MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS

WWW.NUJ.ORG.UK | DECEMBER-JANUARY 2019

Putin the boot in! Using humour to defeat Russia’s new tsar Contents

Main feature 14 Resisting Russian Repression Using humour against Putin News ussia can be a daunting place to be a 03 Fresh protests over arrested reporters journalist as the authorities tighten their grip and try to silence free- Anger after bail decision thinkers. But amid adversity there are 04 Local democracy problems always inspiring stories and people. Reporters complain of isolation TeamR 29 in St Petersburg is one such group and our cover feature, written by Barney Cullum, 05 NUJ launches recruitment campaign looks at how a sense of humour and a clear sense of purpose Drive to reach new members keeps them going and keeps their work being read. 06 Number of journalists on the increase And sometimes it can be challenging being a journalist if But fewer in traditional areas you’re a woman. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, Louise Tickle looks at sexual harassment in the media. “Steve Evans, the former BBC foreign correspondent, writes Features our Starting Out column on how he went from high-profile 10 Welsh politics’ toxic heart international broadcasting work to become a local reporter, The story of Carl Sargeant indeed the only reporter, on a newspaper in a small community in Australia. He says it is one of the best things he’s ever done. 12 #Metoo in the media We’re also looking back in time in this issue with our regular Tackling workplace harassment media anniversary feature and also a piece by Bob Doran on 16 Media anniversary how Herodotus, known as the father of history, could also be Looking back to 1927 called the father of journalism. And on that note, with time ticking away for 2018, Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year! Regulars 09 Viewpoint 18 Starting Out 26 And finally...

Christine Buckley Editor @mschrisbuckley

Arts with Attitude Pages 20-21 Editor NUJ [email protected] 72 Acton Street Design London WC1X 9NB Surgerycreations.com [email protected] [email protected] www.nuj.org.uk Advertising Tel: 020 7843 3700 Raymond Letters Melanie Richards Manchester office and Steve Bell Tel: 07494975239 [email protected] Snoddy [email protected] Glasgow office Page 22-23 Print [email protected] Page 19 Warners Dublin office Cover picture www.warners.co.uk ”mikolajn / [email protected] Distribution Alamy Stock Photo GB Mail www.gb-mail.co.uk

02 | theJournalist news Anger over Newsquest pay inbrief... CHANNEL 4 TO HAVE NEW BASE IN LEEDS sparks strike in Cumbria Channel 4 will set up a new national HQ in Leeds in an attempt Journalists at Newsquest titles in are being made redundant three days before to boost the way it reflects life Carlisle, Whitehaven and Workington are to Christmas. This has led to very large workloads outside London.The broadcaster go out on strike on December 20th over pay. for the staff remaining. will keep another headquarters in Action will hit the Carlisle News & Star, the A spokesperson for the Carlisle chapel said: the capital, but will move about 200 Cumberland News, the Workington Times & “Newsquest appears to have a business Newsquest appears to of its 800 staff to Yorkshire. Leeds Star and The Whitehaven News. In Workington model based primarily on cost-cutting. Over have a business model was chosen above Birmingham and there was a 100 per cent vote for strike action the past year, the effect of this in our Greater Manchester. and action short of a strike (with an 80 per Cumbrian newsrooms has been dramatic. It based primarily on cent turnout) and in Whitehaven 80 per cent has driven away most of our most experienced cost-cutting. Over the voted for strike action and 100 per cent to take local journalists, whose professionalism and “ LETTS LEAVES THE action short of strike action (with a turnout of local standing has benefited the company – past year, the effect MAIL FOR THE TIMES 100 per cent) and our community – enormously. Quentin Letts, the Daily Mail’s Last month the chapel in Carlisle voted for Collectively, their departure represents a of this in our parliamentary sketch writer, has action over the failure of the company to offer catastrophic loss of experience and Cumbrian newsrooms left the paper after 18 years to join any pay rise. They have not had an increase knowledge. The NUJ in Cumbria believes the The Times, The Sunday Times and since 2015 and only two rises in the past 11 journalists, together with colleagues in the has been dramatic The Sun. He will write sketches, years. NUJ members in Carlisle had a 100 per commercial departments, are the primary reviews and features for The Times, cent vote in favour of strike action on a 87.5 asset of Newsquest’s Cumbrian business. It is also appearing on its Red Box per cent turnout. illogical for the company, while being prepared political podcast and at events for Newsquest has made more than a 100 to invest in technology, to freeze the pay of Times+ members. people redundant since it took over the its journalists indefinitely, as appears to be Cumbrian News Group in March and now staff the case.” MADELEY BECOMES AN AGONY UNCLE The Telegraph has appointed Outrage over bail extension broadcaster Richard Madeley as its new agony uncle. Madeley, who is The union’s Irish governing the journalists in the first place, best known for TV work with his body expressed outrage at let alone extended bail. Gerry wife as Richard and Judy, takes over the further bail imposed on Barry Carson, joint cathaoirleach from Graham Norton, who left in McCaffrey and Trevor Birney, (chairperson) of the council, said: October after 12 years of answering whose film investigated the UVF “The continued targeting of the readers’ questions. massacre of six civilians in two journalists by the police is Loughinisland in 1994. simply unacceptable. Members Their award winning film, No stress that the Police Service of LEITH LEAVES THE Stone Unturned, raised questions Northern Ireland should be EVENING STANDARD of collusion in the RUC concentrating on bringing the London’s Evening Standard has investigation into the murders. Musgrave police station last killers to justice, not arresting axed a long-running weekly Members of the Irish Executive month when the bail was journalists who bring to light vital columnist as part of cost cutting Council, some of whom travelled extended to March, were information that is in the public and an effort to refresh its comment long distances to protest at outraged that the police arrested interest.” pages. Sam Leith, also the Spectator’s literary editor, began his column nine years ago.

CONDE NAST CHIEF Jim Acosta joins Brighton branch EXECUTIVE TO GO Bob Sauerberg, Conde Nast’s chief Jim Acosta, the CNN correspondent with such dignity, courtesy and professionalism executive, will leave his role to who had his White House pass removed after throughout. So we invited him to join our make way for a new global chief questioning President Donald Trump closely, branch as an honorary member. executive as part of a major has agreed to become an honorary member “As you can imagine, we were thrilled when restructure exercise. The of the NUJ’s Brighton and Sussex branch. Brian he accepted and we tweeted that we had just reorganisation of the publisher of Williams, branch secretary, said: “In Brighton recruited a distinguished new member. It went Vanity Fair, Vogue and New Yorker and Sussex we wanted to demonstrate our gangbusters! According to Twitter, 100,000

MEDIAPUNCH INC / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO STOCK MEDIAPUNCH INC / ALAMY will include the US business support for a fellow journalist who found people have seen that tweet. If they all turn up merging with Conde Nast himself at the centre of an issue that affects us at our next meeting we’re going to need a International. all – not least because Jim conducted himself bigger room.”

theJournalist | 03 news inbrief... Isolation biggest issue for TRUST FALLS IN TV NEWSREADERS TV newsreaders have suffered the local democracy reporters sharpest fall in trust over the past year among UK professions, Local democracy reporters – individual news organisation they were according to a survey. The Ipsos journalists taking part in a BBC-funded contracted to. Mori Veracity Index, which lists the initiative to fill a gap in the reporting of They also voiced concerns about their most and least trusted professions, council and other public sector issues across stories not being published quickly enough; shows that trust in TV newsreaders the UK – are enjoying their work but also that certain publishers preferred lighter stories ‘to tell the truth’ has fallen by five experiencing some problems, an NUJ summit and trivia; that they were not getting per cent to 62 per cent in 2018. has found. attribution for their The BBC funds the stories and that they journalists as part of were being asked to JOLIE AND DIMBLEBY its latest charter undertake work beyond TAKE REINS AT TODAY commitments but the remit of their role – Angelina Jolie, actor and they are employed by including by the BBC campaigner, and David Dimbleby, regional news organisations. One LDR said she had to fight to be issued the outgoing Question Time host, The BBC has reported that 144 local with a mobile phone, while others said they will guest edit Radio 4’s Today democracy reporters (LDRs) have been struggled to be allowed to put taxis on Some relationships programme for a day each during allocated to 59 news organisations in expenses after attending late-night council the festive period. In another England, Scotland and Wales. meetings and sometimes felt vulnerable. with council press holiday departure from the usual Stories written by the reporters are shared The LDRs reported that some relationships schedule, the subject of outer space with more than 800 media organisations that with council press officers had become difficult officers had become will be explored in a themed edition. have signed up to be part of the Local News because they suddenly found their local difficult because they Partnerships scheme. authority under greater scrutiny than before “ The overwhelming problem voiced at because of their work. suddenly found their DENNIS APPOINTS the summit was that LDRs frequently felt A chapel has been started for Reach- local authority under GRIFFIN AS CHAIR isolated because their host local newspaper employed LDRs and one is being set up by Dennis Publishing has appointed was unfamiliar with how the scheme should those working for JPIMedia. The NUJ is looking greater scrutiny former Tribune Publishing chief work. They reported that the BBC was at how best to set one up for Newsquest. executive Jack Griffin as chair. reluctant to get involved, saying the LDR If you are an LDR, you can contact the NUJ than before Dennis was taken over earlier this should discuss work matters with the at [email protected]. year by Exponent, the private equity firm that created Gorkana. Griffin takes over from Mike Darcey, Merseyside agreement worth the wait who spent a year as chairman. It has taken 10 years of negotiation involving four fathers and mothers of WALES AWARDS GETS chapel and three officials but last month the RECORD ENTRIES NUJ’s Merseyside chapel signed a new house The Journalists’ Charity Wales agreement with Reach, which publishes the Media Awards 2019 have attracted Liverpool Echo and other titles. their highest number of entries. Chris Morley, the NUJ’s northern and agreement that was jealously guarded by the Nearly 240 submissions have been Midlands senior organiser, said the agreement chapel. But, over time, large elements made in 21 categories – an increase was comprehensive, bringing the previous one became obsolete. It took us a long time to of about 20 per cent on last year. from the 1980s up to date. He said: “The renegotiate the agreement but it was very The awards celebrate journalism Merseyside chapel was never derecognised much worth it.” made in Wales for a Welsh audience. throughout the dark Thatcher days and Pictured from left Chris Walker (managing beyond and, as befitting such a great working editor), Ali Machray (editor-in-chief) Mark city, our members enjoyed a very good house Johnson (deputy FoC) and Chris Morley. PAPER BREACHED PRIVACY GUIDELINES The Thurrock Independent breached privacy guidelines by showing a Radical Harry Richardson remembered woman’s bank details in a video published alongside a story about A meeting of He caused a theatrical secretary, was a radical views to ‘put bread and fly-tipping, according to press Manchester NUJ recently storm in Manchester more playwright whose work was butter on the table’, which regulator Ipso. Documents remembered Harry than a century ago – at the staged at the Gaiety Theatre. outraged the Manchester containing Jenna Cosentino’s bank Richardson, the first editor same time he helped set up His play, Gentlemen of the Guardian, which saw itself as and insurance information were of the NUJ’s journal and a the union. Richardson, the Press, said journalists wrote morally superior to the visible in the video, which was general secretary. NUJ’s second general pieces contrary to their own ‘yellow press’. published on the website on July 17.

04 | theJournalist

news NUJ hits the road with a inbrief... FACEBOOK FUNDS NEW JOURNALISTS major recruitment drive Facebook is paying £4.5 million to train 80 new community The union has embarked on a major magazines, books, public relations and journalists. Those chosen for the recruitment drive to boost income. It has communications, spoke to delegates about Community News Project will be created a series of posters to highlight the the benefits of NUJ membership. paid as they are trained by the benefits of NUJ membership and events have In Dublin, Irish organiser Ian McGuinness National Council for the Training been held in a number of locations. joined new union members at the inaugural Edinburgh freelance of Journalists and will work in Last month, the Edinburgh chapel meeting of news website regional newsrooms during a freelance branch organised a TheJournal.ie, where the NUJ branch invited two-year programme. REASONS meeting inviting students to TO JOIN ethical code of conduct played a students to hear hear a panel of speakers central part in the discussions speakers discuss how discuss how to make the about what the union can do in “ FT OFFICES ARE SOLD transition from student a media workplace. to make the transition FOR £115 MILLION journalism into the profession. David Woods, who is the The FT’s headquarters on The event was chaired by designer for The Journalist, from student Southwark Bridge, London, has Denitsa Tsekova, who is the produced the new posters. journalism into the been sold for £115 million ahead of student representative for the ☞ They cover a range of topics the newspaper’s move back to its branch, and speakers included Flexible Working which include Pay, Ethical former home in the City. Former FT Juggling a family and working can be tricky. Flexible profession working agreements are a vital tool in protecting part- time workers and women returning from maternity Sam Bradley, editorial leave, boosting the retention of skilled staff and ensuring Journalism, Ending the Gender owner Pearson sold the building to parents and individuals with caring responsibilities can balance their work demands with family life. The NUJ assistant at The Drum, George negotiates progressive approaches to flexible working Pay Gap, Flexible Working, and lobbies for improvements to employment law. M&G Real Estate. The FT will move Are you keeping good company? Ward, a multimedia journalist Join the NUJ today at Be Part of a Collective Voice, back to its old home of Bracken nuj.org.uk/join www.nuj.org.uk and broadcaster, and Offering Support and Help, House in the middle of 2019. Franchesca Hashemi, Yasmin Diversity Matters, Press Morgan-Griffiths and Jen Stout who together Freedom, Respect at Work, Career work for The Nine at BBC Scotland. Opportunities and Networking. COURT COVERAGE In London, young professionals and They can be used as part of the union’s UNDER PRESSURE students hoping for careers in book publishing recruitment drive and individual branch and Tristan Kirk, the Evening Standard’s were targeted at the Society of Young chapel campaigns. Download them from the court correspondent, has warned Publishers’ conference. The union had a stall resources section of the website. that dwindling numbers of at the event, where more than 200 delegates Contact [email protected] for help journalists are reporting from met to discuss the future of the industry. with recruitment materials and if you require courts, with only two courts in Fiona Swarbrick, national organiser for jpegs of the designs for use in social media. London getting ‘proper coverage’. He told the Society of Editors’ conference that only the Old Bailey and Southwark Crown Court are well attended by journalists. FT journalists pass no confidence vote SHORTLIST GOES The FT’s NUJ chapel has follows controversy over Mr £280,000 of his £500,000 that in a speech to staff Mr AFTER 10 YEARS passed a vote of no Ridding’s pay. After his £2.6 pay increase. Ridding did not mention his ShortList, a free men’s magazine, confidence in the million remuneration was The chapel accused Mr remuneration and that has closed after more than 10 years newspaper’s chief executive condemned by the FT chapel Ridding of losing touch wih subsequent debate on the in print as owner Shortlist Media John Ridding.The move Mr Ridding returned staff and FT values. It said issue was limited. rebrands as the Stylist Group, named after its free women’s magazine. The group said it was putting all its efforts into Stylist. Chapel bar takes to the stage CENTAUR PUTS THE The Chapel bar, the restaurant and bar created in the refurbishment of the NUJ’s head LAWYER UP FOR SALE office in London’s King’s Cross, has reopened with a new tenant. The bar was forced to close in Centaur Media is trying to sell The the summer when the hospitality company running it went into administration. Lawyer magazine and financial The new tenant is the Bread and Roses pub and theatre company, which runs the Bread and services titles Money Marketing Roses pub in Clapham, south London. The pub and theatre operation are part of the Workers’ and Mortgage Strategy. The Beer Company that runs bars at the Glastonbury festival and other events around the UK. It is in publisher appointed Livingstone turn owned by the Battersea and Wandsworth TUC. Partners to advise on the sale of The bar’s catering team will be hosting residencies for street food and pop-up food outlets so The Lawyer and Cavendish menus will vary. Bread and Roses will also start theatre performances at the Chapel bar in the Corporate Finance are advising on new year under the name of The Chapel Playhouse. its financial services division.

theJournalist | 05 news inbrief... British journalist workforce BBC HIRES ISLAM AS ECONOMICS EDITOR Faisal Islam, Sky News’ political expands 12% to 73,000 editor, has been appointed economics editor for BBC News. He replaces The number of journalists working in More respondents hold a journalism Kamal Ahmed who is becoming the Britain has risen from 65,000 in 2012 to qualification than in 2012, and the majority of corporation’s editorial director, a 73,000 now, according to a major report on journalists feel they have had sufficient new management role. Islam starts the media industry by the National Council for training in ethical issues, the report found. at the BBC in the new year. He was the Training of Journalists. It also demonstrated a lack of diversity, previously economics editor for The Journalists at Work report found that showing that 90 per cent of journalists are Channel 4 News and economics the practice of journalism has become much white. Similarly, it identified concerns over correspondent at The Observer. more varied, with fewer social class, with 72 journalists working in per cent of journalists traditional areas such as having parents who SITWELL’S VEGAN newspapers and worked in a higher-level JOKE BACKFIRES magazines and more occupation, compared William Sitwell, a food critic who engaged in broadcasting with 41 per cent of the appears on Masterchef, left his role and digital roles. overall workforce. as editor of Waitrose’s food Journalists are also Joanne Butcher, chief “Journalists appear to magazine after he made a joke more confident about their trade than six executive of the NCTJ, said: “Although be more confident in about vegans. In response to a pitch years ago, according to Ian Hargreaves, journalists are now more positive about from a freelance writer about a professor of digital economy at Cardiff journalism being an open and receptive general … 62 per cent series on vegan food, he suggested University and chair of the research project. profession, diversity remains a big issue. would recommend a series about killing vegans. Professor Hargreaves, a former editor of We are therefore increasing our commitment “ The Independent and head of news at the and allocating more resources to tackling their trade to a BBC, said: “Journalists appear to be more the problem. MORE GOOD TASTE confident in general, as indicated in answers “We’re working with leading employers to young person against FOR THE NORTH WEST to my all-time favourite question in these forge a new strategy for equality, diversity and 51 per cent in 2012 Jade Wright, a former Liverpool Echo surveys which asks whether journalists would inclusion, which also features ambitions to journalist, has set up a food and recommend their trade to a young person. scale up the Journalism Diversity Fund and drink newspaper in the north west This year, 62 per cent of journalists say yes to to attract and train more journalists in our Ian Hargreaves, to complement the quarterly that, against 51 per cent in 2012.” local communities.” Cardiff University magazine Good Taste. The free newspaper has a distribution of 25,000 in Merseyside, Chester, Lancashire and North Wales. Shetland News readers rally for website

Shetland News, a hyperlocal news publisher that serves RASPBERRY PI 23,000 people on the island, has launched a website paid for entirely STARTS MAGAZINE by its readers. Computer manufacturer Raspberry Hans J Marter, managing editor and NUJ member, said: “A major Pi has started a fortnightly upgrade of our website was essential to keep up with what is magazine dedicated to video game expected of a modern website design. Yet investing around £20,000 development and video gaming. is a major challenge for a small company such as ours. There was no Wireframe magazine said it looks at public funding available to help, so we decided to ask our readers.” how games are made, who makes The Shetland News supporters’ scheme (https://supporters. them and how readers can make shetnews.co.uk), launched in August 2016, was a success with more their own games. than 300 people supporting it with a small monthly subscription or by one-off donations. The www.shetnews.co.uk site, which attracts 80,000 unique users per month, is financed by local advertising and publishes between five and eight original news stories a day. FILM STORIES STARTS OUT WITH PRINT Simon Brew, Den of Geek founder and former editor-in-chief, has Support for Johnston Press employees launched Film Stories, a monthly print magazine focused on the The union has been which the newspaper group million, put in £35 million in A virtual group for ex-staff British film industry. Brew, who working with staff and owed money, led by new cash and ditched affected by the hiving off of raised £10,000 funding for Film former staff of Johnston American hedge fund, Johnston Press’s defined the pension scheme has Stories, said that he chose print Press following the sale of GoldenTree. The bond pension benefit scheme, been created. It can be as the format because he was the newspaper group to a holders agreed to cut the which will now go into the contacted by emailing a big fan of both magazines and consortium of lenders to £220 million debt to £85 Pension Protection Fund. [email protected] long-form writing.

06 | theJournalist news

inbrief...

CADWALLADR DATA STORY WINS AWARD Carole Cadwalladr has won the L’Esprit de RSF prize for her work showing how personal data was used in online electoral campaigns. Her investigation, published in The Observer, showed the power of digital platforms, especially Facebook, and examined the activities of data consultant Cambridge Analytica.

TODAY PODCASTS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE BBC Radio 4’s Today programme is launching a podcast with a ‘different take’ on the news to attract younger listeners. Beyond Today is presented by Tina Daheley and Matthew Price. It is staffed mainly by female journalists younger than 30 from across the BBC.

DAILY POLITICS DIGEST STARTS UP Former Evolve Politics editor Matt Turner has launched a concise evening briefing on UK politics. The Communiqué UK briefing is released daily through Twitter and Facebook (@TheCommuniqueUK). A YouTube channel is planned for 2019.

ESQUIRE MAGAZINE CUTS FREQUENCY Men’s lifestyle magazine Esquire will move from being a monthly to coming out six times a year, and its cover price will rise from £4.35 to £6 from February 2019. Esquire UK, owned by Hearst, has a total Vigils held for Jamal Khashoggi circulation of just under 60,500, of which 28,500 magazines are free. The union held vigils outside the two million followers on Twitter, he was a Saudi Arabian embassies in London and high-profile commentator on Arab affairs. This Dublin to mark the death of Jamal Khashoggi, year, he established a new political party SHROPSHIRE WEEKLY the Saudi journalist who was killed inside the called Democracy for the Arab World Now. NEWS TITLE CLOSES Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in October. The vigils were held just before the Weekly news digest magazine Khashoggi, a former newspaper editor and He wrote articles International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Shropshire Weekly has closed after editor in chief of a broadcasting channel, left against Journalists, a United Nations- less than eight months. The Saudi Arabia in June 2017 to go into self- critical of the Saudi recognised day to highlight the number of Midlands News Association, which imposed exile in the US where he wrote for government and had journalists killed around the world whose publishes the Shropshire Star, had the Washington Post. murders go unsolved. struggled to achieve enough sales He wrote articles critical of the Saudi opposed intervention The NUJ is working with the International to sustain it. Shropshire Weekly, government and the country’s crown prince “ Federation of Journalists to campaign launched on March 2, and was and king and he had also opposed Saudi in Yemen for a UN Convention for the Protection of aimed at people who did not have Arabia’s intervention in Yemen. With nearly Journalists. time to read a daily newspaper.

theJournalist | 07 campaign

Jenny Sims reports on NUJ lobbying to help those with a devastating disease

for longer or to support those living in residential care. In Wales, I met the policy director of Alzheimer’s Cymru for a briefing, which helped me submit suggestions for inclusion in the Welsh government’s Dementia Action Plan for Wales, 2018-2022, and later to comment on BRAIN LIGHT / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO STOCK LIGHT / ALAMY BRAIN the draft document. These included improving rural services and a wider adoption of digital technology. A call Over time, we’ve made contacts and built relationships with charities in England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and for better Scotland, which was the first country to publish a National Dementia Strategy. Scottish 60+ council member Ann Coltart and I attended a Scottish dementia Alzheimer’s Society’s annual general meeting and conference and wrote reports for the NUJ’s Scottish, Welsh care and 60+ Councils. In addition, as an affiliate of the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), which represents around 1,000 hen Bob Norris, a are more than 850,000 people with organisations with more than one former NUJ assistant dementia in the UK, with numbers set million members in total, the NUJ general secretary, died to rise to one million by 2025; Ireland campaigned successfully to get it to W on October 12 aged 78, has 55,000, predicted to rise to more NUJ members adopt ‘lobbying for faster dementia tributes poured into than 68,000 in 10 years. Norris and his diagnosis and better services’ as policy. the union. His wife Pauline and son, supporters won the vote. were“ asked for As a result, Jan Shortt, NPC general Drew, colleagues and friends What happened next? For readers secretary, recently wrote to Matt remembering the man, his work and unfamiliar with the internal workings ideas by the Hancock, England’s health secretary, the campaigns he championed. and structures of the NUJ (and there Alzheimer’s calling for more funding for dementia. This is not an obituary. It is the story must be many), following a DM, all In another recent development, NUJ of how his personal experience of approved motions are allocated to one Society for a members were asked for ideas by the dementia led to the NUJ campaigning or more of the councils to deal with. Alzheimer’s Society for a media guide for more than two years to help people In its wisdom, the NUJ decided the media guide on on dementia, and to comment on the get a diagnosis earlier and to receive dementia motion should be shared draft document. better treatment and care. between the 60+ and the Equality dementia. this is Published just a few weeks before This has included writing to the councils. And, despite no extra budget Bob’s death, the dementia-friendly health secretary in England for more for the work and few pairs of hands to now available media and broadcast guide has been social care funding for people with do it, the 60+ council still agreed to approved by the NUJ’s ethics dementia, making a submission to the make it their priority until the next DM. committee, and is available on the NUJ Welsh government’s consultation on its The most sensible plan seemed to be website (www.nuj.org.uk/documents/ first Dementia Action Plan and to contact all the leading dementia dementia-media-guide-2018). encouraging Irish members to sign a charities in the UK and Ireland, Sadly, because of his illness, Bob was dementia charity’s petition to the Irish examine their research and current ” unaware of many of these government for increased funding for lobbying campaigns, and offer support. developments, but his family and community support and home care. On the bright side, there is evidence friends can be proud that he made a It began in April 2016, when Bob, on of successful pioneering projects difference, and that NUJ lobbying on behalf of his Portsmouth branch, throughout England, Scotland, dementia will continue. addressed more than 500 members at Wales, Northern Ireland and A Just Giving page for donations to the NUJ’s Biennial Delegate Meeting Ireland. But everywhere, there Alzheimer’s Research has been set up (DM) in Southport, where policies are are still problems with in Bob Norris’s name by his son. See: proposed, debated, voted on and underdiagnosis or late www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ adopted or dropped. diagnosis, and a need for Bobnorris Motion 62 called on the NUJ to lobby better training for health and all governments for ‘faster access to care professionals and better Jenny Sims is joint chair of the 60+ diagnosis and better services’. services, whether to enable Council and Wales member of the The Alzheimer’s Society says there people to stay in their own homes Freelance Industrial Council

8 | theJournalist viewpoint

Nick Inman calls on columnists to test out their arguments

Many columnists go beyond certainty to prophecy. They are Make the case against tempted to predict and even promise the future. ‘If x then y,’ they reason. This has an irresistible logic but it to back up your belief assumes you have all the variables of the universe under control. Nuance, the conditional tense, want so much to agree Most columnists don’t seem to want tentative speculation, balance and with you. You’re a to do this. The commonest mistake I judgment are sadly all becoming lost respected columnist or see every day is for a writer to believe virtues in a world that just wants to I broadcaster. You have his or her beliefs are a true reflection hear ranting and denunciation. an expert opinion to of reality. They are not: we all rely on Please, if you have space to express pass on. You’ve thought it through and beliefs but they are never right a priori. yourself in the media, be aware you you are giving it me straight. As journalists, we are vulnerable to the enjoy a privileged platform denied “The UK should leave the EU idea that an argument has to be all or to most mortals. Don’t abuse it. Fake immediately,” you say, “under any nothing. We are faithful to the tyranny news is bad enough but, if we get fake conditions.” “The BBC is biased to the of the angle because it makes life argument as well, we are certainly lost. right (or the left).” “Free markets solve much less messy. But you must not get all problems.” “Homeopathy is quack suckered into starting with a conclusion medicine that deludes the gullible.” and engineering the evidence to justify “Journalists should have unrestricted it. That’s what ideologists do. They freedom to report what they want for can never understand why balanced the greater good.” people question their workings out. One I have an open mind. I’m listening. columnist recently went further than But I’m going to think as well, so make this: he gave better evidence against his it good. argument than for it but still managed Because you are a journalist, you to reach the conclusion express yourself well. That’s a given but he had chosen. that’s also what worries me. You need Another easy way more than a command of words to put to gain a pyrrhic forward an argument that shares ideas victory is to lump and moves debate forward. all your opponents If you don’t apply a little wisdom, together, like the you will be wasting my time and yours. national science You’ll confirm the prejudices of your editor who recently friends and drive everyone else away. assumed that You only have to look at current politics all people who to see where such polarisation leads. You mustn’t get speculate about There are formal rules to making a intelligent design strong point but they all come down to “suckered into are creationists. Any one question you need to ask yourself: starting with a ludicrous proposition what if I am wrong? put forward by one Before you make the case for your conclusion and extremist can be assumed to diagnostic or prognostic, you must be the opinion of everyone else be able to make the case against. You engineering the in the camp. must anticipate every objection. If Conversely, you should never you fear this is going to weaken your evidence to justify assume you speak for anyone self-righteousness, your argument other than yourself, let alone is probably no good. If you test your it. That’s what everyone else: ‘we-our-us’ is argument, on the other hand, you will ideologists do a devious concept that tries almost certainly strengthen it – even to homogenise the opinions if you have to modify it to conform of those you consider to have with reality. common cause with you.  8 For all the latest news from” the NUJ go to www.nuj.org.uk

theJournalist | 9 My story Welsh politics’ toxic heart

The story of Carl Sargeant had a major impact For many sympathetic to Sargeant, natural justice appeared to have taken leave of absence. on Welsh politics and on Martin Shipton At his funeral, mourners were urged to wear white ribbons in solidarity with domestic abuse victims – and as the sign can pinpoint with some accuracy the of a pledge to do what they could to end violence against moment that covering Welsh politics changed women. irrevocably for me. Something did not add up. Over the months since I It was around 11am on 7 November last Sargeant’s death, there has been endless speculation about year. My phone rang and a distraught friend what happened in the days before he was sacked. Some said through tears: “Carl has taken his own life”. evidence has emerged of collusion between individuals He was referring to Carl Sargeant (pictured right), who four within government and others outside it in advance of days before had been removed from the Welsh Government’s Sargeant’s sacking, but much remains unknown, leading to an cabinet by first minister Carwyn Jones following unspecified atmosphere of suspicion and distrust in Welsh political life. allegations of sexual harassment. He was first elected in 2003, four years after the Welsh I let out an involuntary “What?” that mingled astonishment Assembly came into being. At the time of his death, I and anguish, and was heard across the newsroom. described him as an authentic working class politician – one It was an appalling and unexpected sequel to the shocking of an increasingly rare breed. news of his dismissal the previous Friday. I socialised with him and on occasions a group of us – all I have been a journalist for more than 40 years and have involved in politics in a number of guises – would go for been aware of a number of politicians over the years who a curry. have been notorious for their inappropriate behaviour He became chief whip of the Labour group and then a towards women. minister, but he remained down to earth and unfailingly On one occasion, when I was a witness to blatantly gross kind. behaviour, I reported the individual to his party. I was later When I met him in his local Labour club in north Wales for assured that he had been given a warning, but months later the first time during one election campaign, he asked one of he was promoted to a ministerial role. his team to walk me to the station so I would not get lost and Carl Sargeant was never on my list of sleazeballs. On no could catch the last train to Cardiff. occasion did I observe him behaving in a lewd or suggestive Convivial as he was, I became aware of his vulnerability way towards women. He was a champion of women’s rights three years before he died when he told me during dinner at a and a crusader against domestic abuse who piloted legislation friend’s flat how he was being bullied by a senior government to tackle it. official. Implausible as it sounded, he convinced me that it Women who knew him as well as men were shocked that no was indeed possible for an official to bully a minister. details of his alleged transgressions were given to him before Unfortunately, neither Sargeant nor anyone else wanted to he was sacked from his role in the cabinet and humiliated go on the record at the time, and he got cold feet when I publicly by being suspended from the Labour Party in a way produced a draft story about the alleged bullying. that was clearly inconsistent with the party’s own sexual I felt able to write and publish a piece about it after his harassment policy. death, as part of an effort to establish the truth. No written statements from complainants were taken and, Carl Sargeant’s death and the circumstances that surround instead of referring Sargeant for investigation by a specialist it continue to dominate Welsh politics. civil servant, under the ministerial code (as Damian Green Even when a story has no bearing on the late minister, the was by Theresa May), a special adviser was tasked with events of last November often conspire to impinge on it. conducting a cursory ad hoc inquiry, the results of which did Former ministers and advisers have spoken of a toxic not stay in the government but were passed to the Labour culture at the heart of Welsh politics. Personal relations Party. between people who have been friends for years have been

10 | theJournalist My story

MATTHEW HORWOOD / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

put under strain in a way that previously would have been unimaginable. Attempts have been made to nobble stories, sometimes with success. Even though Carwyn Jones has announced that he will be Relations stepping down as first minister later in the year, his role in the Sargeant affair remains under intense scrutiny. Those between people around him are sensitive to any negative publicity that may “ who have been damage his legacy. Underlying trust has broken down, despite a superficial friends for years attempt to maintain business as usual. Before November 2017, things were very different. From an have been put external point of view, Welsh politics was seen as the least interesting of the three devolved nations. under strain in Scotland and Northern Ireland hold out to the English the an unimaginable unedifying prospects of independence and a return to terrorism. way. Attempts Wales, by contrast, appears not to hold out very much, apart from the occasional sex scandal. have been made It simply does not have the leverage to cause significant trouble, which is one reason why the Welsh Government to nobble stories, caved in to Westminster on the EU withdrawal bill ‘power grab’ issue while the Scottish Government continued to sometimes with hold out. success Nevertheless, politicians and other players in Welsh civil society remain preoccupied with the status of Wales and the constitutional change they say is necessary to even up relations between the four nations of the UK. Carwyn Jones had become the champion of a constitutional convention, one of whose remits would be to come up with workable proposals for a second chamber at Westminster to replace the House of Lords. From time to time he made speeches that were well ” received by academics and the slightly wider Welsh civil society community. The conundrum, of course, is how to come up with proposals that will be acceptable in England, which through sheer size holds all the negotiating chips, certainly in relation to Wales. Without any leverage, Wales is in the position of permanent supplicant to its next-door neighbour, often mixing indignation with an appeal for fair play. When Westminster says no – to electrification of the main railway line beyond Cardiff, for example – there are howls of disapproval from Welsh politicians who know they are impotent to do anything about it. Never mind: the headlines in Welsh newspapers and packages on Welsh TV news channels play well with the local parties. When Welsh political journalists are not reporting on the latest perceived insult from Westminster, they are grappling with the challenges of providing decent public services with limited funds in what is the UK’s poorest nation. At least that was the case until last November.

theJournalist | 11 harassment at work #MeToo in the media Louise Tickle on sexual harassment becoming discomfited at work. Journalist Noelle Jarvis still finds it hard to say the word ‘rape’. But that is what happened in the newsroom and how to tackle it a few years ago, when she was in her early 20s and a colleague 10 years older ‘established a friendship of sorts’. “He would start conversations about all the girls who were ou are protected from sexual harassment in interested in him and ask a lot of questions about my the work place by the Equality Act 2010 – or so personal life too, which I laughed off or made polite says the TUC’s new guide on the subject The comments about,” she recalls. “Retrospectively, I felt Y guide adds:“It does not matter how long you uncomfortable because I didn’t know how to tell him ‘this have worked for your employer or whether isn’t an appropriate conversation and I don’t want to have it’.” you are a permanent employee, an apprentice or a trainee, on a Jarvis says: “He ultimately forced himself on me” despite fixed-term contract or supplied by an agency, you are still her repeatedly saying “no”. Though she asked him to protected.”* acknowledge what happened and apologise, “it was like In theory, but in practice? In the media, it doesn’t always getting blood from a stone,” she says. “Eventually, I managed feel that way. In the wake of #MeToo campaign, while there is to drag [out] an irate sentiment along the lines of ‘fine, I’m greater awareness of what behaviour is, and is not acceptable, sorry if you felt like that’.” She did not feel she could discuss egins the female journalists are still experiencing harassment and such a deeply personal issue with anyone at her workplace, a TUC’s new discrimination. news outlet with a culture she felt was concerned only with guide, “He was a senior editor. We got chatting in the pub and he protecting senior staff. “It barely crossed my mind to think Protection was giving me careers advice,” recalls Jenny Cooper. “As we that anyone would care,” she says. from Sexual were saying goodbye, he grabbed me and started snogging The chair of Women in Journalism (WiJ), Sunday Times bHarassment (http:// me, tongue down my throat, quite handsy as well. I tried to editorial director Eleanor Mills, says that while her newspaper tinyurl.com/ push him away twice. He went ‘come back, come to mine’, and has taken a strong, explicit stand against sexual harassment you know, he was married, with kids … I was like no, I can’t.” and discrimination, several WiJ events have uncovered a Cooper, who was early in her career, was working casual distressing picture. shifts at a national news organisation, hoping for a contract. “What was striking and upsetting is that […] it wasn’t so “From that moment on, I didn’t go to the pub any more much the older men who were the worst perpetrators, it was because I was worried about seeing him,” she says. Quite apart from the stress and anxiety caused by his actions, there was an opportunity cost. “I’d been told that no one ever got a promotion without going The advice from ACAS to the pub on a Friday, and I can see why because you can talk to people who you never normally speak to in the newsroom,” she The following is an excerpt alleged harasser didn’t proceedings, provided this says. “You meet senior people as well as junior – it’s really nice. from the ACAS guidelines on mean it to be. can be done fairly. And I just stopped going because I felt really uncomfortable.” sexual harassment, which • An employer should make • Experiencing sexual Cooper did not want to see her assailant outside work and can be downloaded from clear to workers what sort harassment is often tried to avoid him in the office. Did he ever apologise? She www.acas.org.uk/index. of behaviour would be extremely emotional and laughs quietly. “He never really spoke to me again.” aspx?articleid=6078. considered sexual distressing for the worker harassment and that it is involved. This means an While in the end she did tell management what had happened • S exual harassment is unacceptable. employer should make and was impressed at how well she was supported, it seems “a unwanted conduct of a • If a complaint is reported to reporting such a matter as lot of young women speak to other young women about sexual nature. It has the police, or criminal court stress free as possible. harassment but they don’t report, says Stephanie Boland, a purpose or effect of proceedings are being • It is also likely to be very Prospect magazine editor and a cofounder of The Second Source. violating the dignity of a pursued, an employer must distressing for a worker to Set up by female journalists to combat sexual harassment worker, or creating an still investigate the be accused of sexual and discrimination, The Second Source has held meetings, intimidating, hostile, complaint as an harassment. Whilst a fair where, Boland says “it was striking how often the same reasons degrading, humiliating or employment matter. An and thorough investigation for not reporting kept coming up. “ ‘I won’t be taken seriously’; offensive environment for employer may then follow will need to be carried out, ‘he’s more senior and more valuable to the company’; ‘my them. Something can still its disciplinary procedure, accused workers should contract is easier to terminate’,” she says. be considered sexual without awaiting the also be offered support and As Cooper found, when there are multiple allegations about harassment even if the outcome of criminal sensitivity. one person, organisations find it easier to act. Sexual assault can follow a period where a woman is

12 | theJournalist harassment at work #MeToo in the media men in their 30s, who had grown up in the porn culture, laddish, entitled, who had the worst wandering hands and [made] comments,” Mills says. “We also heard about ‘misogyny noir’ – a really toxic kind of sexism [combined with] racism.” In larger, more established newsrooms, Mills says she does not believe overt sexism and harassment happens now. She observes that having “a lot of very senior, strong women executives around definitely makes a difference – here we would stamp on it very fast”. The less blatant tendency to diminish the capabilities of female journalists can also have a powerful negative impact on their status in the workplace. “People saying, ‘oh, I won’t have birds on my big reporting project’ – that doesn’t happen,” says Boland. “But we hear things like women’s expertise being undervalued, for instance a woman bringing in great stories using her language skills but her job title and pay not reflecting that. Or you watch male colleagues rise through the ranks while equally talented women don’t.” Professional mockery can be public and painful. One young female journalist recalls an April Fool spoof run by a rival publication that rubbished her editorship. “I’m northern and working class, and it referred to that, and essentially said I was a stupid woman,” she recalls. Her employer’s fury, she said, erupted not on her behalf, but “came from the humiliation of the publication, rather than anger for me”. How has the experience affected her? “Probably for the best to be honest,” she says. “It gave me fuel and fire, and I now see it as a sad, bitter old man who got pleasure from attacking a young woman publicly.” Cooper now works at a national news outlet with strong, supportive female editors. Professionally, she is thriving, though she gets anxious when her assailant’s name crops up. She worries people will find out she reported him. “Journalism is a small world, after all,” she says. Jarvis, who still struggles to come to terms with how her trust was betrayed, says media companies must take active steps to let staff know inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated “then an environment might be created which lets people know how they should go forward”. Rooting out misogyny in the media will need intervention, says Boland. The Second Source has been asking media outlets if they have harassment guidelines: “Many don’t but a lot are asking ‘how might we do that?’ “ she says. “You hope that through a combination of policy change, legal support and women supporting women, people will feel empowered.” (Some identifying details have been changed)

*TUC guide: Protection from Sexual Harassment (http://tinyurl.com/ybx9srwg). ILLUSTRATION: NED JOLLIFFE ILLUSTRATION:

theJournalist | 13 international Resisting Russian repression

the Russian population were the subject of state espionage in Team 29 is a unique Russian media platform the first half of this decade. That’s a very big number.” which is run by journalists and lawyers. In Soviet times, ‘enemies of the state’ could be sent to labour camps or executed. Things have improved, but that does not Barney Cullum reports from St Petersburg mean a civilised and satisfactory state of affairs. Educated Russians are aware of their rights to express themselves and to f you want to fight someone and win, first you support political movements. Both were enshrined in the 1991 have to be prepared to laugh at them, says constitution established when the Russian Federation was born. Nikolay Ovchinnikov. The Team 29 editor has Article 29, which allows the right to freely seek, receive, transmit, I a mop of red hair and darting eyes, and a produce and distribute information, inspired Team 29’s name. well-worn thumb knuckle is working The team’s mix of lawyers and journalists are unravelling independently, calming pulsing smartphone notifications. If cases where people have been persecuted as a tactic to increase hackers employed by the Russian government are indeed public loyalty, to the state’s politics through fear. Its biggest targeting the 29-year-old’s emails and social media – as he success? Last year, Putin pardoned Oksana Sevastidi, a pensioner suspects – they will have a job keeping up. with no political history who had spent several years in jail after Ovchinnikov is alerted whenever an app called Gebnya – a receiving a benign text message from Georgia, with which Russian slang term that loosely translates as ‘bloody KGB’ – is Russia had been at war. Ivan Pavlov, the lawyer who created downloaded from the Team 29 website. This happened more Team 29, represented Savastidi four years ago after being than 50,000 times in the first three months after its launch connected to her by a reader. Ovchinnikov then made people in April. Gebnya is mainly a platform for journalism but it aware of the flaky closed-court verdict. His reporting and feature also hosts a video game. It’s a not-so-virtual world in which writing exposed the holes in the prosecution’s case to the extent the central character has to stay one step ahead of state ‘tricks’ that it threatened to embarrass the government. “The president to bring him down (puppet judges, mercenary police and the pardoned them only after we took this case, wrote about it like). The game instils confidence and a sense of resilience in and dedicated our lawyers to it,” he recalls with some pride. Team 29’s readers by laughing at the ‘bully’ state machine. Team 29 also publishes pre-emptive ‘how to’ pieces that Away from the light relief, the ability to guarantee arm readers with sufficient knowledge of the law and connectivity to empowering news and information was the police-state culture to avoid detention. “Our structure is serious, primary reason the spin-off app was developed. “It unique,” says Ovchinnikov. “In Russia, there are law firms that means that, if our website is blocked in Russia, we have have a press secretary. But we are a team of three journalists somewhere else we can publish, which can be accessed offline and six lawyers. That structure hasn’t been built elsewhere.” too,” explains Ovchinnikov. “You can go to the protests, call If our website “In Russia, ‘winning’ represents getting a fine rather than a Gebnya up on your smartphone and read the legal advice.” prison term, whether you’re guilty of any crime or not,” I am The medium was designed in 2017 during a political climate is blocked in told. This goes for journalists and protesters alike. Team 29 is not in which appetite for protest against the Russian government scared of a crackdown, feeling its legal savvy and digital dexterity was matched only by a blunt determination from the police “Russia, we have will keep it a step ahead of bent judges and state censors. to squash it. In St Petersburg, where Team 29 is based, Young Russians’ enthusiasm for such skills is reflected in the protesters were forced to serve ‘administrative arrest’ for up somewhere title’s readership figures. Resonant articles are attracting 20,000 to five days in cells with no bedding, according to Amnesty unique page views. Appetite can be measured by the donations International. The human rights organisation described the else we can that are flooding in. “We call them payments, not donations,” I’m pre-election crackdowns as ‘purposeful humiliation’. publish, which corrected. “We cannot call ourselves an NGO any more [due to Websites that do not peddle the government’s party line can ‘foreign agent’ legislation introduced in Putin’s previous term] so be temporarily blocked during sensitive periods. Journalists can be accessed we cannot call what we receive donations either. But we get tens have been victims of assassination attempts too, although the of thousands of euros from ordinary readers every month.” Glasnost Defence Foundation, which monitors such attacks, offline too Where does this leave questions about media imbalance? has observed a marked decrease in suspected contract killings The west is fretful of the influence of quasi-state broadcasters since 2010. Three incidents were recorded last year. such as RT (formerly Russia Today). Ovchinnikov laughs off the Vladimir Putin was re-elected just before the app could be threat of propaganda, saying it is merely background rolled out. However, in Russia, it is rarely the president who is noise in post-Soviet Russia. “When we hear that reviled but the country’s wearying tradition of people are scared of Russia Today, we think it’s heavy-handed state control. “The number of people very funny. No one among Generation Y who want to live a life where the government watches television in Russia.” doesn’t touch them, doesn’t interrupt their The reality for young Russians communications, doesn’t go to their houses is ” is that Team 29 is just one

KREMLIN POOL / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO STOCK KREMLIN POOL / ALAMY growing,” says Ovchinnikov. “Six per cent of progressive information source in

14 | theJournalist international Resisting Russian repression

a vibrant alternative media landscape. Together, they ITAR-TASS NEWS AGENCY / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO combine to make a mockery of the prevailing narrative that citizens are blinded by an all-conquering propaganda machine. Rewriting the rules YouTube’s political vloggers remain free of censorship and dominate influence, Ovchinnikov says. Then there are the Russia has a rich destroy the regime. But he I wonder what Mikhail news sites that emboldened the editor himself. These are led history of writers would tell the truth. Bulgakov (pictured), one by NoyaGazetta, which has survived the alleged assassinations wrestling censorship in “In Russia, dissidents of Russia’s most of several of its reporters. Growing in status is MediaZona, creative ways. who think differently are celebrated social founded by a member of Pussy Riot. “We share information The Team 29 offices are always punished severely. commentators, would with all of them about our cases,” he says, breezily. “They share just a short walk from a It’s our national tradition.” make of historical information with us. We have a good connection with them. former home of Fyodor Where does it come from? comparisons of censorship. There is no comparison, no competition. We work together.” Dostoevsky, the revered Author Martin Sixsmith The Kiev-born journalist Politics may have few radical voices in Russia but novelist and journalist. suggests the terrain and author of Master and journalism has an alliance of many. The Crime and Russian heads of state Margarita was born into a Punishment author was have to control, coupled wealthy family but had a famously dispatched to a with the length of its land miserable ‘career’ of Siberian prison camp after borders, makes a level of largely unpublished joining a literary group, the insecurity inevitable. journalism, books and Petrashevsky Circle, which Is expression becoming plays through the Josef discussed banned books any freer? Prison awaits Stalin years. critical of Tsarist Russia. people who dare to “Bulgakov tried to write Mikhail Petrashevsky, a suggest Crimea is part of like Aesop, using all friend of Dostoevsky’s, Ukraine rather than manner of metaphors,” wrote the Pocket Russia, as Shaun Walker says Peter Mansilla, Dictionary of Foreign – a Moscow correspondent director of one of two Words so as to express first for The Independent Moscow museums radical ideas without and now for The Guardian dedicated to the writer being censored. – reminds us in The Long which opened after a The pair “weren’t rebels, Hangover. thaw in censorship. they were dissidents,” Even Bulgakov’s writing says historian Vera Biron. set in the future was “Objectivity was always banned until the last very important to years of the Soviet Union. Dostoevsky and he It is all available and wrote what he celebrated now. It is thought. He didn’t progress, although invite people to perhaps not a revolution.

theJournalist | 15

Looking back to: Scoring the 1927 first try Jonathan Sale looks at the unlikely team behind the BBC’s inaugural sporting commentary

ance Sieveking didn’t know what was above – or possibly below – the pay grade of the editor was talking about. the hard-pressed 18 other programme-makers, A former First World War the solution was: “Tell Sieveking to do it.” L bomber pilot, plane crash For him, the cat’s whisker became the absolute survivor, ex-prisoner of war and cat’s whiskers. He produced the first multiple- now in 1925 a man looking for career advice, he studio radio drama and the first play for the was unfamiliar with the term ‘cat’s whisker’ for (rudimentary) television service. And when the the primitive radio he was gazing at, which new concept of live sporting coverage came up, consisted of an electric coil and two glass objects “I was told to get on with it.” resembling light bulbs. The title of the editor’s The broadcast on January 15 1927 of the rugby magazine was Radio Times, which was a clue, but international between England and Wales was not one Sieveking picked up. He slipped on the the first in Britain about a team sport and the pair of earphones attached to the mysterious BBC’s first sporting commentary of any kind. device and heard the sound of a piano. He asked (Only one sporting commentary had been if the music was coming from ‘some kind of a broadcast, on a boxing match, which went out gramophone’. on Station 2LO, a forerunner of the BBC.) There “No,” answered the editor, “it is the was therefore no existing pool of Ian Robertsons, programme coming from the British however shallow, from which could be fished the Broadcasting Company off the Strand.” man behind the BBC mike. Sieveking was still puzzled: “But how does Sieveking, who did not even know the rules of it get here” – London NW5 – “with all the the game, discovered this when he carried out windows shut?” auditions. That was how Sieveking described the unlikely “Er, well, there’s a – I should say, there’s a – a start to a career, which saw him launch, among little boy in a yellow-and-black jersey who’s got many groundbreaking programmes, the BBC’s the ball and he – no, er, he – that is, not the same first sporting broadcast and become one of the boy,” was the kind of thing he heard when he maestros of the new media. The editor did not asked a star rugby writer to have a go at a sign him up but, surprisingly, sent him along for commentary on a schoolboy match. a job interview with the great Mr John (later This journalist set the bar very low but none of Lord) Reith, who asked sharply: “Are you exotic?” the others he tried were able to get much higher. Guessing that to be the code for ‘homosexual’, Finally Sieveking tried out a man named HBT Sieveking replied, truthfully, ‘No.’ In April 1926, (‘Teddy’) Wakelam, who had never written or he was taken on by the British Broadcasting uttered a word in public but possessed the Company (soon to be rebranded as Corporation). advantage of having captained the Harlequins “I had no qualifications,” he wrote in Airborne, team of champion rugby players. And, to the autobiographical volume compiled by his Sieveking’s delighted ears, the advantage of son. (Paul Sieveking is the co-founder of Fortean having a delivery like a manic machine gun: “Go Times and his extraordinary father, who claimed on, boy! Pass! NOW! He’d going for the line – he’s to have on two occasions extinguished a row of over! It’s a try!” street lights by commanding them to turn Sieveking now had his man. His next move themselves off, could have come straight out of was to ring up St Dunstan’s, the home for blind ‘the journal of strange phenomena’.) He found ex-service personnel. Had they, he asked, a spare this to be a stroke of luck, as he could not be blind man he could borrow for Saturday

HULTON ARCHIVE HULTON pigeonholed. Whenever a task turned up that afternoon? The idea was to remind the

16 | theJournalist

THE PRINT COLLECTOR / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO Radio history made from scratch Teddy Wakelam had no on August 8 was battling to his repertoire to include other experience of commentating adapt his quick-fire delivery to commentators and other sports. on a rugby match because no the more leisurely pace of a He organised the BBC’s one had ever broadcast a cricket match. coverage of the boxing at the commentary on a game. His BBC He became a regular BBC Albert Hall, the Boat Race and, producer Lance Sieveking had Jack-of-all-sports commentator. clinging on to the fork of a tree no idea of the rules of rugby. Yet He was back at Wimbledon in overlooking the River Cam, the at Twickenham on January 15 1937, now for the BBC’s embryo Cambridge Bumps. The Derby 1927 they made sporting and television service. and the Grand National radio history, thanks to the Sieveking was also expanding followed. machine-gun delivery of former In its very early days, the BBC rugby captain Wakelam and the did not broadcast live sporting broadcasting genius of events, so as to avoid ‘unfair Sieveking. competition’ with the On the following Saturday, newspapers. At the races, a Wakelam scored another broadcaster could not have world first, this time for a revealed even the names of commentary on a soccer the winners; the most that game, Arsenal vs Sheffield. could have been said into a Having been a part-time mike was, “If you listen tennis umpire, he was a carefully, you may be able to natural choice for the hear the horses’ hooves as Wimbledon commentator and they gallop past.”

commentator that he was addressing an of his two colleagues, he poured out an inspired audience that, like the man from St Dunstan’s, torrent of magical words. As Sieveking put it could see nothing of the game. later: “The faster he talked, the clearer it was.” On the morning of the match a small hut Of the game itself, Wakelam remembered (‘ramshackle’ according to Sieveking, ‘rickety’ in nothing. Nor did Sieveking, except that the two Wakelam’s eyes) was seen to be perched on poles hours were among the most exciting of his life 20 feet above the pitch, like a cross between a – and he was, remember, a man who had piloted Punch and Judy show on stilts and the crow’s nest and been shot down in a biplane bomber. He was of a ship that had run aground. Wakelam and hard pushed to follow the ball as it whipped Sieveking scrambled up the improvised ladder, as around the pitch, let alone blurt out the number did “a man named Lapworth, a general filler-in- of the square as a kind of footnote to Wakelam’s of-pauses-when-necessary”. (Charles Lapworth, a staccato commentary. As he and Lapworth former editor of the Daily Herald, was described gasped out the relevant numbers in a haphazard as being the Dr Watson to Wakelam’s Sherlock sort of way, it seemed to the amused listeners Holmes.) The blind man was manhandled up this following on their diagrams as if the teams were structure; health and safety regulations were enormous fleas soaring over the pitch in giant presumably more flexible in 1927. hops. Reith rang up mid-game to demand more At 2.30pm, the broadcast kicked off with a few frequent square info, which did not help. He rang words from Sieveking, a man who didn’t know back later to say how pleased he was with their the rules of rugby, followed by Lapworth, who efforts, as did countless listeners. didn’t know them either (but was a whizz about Incidentally, England beat Wales 11-9. American football) followed by a man who knew Wakelam went on to commentate on other nothing about broadcasting (apart from the games and sports. Sieveking too went on to other instruction pinned up in front of him: ‘DON’T sports then to radio plays and a bewildering SWEAR’). variety of arts productions. Sieveking had persuaded the editor of Radio The match that saw the start of Wakelam’s Times to print a half-page diagram of the pitch career as a commentator saw the start and finish divided into eight squares; he now explained of that of Lapworth, who returned to the world of that he and Lapworth would be indicating the print. This was just as well since, during a brief position of the ball by calling out the number of gap in Wakelam’s well-informed commentary, the relevant square. Lapworth took over the Lapworth could be heard asking his colleagues, microphone, reading out the names of the “Do they always play with an oval ball?” Many of players and chatting about the crowd. us have asked ourselves that question – but not It was Wakelam’s turn when the whistle went out loud, on air and while commentating on the at 2.45pm. Before the astonished eyes and ears first broadcast of a rugby international.

theJournalist | 17 first person

StartingOut Steve Evans quit a top-flight career on TV and radio for reporting on a local paper in Australia

here just comes a newspaper as the tsunami of the jungle and they had tossed a coin to moment when you know internet engulfed it. see who would go through a clearing T you have to move on. It is the hardest and also perhaps the first. The friend lost and was hit by a I’d had 25 fabulous most satisfying job I’ve ever had. sniper. years in the BBC as a correspondent in I came to realise that I had lived in a Several women confided how they London, New York, Berlin and Seoul. I media bubble for decades. I am were virtually imprisoned by husbands had covered unions as the BBC labour reminded of the quote said to have on immense farms but finally had the correspondent before labour come from playwright, Arthur Miller: courage to walk away. correspondents went out of fashion. I “How can the polls be neck and neck? That openness comes from being had interviewed Angela Merkel (Kim I don’t know anyone who’s voting trusted in a small community. Jong-un was saying no – his elevation for Bush.” Small-town journalists have a to friend of the president of the United Glen Innes would have voted for contact with people that bigger-time States of America was yet to be). Bush and Trump and Brexit and then journalists rarely do, and that is very So I knew in 2017 that the best was gone back and done it again. valuable. behind me. The people there are descended Glen Innes is not a world of political I had a choice. I could become one of from the settlers who moved onto correctness but it is a world of those grumpy old men in the corner, Aboriginal land in the 1840s and that humanity and kindness. Its values are moaning about how everything had brutal side remains. They tell it like it very different from those in the gone to the dogs, and growling at is – and often just as forcefully like it cosmopolitan media bubbles of the management fools who didn’t isn’t – nose to my nose. uniform opinion, and it is all the better realise that I should be presenting I have had the paper waved angrily for that. both the Today programme and the in my face and been called an idiot. A Earlier this year, I moved to the Ten O’Clock News. man caught with a loaded gun came Canberra Times because I feared for Or I could jump. and told me I had made him look like a the Examiner’s future. I had a permanent resident’s visa for criminal by putting his criminal In the week I left, the Glen Innes Australia through marriage so I conviction in the paper. Local and city paper coincidentally decided to shut applied for every job on offer. Not a And I have had high praise and the office after nearly 150 years. My flicker of interest from the ABC but the made great and lasting friendships. “papers are a successor will work from home. It is to Glen Innes Examiner needed a I have met more interesting people my mind a tragedy. reporter/photographer/video in a year in Glen Innes than I had in foundation of I have learnt how local and city journalist/tea-maker – so I took it. the previous 10 as a national and papers are a foundation of democracy. Glen Innes is a very small, rough international journalist. democracy. The When and if they go, the crazies on agricultural town in the By meeting, I mean really Facebook will have the field to north of New South engaging with them, spending local journalists themselves. Wales. time and getting to the core. fighting to save The local journalists fighting to save The Examiner There is the Vietnam papers are true heroes. I am had been its veteran who still has papers are true proud to have jumped and become newspaper nightmares after being one of them. since 1874 attacked by an American heroes and it was helicopter gunship. He my task to had earlier seen his best serve the town friend shot – they were and the partners as scouts in the @EvanstheAirwave

18 | theJournalist “ on media

Minister should force the polluter to pay, says Raymond Snoddy

media appears to be little more a fig leaf designed to head off stiffer regulation. Only tough action will The evidence suggests that, with the tech billionaires, voluntary doesn’t work. Damian Collins, who chairs the digital, keep local press afloat culture and media select committee, can attest to the repeated failure of Facebook he vagueness of culture Derbyshire, a town of 45,000, has no cofounder Mark Zuckerberg to come secretary Jeremy dedicated local reporters on any before his committee to give evidence. Wright on possible help platform. Half of London boroughs have A tax on digital advertising would get T for local newspapers just one reporter covering their affairs. the attention of the likes of Zuckerberg did not exactly go We will never know whether the with the proceeds going to a fund to down well at this year’s Society of Grenfell tragedy could have been pay for “sustainable quality journalism”. Editors’ conference. averted if earlier standards of newspaper The online editions of print There was a process to be observed. staffing and coverage had prevailed. publishers would naturally be exempt. The Cairncross Review, chaired by It is very late in the day to be having For Jeremy Wright, the time has Dame Frances Cairncross, was already a review into the ‘sustainability’ of come to get off the fence. under way. high-quality journalism – certainly in As a lawyer and former attorney the local and regional context. general, Wright wanted to hear what It will be scandalously late if the the review into the “sustainability of government, in the midst of the Brexit high-quality journalism in the UK” had maelstrom, fails to take immediate to say before drawing any conclusions. action – and the only action that will It was important, he argued, to ask make a meaningful difference will not just the right questions but to ask involve money. them in the right order. A government decision to take back Well, yes, that is indeed the rational some of the £750 million a year hit the approach, but such cool neutrality BBC will face from having to fund free seems like cold comfort for journalists licences for the over-75s from 2020 losing jobs now, and for newspapers would help. In return, the BBC moving ever closer to the edge. would use any savings to fund We have had royal commissions and journalism – not just for the inquiries into the future of the press corporation but to extend the since the 1940s, many involving The scheme promising scheme that has standards of behaviour and of already put 150 ‘local regulation, but this one is different. “whereby Facebook democracy reporters’ on The outcome could be an existential the ground. matter for many newspapers. As the would help fund You can tinker at the report on the state of the press, edges with a regime of tax published before the Cairncross review the training of breaks for newspapers, results found, more than 300 local but something far more papers have closed in the past decade. reporters appears dramatic is now necessary. In the same period – the 10 years to to be little more On the principle that the 2017 – the report found that the polluter pays, the social media number of ‘frontline’ local journalists than a fig leaf giants – which have done so much had fallen from 23,000 to 17,000 and to undermine the economics of the total will be less again following designed to traditional publishing and share this year’s toll. an aversion to fair rates of The result is a rising number of head off stiffer taxation – should be made to pay. communities, courts and councils regulation The scheme revealed by the without adequate or even any Sunday Times whereby Facebook journalistic coverage. As Press Gazette would help fund the training of has highlighted, Long Eaton in reporters to get more out of social

For the latest updates from Raymond Snoddy on Twitter 8follow @raymondsnoddy”

theJournalist | 19

arts

Some of the best things to with see and do with a bit of political bite For listings email: artsattitude [email protected]

Books by Tim Lezard Condom Dave, Theresa the Breaking News Books: Xmas special Alan Rusbridger clown and the rise of Corbyn In Extremis The former Guardian editor offers his Lindsey Hilsum own observations of the past, outlets. The Guardian and the Channel 4’s present and future of the press, Journalist is about it. I’m a creature international editor looking at how the news media has of habit”, he says. Lindsey Hilsum tells the been disrupted by social media “I don’t know how bloody long story of her fellow giving billions of people access to I’ve been drawing for the foreign correspondent publish their own material. Fake Journalist,” he laughs. “I’ve been an Marie Colvin, news? I don’t think so. NUJ member for probably 40 years recognised as one of http://tinyurl.com/y9syv7uh as a freelance member, so maybe 30 the bravest and best in years? I worked under the previous her field. Reporting The Troubles: Journalists editor, Tim Gopsill, and have carried Hilsum draws upon unpublished Tell Their Stories on the Northern on under Christine Buckley. diaries and notebooks, and interviews Ireland Conflict “I get a free hand in both papers, with Colvin’s friends, family and Compiled by Deric Henderson and and enjoy drawing about our noble colleagues to tell the story of the life Ivan Little trade. I don’t get any complaints of a woman who defied convention. Billed as a landmark social history of from members about my work in See ‘A Private War’ opposite page for the Troubles, this book publishes the Journalist because it’s the information about a forthcoming film moving accounts from some of the owners who are my targets. The about Marie Colvin’s life. biggest names in journalism, ownership structure of the British http://tinyurl.com/ydzyfwmm including Kate Adie, Martin Bell and It’s a mark of the esteem in press goes a long way to explain the Nicholas Witchell. The editors say they which Steve Bell holds the NUJ fatal flaws of our trade.” Reporting Bad News: Negotiating have gained a deeper understanding that the cover of his latest book is a His book shows his vision of a the Boundaries Between Intrusion of how their experiences in Northern cartoon he drew for this publication. turbulent three years – two general and Fair Representation in Media Ireland had a lasting impact on the This time last year, the satirist’s elections, Brexit and two Labour Coverage of Death journalists involved, both image of Labour leader Jeremy leadership contests – and features Sallyanne Duncan and Jackie Newton professionally and personally. Corbyn as Jesus Christ, standing characters such as Condom Dave Based on extensive academic http://tinyurl.com/yc9jqrak above a collection of crusaders and Theresa the clown alongside research, this book looks at the death carrying newspapers containing the old favourites, the Falklands knock and the poor reputation it has Pompey Writes: the Best of Star & anti-Corbyn headlines, adorned penguins and Monsieur L’Artiste. following the Manchester Arena Crescent (So Far) our cover. “Spare a thought for the left-wing bombing, Grenfell and Hillsborough, Edited by Tom Sykes and Sarah It is now on the front cover of his satirist. How on earth can I attack writes NEC member Professor Cheverton new book Corbyn: The Resurrection. Jeremy Corbyn when I find myself Chris Frost. Featuring the best content from “I liked it,” he tells Arts with agreeing with most of what he The authors hope to challenge this Portsmouth’s only independent Attitude. “I had to do a book, so I says?” he writes in the introduction. pervading view by exchanging non-commercial news, culture and tried various things and they didn’t “What he has done is successfully insensitivity for good practice. With this commentary website, plus material quite work and then I came upon challenge the comfortable book on your bookshelf and its advice never before published, this gem the cover. It was a good one and consensus on the economy. This in your mind, there will be better includes fiction, investigative deserved to be taken further, so I has been achieved in defiance of a reporting of tragedies, allowing the journalism, travel writing, satire, used that as a springboard for the coordinated and relentless media public better understanding graphic design and photography. book. It was good to give that campaign to delegitimise and of the reality of disasters http://tinyurl.com/yasbwnd6 drawing some more legs.” vilify him.” and the bereaved a better The London Freelance Branch chance to commemorate Yr Awyr yn Troi’n Inc member enjoys working for the https://guardianbookshop.com/ their dead. Martin Huws NUJ. “I don’t have a great variety of corbyn-623295.html http://tinyurl.com/ Former BBC Cymru father of y8qass9e chapel Martin Huws has

20 | theJournalist arts

published a collection of short stories Television which were highly commended in a National Eisteddfod competition. The collection, Yr Awyr yn Troi’n Inc (The Sky Original look at Les Misérables Turns Into Ink) is written in Welsh and published by Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. It’s not often I get excited by Davies, perhaps best known for Most of the 30 stories are set in television, but I’ll make an House of Cards, has vowed to go Cardiff. The main characters are life’s exception for the BBC’s forthcoming back to the original novel and delve losers, wounded and abused adaption of Les Misérables. deep into the many layers of Victor arts characters, experiencing physical and One of my favourite novels, this Hugo’s story, revelling in Jean mental illness, who have not reached epic tale of crime, love and Valjean and Javert’s cat-and-mouse their potential or ambitions because redemption is set against a backdrop relationship. and authentic imagery and, above of the blight of loneliness. of civil unrest in 19th century France. The BBC’s press office says: “With all, the incredible yet accessible http://tinyurl.com/yb7wt75w It has been turned into a six-part a striking intensity and relevance to story that was Hugo’s lifework.” drama by multi award-winning us today, the novel is testimony to If the production matches Davies’s Theatre screenwriter Andrew Davies, and the struggles of France’s underclass versions of Vanity Fair, Pride and Ian McKellen on Stage: Tolkien, stars Dominic West (Jean Valjean), and how far they must go to survive. Prejudice, Middlemarch and War & Shakespeare and You! David Oyelowo (Javert), Olivia “The adaptation will vividly and Peace, it promises to be a cracker. It UK tour, January 25-September 15 Coleman (Mme Thénardier) and Lily faithfully bring to life the vibrant and is due to air early next year – set a Ian McKellen celebrates his 80th Collins (Fantine). engaging characters, the spectacular reminder on your tellybox. birthday next year by taking a new solo show to theatres up and www.oldvictheatre.com/whats-on/ embarrassing, so she has decided A Private War down the UK. The 2019/all-my-sons instead to become a National Trevor On general release from February 1 show will start – half misprint, half Danish comedian, Rosamund Pike stars as celebrated with Gandalf, he Music novelist, actor and broadcaster. Expect Sunday Times war correspondent says, and will probably end Guttfull tall stories, funny facts and silly jokes . Marie Colvin. The film looks at the up with an invitation to join him on If you were into Riot Grrrl back in the www.sanditoksvig.com personal cost of her work – she paid stage. An opportunity to see a legend day, then you’ll love Guttfull, who are the ultimate price when she was of stage and screen in an intimate bringing the genre up to date. Film killed in Syria in 2012. A remarkable performance. Described as dirty sax punk, and Colette tribute to a remarkable journalist. http://tinyurl.com/yc4zcy75 drawing comparisons with Bikini Kill, On general www.imdb.com/title/tt2368254/ the Undertones, release from All My Sons X-Ray Spex and The January 11 Poetry Old Vic, London Slits, their songs Who would Burns Night April-June 2019 address issues such have thought intellectual property Everywhere in Scotland (and With President Trump seemingly as internet abuse could be so sexy? Dominic West and beyond), January 25 determined to go to war with (Keyboard Warrior), Keira Knightly star in this film about a The perfect combination of haggis, someone somewhere, this 1947 Arthur sexual harassment woman who ghostwrites her whisky and poetry, Burns night was Miller classic is a reminder of the (#notallmen) and Donald Trump husband’s best-selling novels, then first held in July 1801 when nine of personal consequences of state action. (Arsehole). wants her authorship to be the great bard’s friends got together Based on a true story of how https://guttfull.bandcamp.com/music recognised. to mark the fifth anniversary of his aircraft manufacturers conspired with A true story set in early 1900s Paris, death. The night included a meal, army officers to approve defective Comedy this feature looks at Sidonie-Gabrielle performances of his work and a aircraft engines destined for military The National Trevor Tour Colette’s drive to overcome societal speech in his honour. It was such a use, this blistering drama shows the Sandi Toksvik constraints, revolutionising literature, success they decided to hold it again American dream come crashing UK tour, January-February 2019 fashion and sexual expression. but in honour of his birthday. down. It stars Sally Field, Bill Pullman, The Great British Bake Off host thinks www.bleeckerstreetmedia.com/ www.visitscotland.com/blog/ Jenna Coleman and Colin Morgan. being called a national treasure is a bit colette scotland/burns-night-guide/

Spotlight: women behind and in front of the lens in Wales

misrepresent women has not been as broadly Photography pioneers and practitioners through objectification and supported, accessed and Women in Focus Representation of the women as subjects, from idealisation. understood as that of their celebrates the role and People’s Act 1918, which intimate and playful 19th As Janice Lane from the male counterparts.” contribution of women gave some women the vote, cen tury staged family National Museum in Cardiff This goes some way to throughout the history of the exhibition looks at portraits to contemporary says: “Women have been righting that wrong. photography – behind and in female photographers in portraiture, fashion and active adopters and National Museum Cardiff front of the lens. Wales from pioneers to journalism. The work also practitioners of photography Free, until January 28 Coinciding with the contemporary practitioners. considers how photography since it was invented in https://museum.wales/ centenary of the It also explores how has been used to 1839. Historically, their work cardiff/

theJournalist | 21 inbox

Email to: [email protected] ç Post to: Please keep The Journalist YourSay... 72 Acton Street, comments to London WC1X 9NB 200 words Tweet to: inviting letters, comments, tweets maximum @mschrisbuckley

H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H equally legendary leader of the TGWU, enraged Brenner when he said the German system of having workers on Too many bodies and boards was ‘collaboration with capital’. TIM ELLIS There is a self-serving myth that Britain too much talk in NUJ and the TUC somehow shaped postwar German trade unions. It would have been Kevin Palmer asks if we can declutter the NUJ (October/ far better if the Germans had come over November). He questioned whether we need so many and reorganised British unions along bodies within the union and whether branch lines that served the working class. responsibilities have to change. Denis MacShane The NUJ’s democratic structure includes a general London secretary, a lay president, a vice president, an honorary treasurer and 29 executive members, four regional Music journalism is very councils, five industrial councils, a photographers’ council, much alive and kicking four equality councils, a health and safety committee, a I am afraid that Joely Carey (Bright professional training committee and The Journalist’s allure of the ‘dark side’, October/ editorial advisory board. November) is indulging in a bit of Too many bodies, yes, and also too many members negative PR when she claims ‘music per council. journalism is dead’ and says there isn’t This is compounded by our membership’s ability, a ‘thriving music publication’. because words are our business, to articulate the hind leg I suggest she reads the recent article off a donkey. Whether all this talk makes for good decision in the Guardian by Dave Simpson, making is doubtful. music journalist and lecturer at the Also, the time sent by staff serving the councils and the University of Huddersfield, ‘What crisis? financing of the meetings could be better used. Why music journalism is actually The working demands of journalists, especially because healthier than ever’ (24 October). of online publishing, mean that branch meetings don’t or There are now more music can’t draw a crowd, or sometimes even a quorum. publications than ever with some Surely the answer is online union communication and a moving from online back to print with, system tailored for geographical or sector yes, smaller circulations but they are branches. This change of responsibilities actually now making a profit. would mean a change of branch There may be more jobs in PR, as my officers’ duties. This all might rouse £30 former colleague Jenny Gibson notes in members every six months to an prize the article but, as I have always actual meeting. letter argued, it is still a ‘lie machine’. Roy Jones Dr Stephen Dorril North Wales Coast branch Holmfirth

Is the code of conduct more H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H than virtue signalling? Looking at the 12 bold principles on The German model would have The German rule was one industry, There were only 14 trade unions in Journalist’s back page, I found myself been better for our unions one workplace, one union. Bargaining Germany compared to 70 in the TUC wondering what makes them constitute Thanks to Paul Routledge for a great was done at a regional level with when I took out my NUJ card. The a ‘code of conduct’. piece on the TUC’s 150 years (150 not employer federations, never at biggest was IG Metal, which had more Is that code ever enforced? Has the out, October/November). But his claim company level. than four million car, steel and metal NUJ ever disciplined a member for eg that the ‘English model was exported Workers in plants were represented by industry workers. intruding into private grief or accepting to Germany’ in 1945 is a myth. fellow employees elected to works The legendary founding president of inducements to do a story? If not, these German workers looked with horror at councils, not shop stewards or outside IGMetal was Otto Brenner, who spent principles amount to nothing more than the multiplicity of trade unions in every union officials. Worker representatives 13 years in Buchenwald under Hitler virtue signalling and in a field where UK workplace – 14 different unions in a sat on company boards in a system because of his opposition to fascist there is sometimes no virtue to signal. car plant or, when Paul and I started introduced by the Christian Democrats nationalism. At an international trade Paul Moss our careers, 10 unions in a newspaper. in 1950. union conference Jack Jones, the BBC Radio News

22 | theJournalist inbox

Paul raises an interesting point – what What would prevent cameras and does make a code of conduct? A code broadcast equipment from being should be short and clear so it can be stolen/seized/confiscated and held remembered and easily applied. The indefinitely thus depriving members of twitter feed BBC’s editorial guidelines are great but I their very livelihood? Tweet us your feedback: @mschrisbuckley bet Paul doesn’t know them all – yet I’m sure there are other opinions that he should. would surface should such a daft Codes should be enforceable and ours proposal be entertained, including Katie Mallinson (@ScribaPR) 28/10/2018, 12:57 is. We take complaints and hearings the freedom of the press and human A great Sunday read about the rise of trained #journalists working in are held – see union rule 24. Members rights protection that prevent the #PR, by our own talented ex-journo & university lecturer in breach of the code can be fined imposition of fascism by incompetent @1JennyGibson (via the@NUJofficial magazine) https://content. or expelled. representatives. yudu.com/web/3pylg/0A3pylh/TheJournalistOCT18/html/index.html We can take complaints only from Ian McCabe members and that limits how many we County Cavan Francis Sedgemore (@hesgen) 22/10/2018, 15:57 get. However, I am a great believer that Read this letter from photographer John Walmsley in the encouragement is the best way forward Congratulations on @NUJofficial magazine, and dare tell me that digital photos are free and that that is done by education crowdfunding coverage for the taking (and republishing without permission or payment). (virtue signalling, if you don’t believe in I am moved to write to you in the hope People’s livelihoods depend on #copyright protection. pic.twitter. education), not punishment. of £30 for consultancy from the com/s6GBgOPhhD Professor Chris Frost Horrabridge Times, which is doing Chair, NUJ ethics council quite well by ignoring most advice on online publication and catering for Gardaí photography ban people who miss a good read in their I complained about it on this page a (October/November 2018). has many implications local paper. while ago but the problem of missing Unfortunately the sub-heading ‘Nick Re the article about photographing the Congratulations to Nick Wallis for his pictures and poor picture presentation Wallis thought the treatment of police/gardaí (Minister supports ban interesting idea of crowdfunding a – especially of the cartoon of the day subpostmasters was scandalous’ was on photographing gardaí, October/ court watch, and for picking up on the – continues. I could use a laptop, of not a true reflection of the content of November), I would like to add a few scandalous treatment of sub- course, but the Kindle is a useful reader the piece. Other people have called the considerations. postmasters, which I recall being a and publishers all recognise it as a treatment of subpostmasters a How would photographers and potential story back in the days when useful medium, so why has nobody yet national scandal and I have reported broadcast members cover the ‘good we were all still inclined to accept explained, let alone addressed, this their words. news’ angle (like new appointments, official assurances about the reliability flaw in the product? I set up the crowdfunder because I promotions and award winners) if of computerised identification of fraud. Chris Benfield, Devon think this is an important story that there were a ban on photographing Another matter I would like to raise www.horrabridgetimes.net deserves as much public attention as police personnel? again, from the perspective of a retired possible. I am not in the business of How could public servants, including hack who can no longer tear up a Article sub-heading taking sides. I would be grateful if you the police/gardaí, have an expectation tenner’s worth of newsprint a day, is was misleading would publish this letter as a means of privacy when they are working in the the poor quality of online services for Thank you for printing my article Trial of correction. public forum as public servants? Kindle readers. by Crowdfunding in the The Journalist Nick Wallis

STEVE BELL THE OWNERS

theJournalist | 23 obituaries

As assistant general secretary, sinking the paper financially. then the number three position, Eric, from a Birmingham Bob enjoyed the cut and thrust of working-class home, worked on meetings. He also appreciated the local papers including the social aspect of the role, being fond Birmingham Post before he joined of beer, banter and good company. the Daily Mail, later the Guardian He had a special interest in and then the Observer. His reports education and training and for the latter on mafia penetration Bob Norris believed that education was key to Eric Clark of London’s casinos persuaded the promoting journalistic diversity. government to tighten gambling Tributes have been paid to He served on the board of the Eric Clark, who has died laws. He was a natural choice to Bob Norris, retired National Council for the Training of aged 81, was a fine head the Observer’s Inquiry team, assistant general secretary Journalists for 39 years, stepping investigative journalist and its answer to the Sunday Times’ of the NUJ and union down in 2006. A strong supporter the author of 10 books. celebrated Insight. Alas, the team member of honour, who has of Writers in Prison, Bob was an He was also among Observer was disbanded after its inquiries died aged 78. advocate of second chance journalists who set up the paper’s upset too many of Astor’s friends, Bob’s service to the NUJ began education. He was also a relentless first NUJ chapel in the late 1960s. particularly Hugh Carleton Greene, early in his career when he served campaigner for media freedom. The paper was owned and edited by then BBC director-general. as a chapel officer. In 1965, aged 25, Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general David Astor, who had inherited it Soon after, Eric left the paper. By he became the youngest member secretary, said: “Bob is one of our from his father. Its reporters were then, the NUJ chapel was firmly of the national executive council. NUJ legends who, throughout his notoriously underpaid but many established and, on the committee, He also served as an industrial life-long membership, played an staff were reluctant to unionise. he met his wife, Marcelle Bernstein. official in several sectors and had a enormous role as an activist and as Though liberal on most social He worked as a freelance writer commitment to painstaking detail an official during his service as and political issues, Astor treated until his death, publishing thrillers, that was appreciated by members. assistant general secretary. Always the Observer as a feudal estate. which prompted comparisons with He worked in the book sector for 30 keen to enlarge the NUJ family, Bob Many writers were his friends – “we John le Carré, and non-fiction, years and, as the freelance spent many years after he retired are all part of the litter of his past,” which included exposés of the organiser, was proud of the part he from work continuing to recruit one said – as was managing advertising and toy industries. played, with Anne Bolt, in achieving and build strength and solidarity in director Tristan Jones who told the the UK Copyright Act 1988. our branches and workplaces.” chapel committee that it risked Peter Wilby

CODE OF CONDUCT A JOURNALIST

At all times Differentiates unless justified by his duties before the or service save for the Members of upholds and between fact and overriding consideration information is public promotion of her/ the National 1defends the 4opinion. of the public interest. knowledge. his own work or of the principle of media medium by which she/ Union of freedom, the right of Obtains material Protects the Produces no he is employed. freedom of expression by honest, identity of material likely to Journalists and the right of the straightforward sources who lead to hatred or A journalist are expected public to be informed. and5 open means, 7supply information in discrimination9 on the shall with the exception of confidence and material grounds of a person’s normally seek to abide by Strives to ensure investigations that are gathered in the course age, gender, race, colour, 11the consent of an that information both overwhelmingly in of her/his work. creed, legal status, appropriate adult the following 2disseminated the public interest and disability, marital status, when interviewing or is honestly conveyed, which involve evidence Resists threats or sexual orientation. photographing a child professional accurate and fair. that cannot be obtained or any other for a story about her/his principles by straightforward 8inducements Does not welfare. Does her/ means. to influence, distort or by way of his utmost to suppress information, 10statement, Avoids 3correct harmful Does nothing and takes no unfair voice or appearance plagiarism. inaccuracies. to intrude into personal advantage endorse by 12 6anybody’s private of information gained advertisement any life, grief or distress in the course of her/ commercial product ☞

The NUJ believes a journalist has the right to refuse an assignment or be identified as the author of editorial that would break the letter or spirit of the code. The NUJ will fully support any journalist disciplined for asserting her/his right to act according to the code.

24 | theJournalist history

GARY WATERS / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

The ‘father of history’ laid the foundations of journalism, says Bob Doran

seem preposterous two and a half millennia later. For example, he reports an account Learning from by Athenian runner Philippides, who carried messages between Athens, Sparta and the battlefield of Marathon, of a chance meeting en route with the god Pan. Apparently, Pan told him to Herodotus go home and tell his fellow citizens to be respectful to the god. icture the headline: irrigation of Assyrian wheat fields and It is not clear if Herodotus believes ‘Minister Showed Off a cookery column about the merits of it but the Athenians certainly did, Nude Wife To Aide’. Babylonian sesame seed oil. and they built a sanctuary to Pan P Now read on: “A cabinet But it is the wars and their causes That’s not just under the Acropolis after their victory minister has resigned that are the centre of the histories and, at Marathon. after it emerged that he had plotted to right from the start, Herodotus “because of his It may seem odd to read these stories show off his naked wife to his proclaims one of the fundamentals interspersed among hard historical parliamentary private secretary.” of decent journalism – impartiality. In nose for a good material. However, I do not think it Now this isn’t a real-life news story his first paragraph, he makes it clear he story – it’s because detracts from the integrity with which – it’s the legend of Candaules, king of is not doing PR for the Greeks. He says Herodotus handles the serious stuff. Lydia, as recounted by Greek historian he wants to keep alive the great of his search He holds to one of the principles I Herodotus. He relates how Candaules achievements of the Greeks and of the emphasise in the training room: if was so besotted with the beauty of his Barbarians (which is pretty much for truth and you’re honest with your audience, you wife that he forced one of his everyone else). won’t go far wrong. bodyguards to observe her undressed. He goes straight on to an exercise in particularly The story ends not with Candaules’ sourcing, on the issue of ‘Who started resignation but with his death at the the war’. the way he hands of his wife and bodyguard . In the training room, I ask the team handled sources Herodotus is routinely labelled ‘the how they would handle a good story father of history’ and there is no from only one source which they arguing with that. But for me he is also cannot be sure of. My advice is, unless the father of journalism and, when I there is a compelling legal or other am in a training room discussing ‘What reason, to run the story and name the is news?’, I make sure a picture of an source. Herodotus does exactly that, ancient bust of him appears on the outlining the Greeks’ and Persians’ ” big screen. rival versions. That’s not just because of his nose When dealing with rival accounts, he for a good story of the Candaules sometimes admits he cannot be sure. variety – it’s because of his search for It’s not a question of Trumpian truth and particularly the way he ‘alternative facts’ – it’s being honest handled sources. At a time when even about his uncertainty. the survival of honest journalism is At other times, he offers his view of being questioned, it is worthwhile what is most likely. He recounts the remembering its ancient pedigree. death of Persian ruler Cyrus in battle Herodotus was born, probably in the with Queen Tomyris and the 480s BC, in Halicarnassus, a city on the Massagetans, relating how the Persians Aegean coast in what is now Bodrum in won the first round by feigning a Turkey. He travelled far and wide retreat, leaving behind a picnic, then gathering information for his histories pouncing on a drunken enemy band. (the original Greek term translates as However, Tomyris won the day and ‘enquiries’) of the Greco-Persian Wars pushed the head of the dead Cyrus and the events that led up to them. into a wineskin of blood. Herodotus is The histories are not all about wars. clear that there are many versions of Large chunks are travellers’ tales in the how Cyrus died, but says this is the style of David Attenborough or Alan most plausible. Whicker. There are even the makings of He does recount stories, often a gardening programme about the religious or mythological, which

theJournalist | 25 and finally...

Celebrity is a serious business for us

Your average celeb is popular for the length of time We need each other, it takes to prepare a Cup-a-Soup. They have their five minutes in the flashbulb then, like Eva Carneiro, says Chris Proctor Keri Hulme, loon pants and man-sized tissues, we’ve done with them. hen my daughter Katy was teaching And what about the huge mass of semi-royal celebs in south London, she asked her class whose members nose their way into the pubic eye for what they wanted to do when they a publicly funded connubial jamboree? Quite apart finished school. A few opted for jobs from the fact that they’re obliged to have Sulky Spice W you’d expect – train driving, drug at their nuptials (which you really wouldn’t want in a trafficking, journalism – but a narrow majority smiley-pic scenario), the moment the flags stop wanted to be ‘celebrities’. waving, the bile starts piling. I almost feel sorry for “For what?” Katy asked, causing lifted eyebrows. them. The instant journalist A has dissected the “Money and fame, innit?” wedding dress, journalist B starts asking who paid for “But what do you want to be a celebrity for doing?” it. Then there’s: ‘How much did security cost?’, ‘What They didn’t want to be a celebrity for doing was that bloke from Westlife doing in the front anything. Not writing books, saving whales or singing pew?’, ‘Isn’t Eugenie a Brexit name?’ And the songs. They just wanted to be a celebrity – as if it football-inspired chant of: ‘Who are you?’ were a job. Is it worth it for two weeks on the front page? Good on you, kids! All power to their publicists, I It might be fun for a day or so, but fame comes say. Celebrities are very good for business. We back to bite you. journalists are their lifeblood. Without our reporting Look at poor old Scarlett on their glamorous lifestyles – getting engaged to Moffatt. To her credit, this each other, falling out of taxis wearing short skirts, rather misleadingly booking into Priories, eating insects in jungles – they titled ‘personality’ would cease to exist. They need us and anyone who provided our snapper needs us is to be tended and nurtured. members with temporary income Celebrities create all manner of work. The most opportunities but, as soon as she was out of the difficult is reporting what they do, because usually limelight, she was into the dock. Ms Moffatt, not they don’t, apart from have their armpits shaved. But to be confused with the arachnophobe Muffet, there’s always work writing about them in two is being sued by the company who paid her to selected categories. We can be puffers or slappers. make a weight-loss video. Why? Because she Puffers schmooze out sounds of praise, pretending it put the pounds back on too soon afterwards for must be ‘awesome’ to be a presenter of a kettle-selling their liking. It’s hardly her fault. She would programme on a TV station that hasn’t even made it naturally have assumed she’d be back to onto Freeview’s 70 channel list. anonymity after lunch. Slappers come into play a day or so later, ying and Actually, I only mention Ms M because of a yang style. Their task is to swat down the previously headline I saw in OK! magazine that read, puffed celebs, thus restoring balance and sanity. They ‘Scarlett Moffatt flaunts long legs as she jets off point out violent tendencies, foul mouths, stupid to Australia.’ It’s not like she has a selection of views, lurid pasts and varicose veins. differently sized legs to flaunt, is it? And how else Naturally, I applaud the contributions celebs make is she supposed to get to the Antipodes? Bike? to expanding the range of jobs in our area. But, at the Yes, being a celeb, although not involving heavy risk of biting the creamed and massaged hand that lifting, remains dirty work. We should be grateful feeds, I often wonder why they do it? They must to those prepared to give up their time in this way. know they will be celebrated for 10 minutes and They keep many a wolf away from the doors of jeered at for the remainder of their lives as ‘that bloke our puffers, slappers and snappers. I apologise who’s a footballer’s son who got kicked out of the Big unreservedly for my daughter’s incompetence in Brother house on his way in’. We paid attention to the area of career advice. them, now it’s payback time.

26 | theJournalist Can you trust your sources?

Think tanks can be valuable sources of analysis and research. But some are more open about who funds them than others. We shine a light on the most and the least transparent.

Who Funds You? promotes funding transparency among UK think tanks and political campaigns. We ask organisations to publish their annual income and declare their major funders.

WhoFundsYou.org

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theJournalist | 31

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