbabwe’s highest circulation independent daily newspaper was seen as the cause of this opposition and banned in September 2003. He said: “Enemies of the state and running dogs of imperialism were terms regularly used by the government to describe the media”.
Media Attacked
These attacks on the media were followed by a number of newspapers, radio and television stations being forced to shut. The result of this was that “journalists left Zimbabwe in droves” which further weakened their ability to report effectively on the problems within their country.
For those journalists who stayed behind there was a real climate of fear. Foster said: “Journalists are living in real fear of violence and torture. In 2008 a journalist was assassinated after filming Morgan Tsvangirai being beaten by government forces.”
Some Hope
Recently there have been some small improvements in the situation, although Foster is quick to point out that it is far from perfect. He said: “There was hope that draconian laws would be repealed. Whilst there have been slight glimmers of light, nothing concrete has been formed.”
Many of the problems faced by Zimbabwean journalists are not simply legislative ones. A significant issue is that of a simple lack of resources. Foster said: “A lack of computers and the internet are very prohibitive in telling Zimbabwe’s story.”
NUJ Support
Foster does feel that the continued support of the NUJ is helping to rectify this situation. He said, “Thank you very much for your (NUJ) assistance. Our members are now able to earn a living wage due to the equipment you have sent us.”
He went on to say that, “we seek assistance to better represent our members in a grim environment and we are particularly grateful for the NUJ visit in August. We believe it has opened many doors for us.”
He finished by saying “when people are afraid of their government that’s a Dictatorship. When the government is afraid of its people that’s democracy.” A strong media can make this happen.
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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.”
Extracts of opening speeches- YouTube
Jeremy Dear, General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists, focused on the jobs crisis in the media in his speech to delegates today.
Job cuts and their impact on communities
With losses affecting all aspects of the industry, the room was encouraged to appreciate campaigning already done and how a stronger union can make bigger differences.
He used the Midlands town of Long Eaton as a a case study – wich has recently lost its only local newspaper. Dear called corporate media “negligent over jobs, reckless with democracy”.
He attacked Trinity Mirror bosses, who recently called NUJ members “reckless and negligent”, for their pay packets and “failed corporate business model for news”.
He amused the room by calling them with “pigs caught with their snouts in the media trough, their heads in the sand and their arses exposed”.
Dear attacked the culture of profits, which is leaving local and national democracy unscrutinised.
Tough times for the union
He went on to highlight how the union itself is facing tough times, and decisions have to be make to ensure the continued support to members
To applause, Dear ended his speech quoting William Morris: “Intelligence enough to conceive, courage enough to will, power enough to compel.
“If our ideas of a new society are to be anything other than a dream, these three qualities must animate the due effective majority of the working people; and then I say, the thing will be done.”
