MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS

WWW.NUJ.ORG.UK | MARCH-APRIL 2018

Growing fury over pay bias Contents

Main feature 12 Equal value Fight for pay justice spreads News qual pay has been a major campaigning 03 Trinity Mirror plans job cuts issue for women for 50 years now, ever since women car workers in Dagenham Major shift to digital journalism staged their strike for pay parity. 04 Doubts over self employment review But not until now has it achieved Irish inquiry ‘missed opportunity’ Esuch a powerful momentum in workplaces across all industries. 05 Amateurs encouraged to charge Carrie Gracie, the BBC’s former China editor, brought the Campaign to end free images issue to a head by resigning in protest against being paid 06 NUJ’s action on dementia significantly less than her male counterparts. In a move 60+ council lobbies Jeremy Hunt supported by the NUJ, which is also acting for more than 100 other women at the BBC, she is forcing change on an “organisation that is accused of failing to take the issue Features sufficiently seriously. 10 Building community journalism Our cover feature by Louise Tickle looks at the fight within the Hyperlocals filling a vacuum BBC and at women’s campaigns elsewhere. Another issue of vital importance to our industry is fake 14 Changing minds news. Raymond Snoddy looks at how prolific it is, how much Reporting mental health regard is given to unsubstantiated news and how quality 16 True or false? journalism is fighting against it. Fighting back against fake news We also find hope for community journalism despite the constant assault on jobs and regional newspaper closures. There’s plenty to think about and I hope to interest you. Regulars And if you want to join the debate on any of these subjects 09 Viewpoint or any others please keep our letters pages alive with your contributions. 25 Story behind the picture 26 And finally

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

02 | theJournalist news Trinity Mirror sets out in brief... LIFE SENTENCES FOR JOURNALISTS job cuts in digital shift A Turkish court has jailed journalists Mehmet Altan, his rinity Mirror’s regional papers are braced brother Ahmet and Nazli Ilicak for for more job cuts after the publisher life after finding them guilty of Tannounced 49 redundancies. The jobs to involvement in the coup attempt of go are print-related as the publisher moves to 2016. The International and establish a standalone digital operation. European Federations of Journalists The latest restructuring follows the said they were appalled by the establishment of Birmingham Live last year. The jobs to sentences. This has a digital editorial team separate from go are print the Birmingham Mail newspaper, which is “ EX TODAY EDITOR TO based in a different office. related as RUN WORLD SERVICE Plans for the regional cuts came soon after Jamie Angus, a former editor of Trinity Mirror purchased the Express group of The cuts to Trinity Mirror’s local papers are the publisher Radio 4’s Today programme, has newspapers from Richard Desmond, a move expected to affect Bristol, Gloucester, been appointed BBC World Service that has raised fears over the future editorial Somerset, Dorset, the East Midlands, West moves to director. Angus, who joined the BBC independence of the titles involved. Trinity Midlands and the North West. establish a in 1999, has also worked as acting Mirror bought the daily and Sunday In Tamworth, Staffordshire, 11 jobs are at editor of Newsnight, editor of the newspapers and celebrity magazines including risk including the group editor’s. Tamworth is standalone World at One and The World This OK! magazine from Desmond’s Northern & a hub for free newspapers and the company Weekend, and editor of daily news Shell, plus the company’s 50 per cent joint has indicated that the business model is not digital programmes on World Service radio. venture interest in the Irish Daily Star, in a deal sustainable for some titles. worth £126.7 million. In the East Midlands, 16 roles could operation MEN EDITOR LEAVES The sale needs the approval of Trinity Mirror disappear, affecting Derby, Nottingham and AFTER SIX YEARS shareholders and could be referred to the Leicester. The Burton Mail website will be shut Rob Irvine, editor-in-chief of the Competition & Markets Authority. and absorbed into Derbyshire Live. Manchester Evening News, is leaving after six years in the role. PA WIRE/PA IMAGES Under his editorship, the paper’s website became the UK’s second BBC CHALLENGED OVER EQUAL PAY” biggest regional news website, behind London’s Evening Standard. arrie Gracie, the BBC’s former she was paid significantly less than Darren Thwaites, editor-in-chief of China editor and NUJ member has male colleagues in similar roles. The Trinity Mirror North East, will take Ctold MPs on the digital, culture, union is fighting equal pay cases on over as editor-in-chief. media and sport select committee that behalf of more than 100 women at the management of the BBC is the BBC. I SITE VIEW FOR EX incapable of resolving its gender pay Ms Gracie, supported by the NUJ, BUZZFEED EDITOR crisis and needs external help. had taken a grievance out at the BBC Luke Lewis, former Buzzfeed UK Gracie gave evidence following her but resigned after she couldn’t achieve editor- in- chief, has been appointed resignation as China editor, a move a satisfactory resolution. to the newly created role of head of she made to challenge the fact that Equal value, page 12 audience development for the inews website. The role will focus on reaching new audiences for news, lifestyle, entertainment, money, NUJ leader gets 23% pay increase travel, sport and video.

ichelle Stanistreet The general secretary’s NEW EDITORS IN THE NUJ general total remuneration, including SOUTH MIDLANDS Msecretary, has had a pension and car benefits Newsquest has named two new 23 per cent salary increase. MARK THOMAS now stands at £92,785. editors for the south Midlands. The move, which takes her Barry McCall, chair of the Michael Purton will be responsible basic pay from £68,017 to finance committee of the for the Worcester News, the Malvern £83,666, was made to correct union’s ruling national Gazette & Ledbury Reporter, the a pay anomaly between her secretary who is also the executive council, said: Evesham & Cotswold Journal and and her deputy, the assistant Irish secretary, Seamus “The NUJ takes its Berrow’s Worcester Journal. general secretary. Dooley. The erosion of that commitment to equality Stephanie Preece will be in charge The general secretary is differential became apparent extremely seriously and of the Stourbridge, Halesowen & supposed to have a 12.5 per when Michelle took maternity would never knowingly Dudley News, the Bromsgrove & cent differential of pay leave and Seamus, deputised discriminate against Droitwich Advertiser, The Shuttle between the assistant general for her. any employee.” and the Redditch Advertiser.

theJournalist | 03 news in brief... Doubts over self-employment review TEELINE MARKS ITS HALF CENTURY he Irish government represents a significant number The Irish government started – where a worker is forced to be Teeline shorthand reaches its review of self- of freelances, including workers a consultation process in a sole trader or operate 50th anniversary this year. It was Temployment forced into bogus employment. January into bogus self- through a company to get work developed by James Hill, who was arrangements and The report does not recognise employment. Late last year, the – can result in a significant born in 1908 near Bradford and implications for social the scale of the problem in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions reduction in social insurance taught Pitman shorthand. Hill insurance and tax revenue as media sector. There are a estimated that such payments. This is because the developed Teeline as a quicker a ‘missed opportunity which variety of employment arrangements in the employer does not have to and more straightforward method. misses the target and fails to relationships in the industry construction industry cost the make an employer’s He taught taster classes in 1966 address key issues about and a longstanding tradition of state about €80 million a year contribution, and the worker is and two years later it was labour rights and social freelance work, but there is also in lost tax and social insurance responsible for their own taxes. recommended to the National protection’, according to a serious problem with workers payments since 2007. At the same time, the worker Council for the Training of Séamus Dooley, NUJ Irish being forced to accept contracts The government has can lose out on rights to Journalists. secretary. that deny them employment acknowledged that bogus holiday sick pay and maternity He said: “The NUJ rights and social protection.” self-employment arrangements and pension contributions. PAPER TO LIVE STREAM CITY RACE The Manchester Evening News will JOHNSTON LOSS OFFSET BY I PAPER publisher said. live stream this year’s Greater Johnston Press said Manchester Run. The move ohnston Press’s cent fall if the i paper ‘exceptional’ year. million last year. digital growth remains is thought to be a first for a UK total publishing is excluded. Johnston Press, The i newspaper its ‘strategic priority’. It regional paper. Viewers will be able Jrevenues, which Newspaper which has more than circulation revenue said digital revenues, to watch the event on April 8 on the include advertising circulation revenue 200 titles in the rose 19 per cent and including classified MEN’s website after a partnership and circulation sales, rose two per cent, country, bought the i, advertising increased advertising income, was set up with race organiser Xtra fell six per cent which the company the cut-price sister 26 percent in the were up three per cent Mile Events. year-on-year in 2017. said was boosted by paper of The second half on a (14 per cent excluding That figure is a 13 per the i paper’s Independent, for £24 like-for-like basis, the classifieds).

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4 | theJournalist news Amateur photographers in brief... BBC CUTS PARTY CONFERENCE STAFF encouraged to charge The BBC is to cut the number of journalists covering political party mateur photographers conferences and most news should charge for their programmes will not have a Awork, their professional dedicated set. Only the Today colleagues in the NUJ have programme will have its own studio argued in a short campaign during the conference season. launched last month. Previously, the BBC has taken around #Useitpayforit encourages 80 members of staff including amateurs to understand the journalists and technicians to cover value of photographs and the major political conferences. videos they provide to news outlets and provides them FIRST WOMAN EDITOR with the know-how to obtain FOR NEW SCIENTIST proper rates for their work. If a photo Emily Wilson has become the first In the past decade, the a professional’s efforts will do and Google Street View have female editor of the New Scientist scope for sharing pictures plus – where publishers require replaced some of their work. is good in the magazine’s 62-year history. a media appetite for free the legal and ethical certainty Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ “ She joins from the Guardian where images have made it harder of using someone with proper general secretary, said: “We enough to be she is responsible for the paper’s to make a living as an experience, for example. just don’t want amateurs to global stories, including science, editorial photographer. Where someone gets lucky be the first choice just published or environment, health and Dominic Bascombe, NUJ with a wildlife picture, or finds because they do not charge. If technology, and philanthropically organiser and serving officer themselves witnessing a a photo is good enough to be broadcast, funded editorial projects. of the NUJ’s Photographers’ newsworthy event, then it is published or broadcast, it is it is good Council, said: “If amateur better for all of us if they good enough to be paid for. DENNEN BECOMES photographers realised the charge for their photographs.” Professionals have long used enough to be EDITOR OF TATLER value of their work and Many professional editorial resources such as our Freelance Richard Dennen last month became charged appropriately, it would photographers have been hit Fees Guide and the Rate for paid for the new editor of Tatler magazine.. stop their work crowding out by declining markets and The Job database to get the He moved to the role from the Mail that of professionals. For the rising equipment costs, while best fees; we want everyone on Sunday where he was a features vast bulk of editorial work, only images from social media to have access to these.” writer. Dennen previously worked at the high society magazine for six years, including a spell as editor at large. Before the Mail on Sunday, he GOVERNMENT REVIEW INTO MEDIA ”HEALTH was a style writer for the Sunday Times and columnist for the he union has welcomed • The overall health of the online platforms Evening Standard. an impending news media with a focus on • The digital advertising Tgovernment review of the local and regional press supply chain MARTINSON JOINS news and media. • The range of news • “Clickbait” and CITY UNIVERSITY The NUJ has been calling available and the different low-quality news Jane Martinson, former Guardian for a government-led inquiry business models for Matt Hancock, secretary head of media, has joined City for some time and last year high-quality journalism of state for digital, University as a professor of mounted a Local News • How the press is culture, media and sport, financial journalism. She has been Matters campaign. adapting to the digital said this review would appointed as the new Marjorie The review will look at: market and the role of ensure a ‘plural free press’. Deane Professor of Financial Journalism and will lead the MA financial journalism programme.

Bristol Cable wins £100,000 investment EVENING STANDARD STARTS ‘GO’ GUIDE he Bristol Cable, a has 1,900 contributing other British groups including London’s Evening Standard has quarterly free magazine, members and a small team activism organisation Open launched an online guide to Thas received a £100,000 of paid contributors. It says Data Manchester. restaurants, bars, attractions and grant for two years from that it aims to support The Bristol Cable said it culture in the capital. Go London investment firm the Omidyar independent media. would hire a community includes articles on what to do Network. The Omidayar Network has media coordinator and and see. Tickets and tables can The community-owned title previously given money to the develop an online platform to be booked directly from the was launched four years ago International Consortium of make it easier for members to microsite, which is part of the by three university friends and Investigative Journalism and contribute. paper’s main website.

theJournalist | 5 news in brief... NUJ’s 60+ lobbies Jeremy CEREDIGION HERALD ENDS PRINT EDITION The Ceredigion Herald has stopped Hunt on dementia care its print edition and will publish RUSSELL HART / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO only online less than two years he NUJ’s 60+ Council after it started up. Other Herald has called on Jeremy newspapers – covering Llanelli, THunt, England’s Pembrokeshire and secretary of state for health Carmarthenshire – are continuing in and social care, to become ‘a print. The Pembrokeshire paper was champion of people with launched in 2013, followed in 2015 dementia’, to make dementia by the Carmarthenshire and Llanelli care a priority and increase issues. The Ceredigion Herald funding for social care. became the group’s fourth title The NUJ Following Theresa May’s in 2016. cabinet reshuffle, which gave “supports the the health secretary SIX MILLION LISTEN responsibility for social care, the more funding for social care “Members of the council have TO ECONOMIST RADIO Alzheimer’s council wrote to Hunt, pointing to improve the lives of people taken advice from Alzheimer’s Economist Radio has said it reaches Society’s out that 1,400 patients with with dementia and enable societies in England, Scotland, on average six million monthly dementia could not be them to live in their own Wales, Northern Ireland and streams and downloads, as it call for more discharged from hospitals in homes for longer – thus Ireland and supported their launched a podcast series to England over Christmas easing pressure on the NHS campaigns where possible.” coincide with the magazine’s funding for because of a lack of social and hospitals.” In Wales, it made a The World in 2018 print publication. care, and that this highlighted The letter was the latest submission to the Welsh Economist Radio is made up of the social care the inextricable links between initiative taken by the 60+ government’s consultation on magazine’s podcasts. health and social care. Council since it was instructed it first National Dementia to improve They told him: “The to fulfil a 2016 delegate Plan. In Ireland, it called on HOPKINS MOVES TO the lives of 900,000 people in England meeting motion ‘to lobby the Irish NUJ members to sign a RIGHT-WING OUTLET with dementia are already UK and Irish governments for petition lobbying the Former MailOnline columnist Katie people with the biggest recipients of social changes in policy and government for €40 million Hopkins, has joined right wing care and, by 2021, this legislation to bring about for dementia care in its 2018 Canadian media website The Rebel dementia number is expected to rise to earlier diagnosis and more budget. Media. She writes a weekly column more than one million. effective treatment of And, in Scotland, members for it under the banner of her “The NUJ supports the dementia’. attended and reported on HopkinsWorld website. Other Alzheimer’s Society’s call for Jenny Sims, vice-chair, said: Alzheimer Scotland’s 2017 contributors to the site include former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson. ”FEWER JOURNALISTS KILLED GLOBALLY MCINERNEY LEAVES SCHOOLS WEEK he number of welcomed the drop in loss In Yemen, until the split and Iraq, reducing contact Laura McInerney has left the journalists killed of life, which was partly due between former president with media workers. editor’s role at Schools Week after Tworldwide last year fell to fewer flashpoints in Saleh and the Houthi rebels, However, the IFJ noted three years. It was the first to the lowest level for 10 highly volatile places and to there had been a stalemate that many journalists were newspaper to publish the leaked years, dropping from 93 in the loss of ground by some in ground fighting. In being jailed or had to flee, Labour Party manifesto ahead of 2016 to 81 in 2017. armed groups, which addition, the so-called and that impunity for the last year’s general election. Shane The International reduced journalists’ Islamic state spent the year killings, attacks and threats Mann has taken over as interim Federation of Journalists proximity to the frontline. on the defensive in Syria were at epidemic levels. managing editor. McInerney is still working with the title as a contributing editor, writing columns and interviews. FT honours memory of trainee

EDITOR JACKIE he Financial Times has holiday in Sri Lanka in renamed the Paul McClean HATTON DIES AT 53 relaunched is graduate September. Graduate Trainee Magazine editor Jackie Hatton died Ttrainee scheme and McClean was a London- Programme. in January after a short illness. She named it in honour of a based reporter for the FT editor Lionel Barber was 53. Hatton, who edited Best former trainee who died Financial Times, spending said: “Renaming this scheme and Woman magazines, is a former last year. two years on the paper is a lasting tribute to Paul, Magazine Editor of the Year She Paul McClean was killed after joining through its who embodied everything we became editor of Best in 2010 and aged 24 in a suspected graduate scheme. look for in a graduate took voluntary redundancy two crocodile attack while on This has now been trainee.”

6 | theJournalist news Local paper staff strike in brief... RECORD VIEWS FOR FT ‘PRESIDENTS’ SCOOP over pay and workloads The Financial Times story exposing a men-only charity dinner at which ournalists at the Swindon Advertiser women hostesses were allegedly staged a two-day strike at the beginning sexually harassed by guests was Jof the year in a protest over pay viewed more than a million times. and workloads. Reporter Madison Marriage went The Newsquest-owned paper was hit by undercover as a hostess at a redundancies late last year, with five jobs Presidents Club fundraiser. The going in Swindon, including that of NUJ paper led with the story, which was Swindon father of chapel Bruno Clements, and free to read on its paywalled website. two at Trowbridge. Swindon Advertiser journalists have had DEPUTY TO BE NEXT only two pay rises in the past nine years. OBSERVER EDITOR Colleagues from Oxford, Wiltshire and Paul Webster is to be the new editor further afield visited the strikers to show their of the Observer. He has been the solidarity. Robert Buckland, Conservative MP paper’s deputy editor for 20 years. for Swindon South, dropped by for an update He will replace John Mulholland, along with Jim Grant, leader of the Labour who becomes editor of Guardian US group on Swindon council, who pledged his next month. Webster has also support and agreed the journalists were office – it’s a car park. It’s heart-breaking to There’s been the Guardian’s foreign and getting a raw deal. The picket line also won see local communities let down by editors. home editor. support from Stan Pajak, Liberal Democrat There’s life in local journalism while there are “life in local group leader, and Labour councillor Jim people willing to fight for it.” RUDDICK MOVES TO Robbins. Bruno, who was the Advertiser’s social journalism TIMES BUSINESS DESK Paul Wilenius, who worked on the Advertiser media and web editor, said: “House prices and Graham Ruddick has become an before becoming a political journalist on the rents in Swindon are rising fast, but journalists while there assistant business editor at BBC’s Today programme, came along to on the Advertiser have seen their wages are people The Times. He moved from the show support. stagnate. Guardian where he was media Tim Lezard, the union’s national executive “We started pay talks in 2016 but, at every willing to editor. Before he became media council member for the region, praised the meeting, we are told Newsquest has no editor last year, he was a business Swindon Advertiser journalists and added: money when we know the latest operating fight for it reporter at the Guardian. Ruddick “I’ve worked in journalism for 30 years and, profits were £4 million.” was also deputy business editor of where I live, there used to be seven reporters the Daily Telegraph. in the local paper office. Now there isn’t an Strike in Swindon, page 8 LIFE TIME GONG FOR EX ‘SCOT’ EDITOR The former editor of The Northern DARLINGTON BRANCH TO BE REFORMED” Scot, Mike Collins, won the Barron Trophy at the annual Highlands & he union’s Darlington branch is to Darlington members agreed in school at Darlington College. Islands Press Ball and Media be revived, leading to hopes that principle to reform the branch, which Chris Morley, NUJ Northern and Awards. The award recognises a Tit will be the third functioning NUJ has been dormant for years. There are Midlands organiser, told the meeting: lifetime of achievement in branch in the north east along with about 60 members in the area, “I think we achieved a good deal – not journalism in the Highlands & Newcastle and Sunderland, South working in print, broadcasting, PR and least proving that solidarity in the Islands. He stood down as editor of Shields and Hartlepool. freelancing. There is also a journalism north east is alive and kicking.” the Scot at the end of last year after 10 years in the role.

MAIL APOLOGISES Chapel rises again at the Independent FOR STURGEON STORY The Scottish Daily Mail has n NUJ union chapel at The Independent has been re-established. apologised to first minister Nicola Members say they intend to have a constructive relationship with Sturgeon after it claimed she had Amanagement while representing the views and concerns of staff. ‘decreed’ that the Union Jack should The chapel said: “We have re-established The Independent’s NUJ chapel to no longer be flown from public facilitate discussions between management and journalists and hope we can buildings on the Queen’s birthday. build a mutually beneficial structure to find solutions to any issues raised. She posted the Mail’s apology on “We love working at The Independent and, in this ever-changing media Twitter, saying: “The Daily Mail has landscape, we would like to positively contribute to shaping the workplace. We admitted that its ridiculous story … will shortly be sending all NUJ members an anonymous survey and hope to use was utterly false and issued a full its findings as the basis for discussions with management.” apology.” NEWSCAST ONLINE LIMITED / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

theJournalist | 7 industrial action

councillors, Swindon People’s Assembly representatives and other NUJ members were there. Joining us were a former Newsquest editor and deputy Strike in editor, former deputy FoC Chris Humphreys, former FoC Bob Naylor, Di Harris, who chairs the Wiltshire NUJ branch, and Newsquest group chapel coordinator Chris Morley. Swindon As the action got too big to ignore, the Advertiser’s website ran a one-sided story, trotting out the phrase: “We are When pay talks stalled, Advertiser journalists voted of course happy to continue to have to strike. Former FoC Bruno Clements reports meaningful discussions with the NUJ in order to resolve this issue,” while failing to respond to invitations to attend talks. What cheered us was the reception ith just two pay rises in Chapel members unanimously from the public. There were only a few nine years before 2017, decided to ballot for a two-day strike. negative comments while some people it’s no exaggeration to By now the appointment of new made a point of talking to us, many W say that we journalists editor Peter Gavan had been announced, sharing our concerns. Despite the cold at the Swindon shortly followed by an “at risk of and rain, everyone stayed cheerful. Advertiser were feeling the pinch. redundancy” list of three content editors, It definitely helped to have visits from So what makes one of the country’s the news editor and myself as web NUJ reps – and a performance from a worst-paid teams give up two days’ pay editor, meaning much more work would local poet. South Swindon MP Robert to stand on freezing pavements to tell land on reporters’ shoulders and put the The company Buckland stopped by to chat, as did readers and advertisers what Newsquest quality of our title under threat. refused to budge Swindon Labour group leader Jim Grant. is doing to one of the UK’s oldest titles? Come the first strike day and it was a “ We were touched when staff from a Well, the sense of injustice that a 7.15am start on the picket line. at ACAS-moderated café brought chips and someone from profitable company could ignore the All six reporters were striking, along the estate agents next door supplied tea. plight of its staff and fail to give with three feature writers, the sports talks, despite The support from other chapels ground over anything in a fruitless editor, the assistant news editor and meant much. We are grateful to NUJ “negotiation” process were key factors. the entertainments supremo. signs that trading national organiser Laura Davison for Swindon rents are some of the I was on air with BBC Wiltshire just her invaluable backing and turning out fastest rising in the country and after 7.30am being interviewed about profits were to hit on both days. reporters struggle to do any better the strike and the cuts. Technically, I was £4 million in 2018 Staff returned to work to get letters than live in shared accommodation. not striking as I’d already lost my job showing pay deductions so we are So when I put the NUJ’s 12-point pay despite consistently high digital figures. especially grateful that donations to claim for 2017 to management in late As the morning went on, local the branch exceeded £1,800. 2016, the stakes were high. Sadly, the BOB NAYLOR response to our call for an above- inflation pay rise was “local trading conditions are difficult and there’s no ” money” despite 2017’s accounts showing an operating profit of about £5 million in the Oxfordshire and Wiltshire region. Some staff in Newsquest centres including those in Bolton and Newport were receiving rises of about five per cent. Matters improved slightly when, in August, a below-inflation pay rise of 1.7 per cent was brought in for those paid under £20,000, with 1.5 per cent for those earning more than £20,000. It was not given to those who had worked for less than six months and the mileage rate was cut soon afterwards. The company refused to budge at ACAS-moderated talks, despite signs that trading profits were to hit Swindon South MP Robert Buckland, second left in front row, joins striking Swindon Advertiser journalists on the picket line. £4 million in 2018.

8 | theJournalist viewpoint

Small slips, if unaddressed, become big issues, says Ray Pearson

English is globalisation. English is becoming Americanised. While one can Fly the flag for good set the language on a computer to UK English, there seems to be a little bug that often prefers American English standards of English and suddenly, without you noticing, there is a subtle change in spelling. Interestingly, many places, including s it old age or the achievement through service or a France, Quebec and China, have experience of falling courageous selfless act. programmes or laws to protect their standards that focuses Nailing down the meaning of courage language. In America, the English I the ageing mind on is not easy. It can encompass so much: Language Unity Act of 2017 has been matters which, in one’s self-sacrifice, knowing the action one is introduced into the House and Senate earlier years, one took for granted? Or taking may result in being killed; to establish English – really American is it because it used to be natural, with physical courage, where pain and English – as America’s official language. the old rote system of learning, that suffering is ever present; and moral So, to protect the Englishness of our the rules of English were understood courage to speak out against injustice. language, check your editorial guidelines. and followed? There is no synonym of the word When I became a technical journalist, award that has any connection to the need to uphold these standards was competition. Even so, there is a close obvious. As editor of various technical affinity between the correct use of the magazines, I ensured they were words win and award, which confuses highlighted in editorial guidelines. even Wikipedia as well as other sources. Since I became a Chelsea Pensioner, The two words can be used together in and editor of our magazine The a sentence or separately. But their Tricorne (www.chelsea-pensioners.co. meaning is very different. To win is the uk/thetricorne), the failure to use the result of competition. To be awarded a correct words in reference to the medal or prize is a recognition of an military has become more evident in achievement. For instance, a person print and broadcast media than ever. wins a race, the result of which is I cannot remember the misuse of the recognition by being awarded a medal. English language, when referring to The NUJ code of conduct states a acts of service and courage, being so journalist … “Strives to ensure that prevalent as it is today. information dissemination is To what am I referring? One might honestly conveyed, accurate and say there comes a time when the last fair … does her/his utmost to straw breaks the camel’s back. And, for This is not about correct harmful inaccuracies”. me, that was a reference by several This is not about grammar but major quality national newspapers, the “grammar but the the meaning and use of words. broadcasting media and even a Words convey a special meaning military web site – which should know meaning and use that even scientists and better – that “65 Freemasons had won of words. Words academics cannot get right. How the Victoria Cross”. A small point, you many times does one hear the may argue. But then so much around convey a special phrase “It is five times thinner”? us consists of small points which, if not Times is a multiplication factor. addressed, become big issues. meaning that even One cannot multiply anything As every military person will attest, and make it thinner. especially the 1,355 awarded the scientists and The media, operating 24/7, is Victoria Cross or an award for bravery so much more part of daily life or service, they did not win it. It was academics cannot so, if its standards are low and it not a competition of “first to the get right doesn’t use English correctly, how enemy trenches, lads, gets a medal”. It can one expect the public, including is awarded as a mark of respect and school pupils, to know better? recognition, or given in honour of an Another factor in this loss of correct  8 For all the latest news ”from the NUJ go to www.nuj.org.uk

theJournalist | 9 hyperlocal news

Jenny Sims reports from the Centre for Community Journalism conference

people attended, forcing the organisers – to their delight – to switch venue to the Wales Millennium Centre to meet Building a the demand. And it was no local affair. NUJ members and others came from Northern Ireland, Scotland and England as well as from throughout Wales. There were even two sign-ups from Norway and Sweden – two countries keenly tracking how C4CJ future for is helping ‘build the future of community journalism’ in the UK. The Welsh government’s pledge of £200,000 for hyperlocal developers over two years has boosted interest in Wales. This funding initiative follows cross-party political recognition that community news reporting in Wales is in crisis, and there is a growing democratic deficit. At micro level, the public too have woken up to the fact that their community paper or website may be their main or only journalism means of getting local news and are increasing willing to commit funding, from pledges to regular subscriptions. A classic example is Se1, the south London website es, they can! Yes, they are! Hyperlocals are (www.london-se1.co.uk) founded by James Hatts and increasingly filling the news gaps left by the his father 20 years ago to keep locals in the northern closure of hundreds of local newspapers part of the Southwark borough informed about major Y throughout the country. But it’s love and changes taking place. idealism, not money, that’s driving most of In 2016 it nearly folded, but readers saved it. An appeal them. And we’re a long way off from getting blanket coverage went out: in return for joining a membership scheme, readers across the UK. were offered a free monthly newsletter delivered to their door. However, matters are looking up. Searches for the Holy Enough people rallied round to more than keep Se1 afloat. Grail – a sustainable business model – were generously Since the ‘unique role’ Hatts and Se1 played following the shared recently at a conference organised by Cardiff London Bridge terrorist attack last year, ‘providing up-to- University’s Centre for Community Journalism (C4CJ). date information to those caught up in the incident, A mix of grants, subscriptions, crowdfunding, pledges and including residents and businesses’, they have gained many paywalls are enabling them to survive. more appreciative subscribers. The event’s popularity showed the appetite among “People told me it was invaluable because they were getting journalists to know more about the hyperlocal sector, its information that wasn’t available elsewhere,” said Hatts. future and whether it might be for them. More than 100 For 10 days, Hatts walked around the area cordoned off by

ICNN is launched – and members want press cards

Security confiscated Fortunately, people doing the job of traditional with the NUJ’ on the issue. established publications my Swiss pen knife weren’t challenged for this local newspapers are often Since its ‘unofficial’ launch on issues including media (I got it back later) but I important piece of ID or a barred from covering last July, ICNN – the UK’s law guidance, funding and wasn’t asked for my press number of journalists council meetings, court first representative body new media. card going through wouldn’t have got in – hearings and other events. for the community and Matt Abbott, C4CJ’s check-in at the National which would have been Getting press card hyperlocal news sector, had communications and Assembly for Wales embarrassing for all recognition is therefore one more than 70 active project officer, said: “We aim building (the Senedd). concerned. of ICNN’s top priorities. members signed up by the to ensure a dynamic I was attending a I’ve got an NUJ press card, Emma Meese, C4CJ’s beginning of January, hyperlocal news ecosystem reception for the official but many ‘community’ manager and director of including the Bristol Cable, across the UK.” launch of ICNN – the journalists who attended ICNN, says they’re ‘working Wrexham.com, Love Independent Community have not. They would like Wapping and The Ferret in More information News Network, which one, but do not qualify Glasgow. about ICNN at: followed C4CJ’s conference, under the rules. It offers training and free https://www. Building the Future of That causes a problem: consultancy services to communityjournalism. Community Journalism. community journalists both start-ups and co.uk/icnn/ SKOPEIN

10 | theJournalist hyperlocal news

police three times a day, mapping it and sharing the pressuring them to take action. Although Grenfell residents information live on Twitter and the website. Hatts picked up had warned the council of the dangers, they were ignored. 15,000 new Twitter followers as well as new subscribers. Recalling his cub reporter days 20 years ago when local They take monthly PayPal pledges based around the reporters ‘created news’ about possible future events by London living wage (£10.20 an hour), and also use Patreon, a doggedly ploughing through turgid council agendas and US site that allows people to become ‘patrons’ of ‘creatives’ by committee minutes, Feller urged hyperlocals to pick up the sending cash donations each month. torch of investigative journalism. Hatts’ presentation followed a sombre keynote speech on Some have been doing that. Among those ‘holding local ‘Grenfell and the lost art of reporting: making news happen power to account’ is the Hackney Citizen newspaper and before it happens’ by Grant Feller, former local Kensington website (www.hackneycitizen.co.uk), a thorn in the flesh of reporter, national newspaper journalist, now storyteller and Hackney Council since its launch 10 years ago because of its media consultant. relentless scrutiny of some of the council’s policies. Feller addressed the ‘democratic deficit’. He claimed the The council’s attempt to ban rough sleepers from the tragedy of the Grenfell fire might never have happened had borough was withdrawn following Citizen stories and a there been a vibrant local paper reporting on the residents’ petition signed by 80,000 people. safety concerns, calling the authorities to account – and It is operated by a team of professional news journalists, volunteer feature writers, a designer and sales team. Founding editor Keith Magnum is proud of its achievements, including being commended for ‘excellent design with quality content and first-class printing’ at last year’s News Awards. The Citizen is one of only four community news publishers to have been awarded a contract with the BBC’s Local Democracy Partnership scheme. Encouragement and advice at the conference also came from speakers ranging from Fiona Davidson, founder and editor of The Ferret, who is working with the NUJ to improve opportunities for women and under-represented groups in Scotland, to a panel of pioneering hyperlocal publishers explaining ‘why print is not dead’. Rich Coulter of The Voice Network, Richard Gurner of The Caerphilly Observer, James Cracknell of the Waltham Forest Echo and Jeremy Morton of South Leeds Life have all found advertisers and readers still like print. Morton said: “People believe words on paper more than they do on screen.” The conference organisers agreed the issue of ‘fake news’ had to be on the programme. Insights into this were given by Claire Wardle, research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center (an open-access site that provides practical and ethical guidance on how to find, verify and publish content sourced from social media), and executive director of First Draft News. Tips were offered by Matt Cooke of Google Data Labs on digital story-telling using newsgathering tools from conference sponsors Google News Lab. Megan Lucero, director of The Bureau Local, believes the future of investigative and community journalism is ‘collaboration’. Husband and wife Yusuf and Sumaiya Omar, founders of Hashtag Our Stories, believe it’s digital storytelling. They travel the globe training people with ‘no voice’, including children, to tell their stories on social media platforms Instagram and Snapchat. Sometimes they are given smartphones and other equipment by suppliers, said Yusuf. But there was no mention of payment for these stories. Pam Morton, the NUJ’s organiser for freelances and Wales, said: “The conference highlighted the many different ways in which journalists, particularly freelances, are now working, and their impact on journalism and democratic accountability. “NUJ members are filling the gap left by severe cuts and closure of local newspapers and, at the union’s Delegate Meeting in April, we shall be looking at more research on the different models of working, and advice and support for journalists.”

theJournalist | 11 equal pay

had only worked part-time as a justification for her lesser salary. (Unsworth disputes this.) Sitting alongside Gracie at the select committee, NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet told MPs that the issue the union had raised repeatedly with BBC management ‘was not just the pay, but the processes’ that systematically disadvantaged women working at the BBC. Equal Female journalists, Stanistreet said, had been told to go freelance, losing entitlement to sick pay, holiday pay, pension contributions and maternity leave. If they didn’t, they risked not being booked for presenting shifts. Women’s contracts had been deliberately allowed to lapse, leaving them powerless in negotiations. Some had fees withheld under pressure to sign new contracts. value “It’s a very worrying culture,” Stanistreet said. “We’ve been very upfront with he BBC about the Louise Tickle looks at She refused. “I don’t want that money. That’s inadequacies of the equal pay work done last year.” not what it was about for me. They’re still not The NUJ is representing over 130 BBC women how women are fighting giving me equality,” she told the committee. with equal pay and other discrimination claims. When Gracie was initially offered the job of These are only the tip of a very large iceberg. There inequalities at the BBC China editor four years ago, she knew there could be punishing financial consequences if would be sacrifices, not least leaving her women united and won an equal pay claim at a and other workplaces teenaged children 5,000 miles away, and tribunal. If the corporation was to look to the reporting from a country that is one of the most experience of Birmingham City Council, which lost n more than two hours of hostile in the world to independent journalists. a class action equal pay claim, it would see the cost explosive evidence before the In her searing letter of resignation, published of unlawfully paying women less than men for digital, culture, media and sport on her blog in January, Gracie wrote: “I accepted work of equal worth can run into billions. I select committee, the BBC’s the challenges while stressing to my bosses that Following a successful class action at Glasgow former China editor Carrie I must be paid equally with my male peers.” City Council, the cudgels have been taken up by Gracie (pictured right) said she had been lied to, But it was only at the select committee women in the corporate sector: Asda is facing insulted and smeared by her BBC bosses in the hearing that those watching the live stream the biggest ever corporate equal pay claim to be weeks since her resignation. would have fully realised the impact of those lodged in this country, with 17,000 employees Not only that: Gracie had just discovered, in sacrifices on a woman who had dedicated her undertaking litigation. Any equal pay claim won at the response to her formal grievance, that she professional life to public service journalism. tribunal means the employer must give claimants had been appointed to the job of China editor on “It was not a great time for my children – they six years back pay as well as bringing all women’s the basis that she would – entirely unbeknown were embarking on A-levels,” Gracie told MPs. pay up to that of comparable male workers. to her – be ‘in development’ for three years. This, Her daughter had developed leukaemia. She Before the committee hearing, The Journalist extraordinarily, was used to justify – to a highly herself had twice been diagnosed with cancer, so asked Stanistreet about the union’s experience respected, award-winning journalist with fluent had initially resisted the pleas of the then head of negotiating with the BBC to secure equal pay. Mandarin and three decades’ experience – the of news James Harding. She was ‘worried’, she “There’s certainly a commitment on the part fact that she was paid up to £115,000 less than said, about the impact on her children. of the BBC to work with us to get the cases her male counterparts. In January, when she finally resigned on reviewed, but what remains to be seen is Confusingly, the BBC’s adjudication of Gracie’s principle over the pay inequality she’d discovered whether the corporation takes meaningful grievance also acknowledged it had the summer before, she was blanked by all but action to address not just inequities in salary ‘inadvertently’underpaid her for years: one of the senior managers to whom she’d but also past losses,” Stanistreet said. management offered to bung her £100,000 to communicated her decision. Later, it appears her Stanistreet is dismissive of claims by BBC bosses make up the shortfall. boss Fran Unsworth told a colleague that Gracie that equal pay is complex to sort out. “There’s

1968 law. It forbids men and 1988 2008 Equal Female workers at the Ford women from being treated After a 10-year battle A class action claim for plant in Daghenham strike less favourably in terms through the courts, the equal pay is launched pay: a for three weeks, of their pay and conditions first ‘equal pay for work against Asda. The numbers demanding equal pay. at work. of equal value’ claim is involved rise over the next recent won by Julie Hayward, a 10 years to 17,000. 1970 1975 shipyard cook from history Following the strike, the The Equal Pay Act comes Birkenhead. 2010 Equal Pay Act is voted into into force, five years later. The Equality Act replaces PA WIRE/PA IMAGES WIRE/PA PA

12 | theJournalist equal pay

nothing complicated or difficult about paying your female journalists less than their male peers – although of course having that laid bare and open to public scrutiny is clearly squirm-inducing for those running the BBC,” she says scathingly. “Tackling it takes resolve and honesty, alongside real change in the way pay is addressed. The vast majority of those working for the BBC are there because they are passionate about public service broadcasting and it’s that ethos that should lead its approach to pay and remuneration, not the external market that the BBC likes to bang on about when it tries to justify the unjustifiable.” At Leigh Day solicitors, which is representing Asda workers, equal pay specialist lawyer Linda Wong says there is ‘enormous power’ in large numbers of women uniting for their legal rights. “Sometimes people think ‘I’m going to weigh the pros and cons’ because of the potential backlash and the risk of losing their livelihood. And, because the change doesn’t come quickly enough, they can start to think it’s pointless,” says Wong. “But I think Carrie’s coming forward will prompt more women to find the strength and courage to do the same.” The dawning understanding that you have been undervalued for decades can be exceedingly painful, and was powerfully described by Gracie in her evidence to MPs. It’s an emotion Wong has come across all too often. “That realisation sometimes is not very empowering, because for many people, they really need this job,” the solicitor says. “But when you have someone like Carrie speaking out, it gives it that little bit more of a push, for people to think, no, I’m not being unreasonable. People sometimes don’t acknowledge how wrong it is.” Stanistreet finds the same: “One of the benefits of the work at the BBC is that it’s sparked conversations at lots of other workplaces. The NUJ has been involved in other individual cases, and a number of chapels are working hard to assess what equal pay issues might exist.” Meanwhile, she says, the BBC is not the only culprit. “The media industry and the broader creative industries have a bad record on equal pay. It’s high time the sector is dragged into the 21st century: we need to work collectively to put an end to unlawful and discriminatory pay cultures.”

the Equal Pay Act and the 2015 2017 £150,000. This 2018 Sex Discrimination Act. Four female Sainsbury’s Around 6,000 Glasgow city demonstrates that two In April, all organisations • Also in 2010, around workers begin a class council workers win a class thirds of the corporation’s employing more than 5,000 Birmingham City action claim for equal action for equal pay highest earners are men. 250 people will by law Council cleaners, cooks, pay: over the next three against their employer. A gender pay gap analysis have to publish their care assistants and years, the numbers • Also in summer 2017, the shows male BBC gender pay gap. caretakers win their involved rise to nearly BBC publishes data on its employees earn on average equal pay claim against 1,000 employees. gender pay gap among 9.3% more than women. their employer employees earning over

theJournalist | 13 mental health Changingminds

needed to shift papers away from linking severe mental illness The media has come a long way in reporting with violence. “Papers like to make an impact and, if there’s a mental health issues. But there is still some court case where the defendant says Jesus told them to do this, then you can’t expect a reporter to ignore the story,” says way to go, reports Sophie Goodchild Campbell, a Time to Change ambassador. “But papers … should be ensuring coverage is proportionate, balanced and in context.” When Campbell went public about his experience of hen The Sun newspaper splashed with the depression, newspapers were overwhelmingly sympathetic. headline “Bonkers Bruno Locked Up” in There was a time, he says, when you ‘couldn’t get stories September 2003, it never expected such an about mental illness in the paper’ but, when his brother W outcry. Editor Rebekah Wade (now Brooks) Donald died last year, Campbell was heartened that the focus had seen nothing wrong in labelling former was on him as a University of Glasgow piper, rather than as a world heavyweight boxing champion Frank Bruno this way person with schizophrenia. “It was an opportunity to get after he was taken to a psychiatric hospital. across the fact that he had a life and a career as well as a Angry readers were soon swamping the paper with calls. Some threatened to boycott the paper, and charities branded its coverage ‘insensitive’. Later editions were changed and the next day Wade hastily launched a fund to tackle mental illness. The episode gives a textbook example of how parts of the media portrayed mental illness back then. At best, editors dismissed stories about depression as lacking reader appeal. At worst, coverage was biased towards the public needing protection from ‘nutters’, ‘psychos’ and ‘maniacs’. Sue Baker OBE, former head of media for charity Mind, remembers the focus on “people in asylums wearing straitjackets” and the constant struggle to get sympathetic reporting. “The argument from some editors was ‘It’s our job to reflect what our readers think. It’s your job to educate them.’ It was and still is a cop-out.” Figures from Time to Change, the anti-stigma campaign that Baker set up with charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, suggest that newspaper reporting of mental illness is improving. In 2016, for the first time since Time to Change began monitoring stories in 2008, more articles with a sympathetic angle than those that reinforced stigma were published. However, stereotypes persist, especially around schizophrenia – the only mental illness more likely to be in a negative than a sympathetic story. Says Baker: “You don’t see enough coverage of real people living with this condition like mums or the school lollipop man – articles that show the human side and the fact it can affect anyone. There’s still a misconception that you’re far more likely to be dangerous if you have schizophrenia, despite the vast majority of people not having hurt a soul.” As someone diagnosed with bipolar schizoaffective disorder, writer Giles Addison says negative stories make matters ‘so much tougher’. “Having a mental illness is a very isolating experience anyway,” he says. “How it is invariably portrayed in the media only increases this, especially with schizophrenia. It is a prejudice I must face every single day.” Alastair Campbell, an ex-Mirror journalist and former Downing Street director of communications, agrees work is

14 | theJournalist mental health

to the stigma. We work closely with the Samaritans.” Another concern is that atrocities are blamed on mental illness. An example is the Germanwings crash, deliberately caused by pilot Andreas Lubitz, which killed 149 people in 2015. Headlines included ‘madman in cockpit’ and ‘suicide pilot had a long history of depression’. The reason he flew the plane into the French Alps is not known. The same applies to terrorist incidents, according to Baker. “They are often reported as linked to mental illness when actually we don’t know why someone committed a terrorist act.” Changingminds Danny Buckland, who worked on nationals for more than two decades and was shortlisted for a Mind award for his reporting, mental health condition, rather than the other way around.” Given that many believes certain factors have helped to change attitudes. Given that many people learn about mental health issues Celebrities and young royals detailing their experiences as from the media, it has a responsibility to be accurate and people learn well as editors such as Martin Townsend on the Sunday Express, sensitive, Baker notes. “I remember someone introducing me as whose father’s struggle with manic depression was the trigger ‘Sue Baker, the depressive’ when it’s just a tiny part of who I am. “about mental for the paper’s mental health campaign, have played a part, he Journalists need to be reminded someone is a person first. They says. “It used to be about celebs in rehab but then you had public may be a footballer who also happens to have schizophrenia.” health issues figures admitting they were stressed, depressed or anxious. This Educating the media is something to which Time to from the media, encouraged readers to come forward with their experiences. Change is committed. Its guidance includes not calling a Time has been a factor – it has taken nearly 20 years.” person a ‘schizophrenic’, not using the term ‘committed’ it has a During the phone hacking trial, Rebekah Brooks said the suicide or describing in detail how someone ended his life. ‘Bonkers Bruno’ headline was a career mistake. However, in a “With suicide, the issue is around the term ‘committed’ responsibility way, the outrage it caused has helped to ‘change the suicide which is associated with committing a crime and adds narrative’, Baker says. “There’s still room for improvement but to be accurate we’re definitely seeing progress,” she says. “Papers used to say to me: ‘We’re not interested in a story on depression. We did that six months ago.’ Now, we see stories on the issue every other day – and many are positive.” Mainstream move and treatment, or ” promoted mental health. The Time To Change previous number. This compares with just survey has been The most common over a third (35 per cent) examining the reporting sources for newspapers that portrayed people as a of mental illness in the UK covering mental health danger to others, as print media since 2008. were people with mental victims, behaving It is part of Mind Over health problems, both strangely or being a Matter, a collaboration high-profile figures and problem for others. with the Institute of the general public. The rest of the coverage Psychiatry, Psychology & The researchers say this was mixed (six per cent) Neuroscience at King’s shows that more people or neutral (nine per cent). College London. feel able to speak out The most frequent Its latest findings were about the issues they are stigmatising elements based on an analysis of dealing with. were ‘danger to others’ articles on mental illness Half of the articles were and ‘hopeless victim’, in 27 local and national anti-stigmatising. They which Time To Change newspapers on two offered a sympathetic says shows that more randomly selected days of portrayal, focused on work is needed to each month during 2016. issues such as recovery challenge stereotypes. They reveal just how mainstream the topic of mental health has now become. A total of 1,738 articles covered the issue compared with just 941 in 2014, the highest

theJournalist | 15 fake news True or false? trust, but it is going to take a long time”. Raymond Snoddy looks at the state The trouble with fake news is that when the term is not of fake news and the fight against it entirely meaningless, it is many different things. Apart from a general term of abuse in the mouths of politicians there is the genuine fake news of the “Pope backs hen the New York Times reported that Trump” variety made up by Macedonian teenagers to make President Trump had tried to fire Russia-links money from Facebook advertising. special investigator Robert Mueller, citing Then there is what Ivor Gabor, professor of political W multiple sources, the response was both journalism at Sussex University and former BBC investigative immediate and predictable. journalist, calls “extreme spin” – something that, unlike the “Fake news, folks. Fake news. A typical New York Times fake others, has always been with us in the UK national press. story, ” Trump said. Despite being a misused term, fake news, he believes, The American president has spent his first year in office carries serious implications for journalism. giving enormous prominence to the concept of “fake news”, “Once the notion of fake news is implanted, it becomes using it to attack anything he doesn’t like. almost the kneejerk response to any journalistic endeavour. Around the world, leaders of repressive governments from That is quite undermining: it’s not just politicians – they Syria and Russia to China and Venezuela have all reached for would say that, wouldn’t they – but also the general public,” the convenient term to denounce facts or views they Gabor argues. disapprove of. There are modest signs that the high water mark has been The good news is that the deployment of “fake news” abuse reached for at least some variants of the fake news concept. has been so overused by President Trump when often the In the US, in at least partial response to Trump, there have news has been manifestly true that the term has been devalued and may soon be in decline outside stand-up comedy routines. “The ironic twist is that Trump has been basically deflecting criticism by accusing news organisations of fake news when it Arena seeks answers so obviously isn’t that he has undermined the credibility of fake news,” says Ian Murray, executive director of the Society Anne Applebaum was such as NATO troops The crux of the matter of Editors. so concerned about raping Lithuanian women. is that there has never Richard Sambrook, former director of BBC News and now fake news, or Journalists, she believes, been a greater need for professor of journalism at Cardiff University, believes that the disinformation as she are at the centre of professional journalists to term fake news has been rendered “meaningless” by overuse, prefers to call it, that she tackling this, first by verify information while and not just by President Trump. co-founded the Arena understanding and economic models to pay He believes misinformation or disinformation more institute to tackle it. writing about issues then for them are under accurately describes a phenomenon that media organisations Applebaum, a visiting moving towards solutions. increasing pressure. and society will have to continue dealing with it for a long professor at the London “Some of our projects “We talk about it as a time to come. School of Economics look at ways in which we problem in Britain but it’s a Things are better than a year ago because the problem is where Arena is based, is can design better crisis in smaller countries better understood and many initiatives have been launched interested in people journalism to reach people where the advertising by governments, publishers and television companies, making up fake news for who are particularly prone market has disappeared including greater use of fact-checking. money but concentrates to conspiracy theories,” and it’s very difficult to do It would be wrong, however, Sambrook warns, to believe on “people running Applebaum explains. good journalism,” says that it is all about to be sorted out. In some ways it could even political campaigns Applebaum. get worse because the technology now exists to combine designed to fool people”. For Applebaum, reasons video and audio to make people appear convincingly to say The specialist in recent for optimism include things they never said. Eastern Europe history increasing action against News organisations increasingly realise that they should be points to constant attacks invented stories spread more open and clear with the public on the difference on official databases in the by tech companies, between opinion and evidence-based reporting. Baltic states and cites the including those Sambrook’s hope is that, as a result, trust in the planting of false stories emanating from Russia. professional media will rise and that “gradually people will come round to recognising what they can trust and can’t ATHENA PICTURE AGENCY LTD / ALAMY

16 | theJournalist fake news BEN JENNINGS

been large rises in subscriptions to papers such as the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal in what has been called “a flight to quality”. Under increasing political pressure, tech companies such as Facebook and Google have shown signs of being prepared to accept greater responsibility for spreading information that is false, extremist, violent or socially unacceptable in other ways. London School of Economics academic Damian Tambini argues that the days when the social media giants can remain free to spread fake news and opinion without accepting the responsibilities of publishers may soon be over. Social media companies have been developing artificial intelligence systems and hiring thousands of human moderators to remove unacceptable material. Washington Post columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning historian Anne Applebaum was so concerned about the spread of “disinformation” that she co-funded a new institute, Arena, to tackle the problem. While recognising the seriousness of the challenge, she is certain something can be done about disinformation. “I am slightly more optimistic. The first part of dealing with any problem is to be aware that it exists, and the fact that the general public, journalists and the tech companies know that it is real is a step towards solving the problem,” Applebaum argues. The recent 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, which claims to be the world’s largest study of trust, found that fewer than a quarter of people in the UK trust the American tech giants. At the same time, trust in traditional media such as newspapers and television rose by 13 percentage points in a year to 61 per cent, a six-year high. Hugo Dixon, founder of Breakingviews, now owned by Thomson Reuters, also believes there has been a modest swing back of the pendulum on susceptibility to fake news. “People are a bit more aware they are being told things that are untrue; not everyone is, but I think there has been a bit of swingback,” says Dixon, who believes the election of Trump may have been the high water mark for the kind of populism that boosted fake news. and wanting to check out the media they use. At the moment The former Financial Times journalist, who also set up they seem to be too trusting and unquestioning and not InFacts to monitor press performance during the referendum sceptical enough,” says Harding. campaign, now believes that “the more insidious stuff is In 2017, the Many see fake news as not so much a threat as an coming out of the mouths of politicians”. opportunity for the mainstream media. The role of the professional journalist, Dixon argues, is vital world, not least Vanessa Clifford, chief executive of Newsworks, a in “stamping on fake news” wherever it is found, and “ newspaper marketing organisation, and one who notes that the media world, interrogating politicians and exposing any looseness with what news brands do magnificently – “disseminating quality the facts. woke up and news in a trusted environment” – was at the heart of the In turn journalists must get their facts rights and make debate about the future of the digital media marketplace. proper corrections when they get it wrong. declared war on “In 2017 the world, not least the media world, woke up and Phil Harding, former editor of Radio 4’s Today programme declared war on the toxic, the lazy, the cynical and the and controller of BBC editorial standards, fears that fake news the toxic, the downright fake. We are going to see the battle continuing, and can never be stamped out entirely because it is so multi- lazy, the cynical it’s one that’s definitely worth winning,” insists Clifford. dimensional and vast but it can be contained as greater value Murray of the Society of Editors waxes positively poetic is placed on professionally checked information. and the about the future of journalism in the battle against fake news. Along with Sambrook, who is a believer in the importance “Some of it [journalism] is tarnished here and there but of media literacy, Harding argues that in the longer term the downright fake most of it will absolutely stand up to scrutiny. A free press “solution” is a generational one. and media is a precious jewel like a diamond in the rough – “Digital literacy has got to form part of the school even when it is polished there will still be flaws but the light curriculum, teaching the next generation to be very sceptical that shines is brilliant,” says Murray. ” theJournalist | 17 photography

In 1979 I was awarded a grant from the Scottish Arts Council to be attached to the art department of Wester Hailes Education Centre, St ry Edinburgh. My role was to photograph the centre and work with the kids there. As I shot, I would pin up contact sheets and prints so that they could see what I was doing. This photograph was taken on the behind housing scheme surrounding the centre. the picture The watchdog stands sentry John Walmsley

Are you an NUJ photographer and have a photo you want to tell the story of? * Please email [email protected] Printed contributions will be paid.

18 | theJournalist on media

Raymond Snoddy has some ideas for the review of the media

the government also find a mechanism for subsidising newsprint? Clear the decks for the Profitable newspaper companies could be encouraged to commit to preserving numbers of journalistic jobs. more pressing issues In the longer term, the government should commit to media literacy in schools to point out the difference efore governments get reminding it is print that is in decline. between fake news and professionally involved with the media More than 200 mainly local verified information. they should adopt the newspapers have closed in the past These are only morsels. Sharpen B medical mantra – first decade and around two thirds of local your pencils. Come up with your best do no harm. authority districts no longer have a ideas for the future of your media. Prime minister Theresa May’s local daily paper. At least the newspaper industry independent review of what the The sale of Express Newspapers to has belatedly got the attention of the industry and government can do to Trinity Mirror is the latest eloquent government on the importance of sustain high-quality journalism into the sign of the sort of stress that drives honest news flows to both democracy future is welcome – although very late. consolidation in any industry. and society. To increase the review’s credibility, It should not take the review the government should do four too long to get to the heart of the simple things – most would prevent problems. Their manifestations, considerable harm, particularly to the including the hollowing out of local press – and would cost nothing. newsrooms, are everywhere before us. Before talking about newspaper Coming up with workable solutions sustainability, the government should will require a lot more imagination. Any remove section 40 of the Crime and significant action will require money Courts Act requiring newspapers to – and, crucially, a transfer of funds pay all costs in libel cases even when from the multibillionaire new to the they win unless signed up to a state struggling old. Ideally, this should be sanctioned regulator. voluntary but if necessary it should It should ditch similar provisions on be imposed by regulation or law. data stitched onto the Data Protection The likes of Google’s Digital Bill by miscreant Lords. Initiative Fund is a step in the It is more than time to rule out right direction. But, while robots formally a Leveson Two and finally creating simple news stories accept the Leveson error of state for the Press Association are oversight of newspaper regulation. Then fine, the need is for more acknowledge the reality of independent human reporters on the press regulator IPSO, despite its ground and help with the imperfections, and pension off the preservation of print. Gilbert and Sullivan Press Recognition Areas for further Better compensation Panel and its only child, Impress. rates for online advertising Then the decks will have been cleared “exploration is an obvious first target. so the review can deal with pressing Areas for further exploration questions such as whether newspapers include a tiny include: a tiny media transaction get fair compensation from social charge on the social media giants, media for their content. media transaction or charges linked to UK subscriber That is one of the easier questions numbers to pay for a media fund. the review will face. The numbers charge on the Tech companies could create cited by the government are stark. social media giants a voluntary foundation to help Average annual revenue from an online pay for journalism, similar to the reader amounts to £15, compared with BBC’s 100 local reporters scheme. £124 from print – and no one needs Could the tech companies or

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]

Comedy by Tim Lezard Freedom of expression in of Franz Kafka. Why that title? Theatre “Because Kafka was a socialist and Jenin’s refugee camp theatre Black Men Walking many of these poems adopt a On tour progressive viewpoint while nodding Journalist Maxwell Ayamba to the alienation in Kafka’s world,” he inadvertently played a says. “And, if you ever need role in this rambling tale to explain poetry to a of 2,000 years of black cab driver, look no British history. In 2004, further…” the Ghanaian co- www.palewellpress. founded a health group co.uk to encourage black men to reject their sedentary Readers’ Liberation lifestyles and, inspired Jonathan Rose by this, a handful of History professor Sheffield residents began meeting Jonathan Rose poses questions that If, as George Orwell said, every identity in their lives.” monthly to hike through the will cause journalists sleepless nights: joke is a revolution, then NUJ Thomas, who’s joined on tour Peak District. is reading a dying art? Can we trust member Mark Thomas could by aspiring Palestinian comics The Eclipse theatre company what we read? This densely written be on the way to solving the Faisal Abu Alhayjaa and Alaa approached Testament to write a play and heavily researched book – who crisis in the Middle East. Shehada, found it wasn’t simple to about them and the rapper didn’t knew Emil and the Detectives was The comedian’s latest project, perform stand-up and celebrate disappoint, recounting previously banned by the Nazis? – tackles Showtime from the Frontline, tells freedom of speech in a place with untold stories in what he describes as serious issues of censorship, how he set out to run a comedy club so little freedom. “a celebration of blackness, of surveillance and mass manipulation, for two nights in Jenin, a city in the “Stand-up is the ultimate freedom Britishness, and the fighting spirit that touching on fake news, propaganda north of the West Bank. of expression in Palestine, because Yorkshire has.” and the pervasive influence of “I wanted to do it in Gaza, but it once you talk … it’s out there,” he https://eclipsetheatre.org.uk advertisers and publicists on the turns out Hamas didn’t have that says. “When you’re performing to media. It’s heavy going, but then this great a sense of humour,” he people with different cultural beliefs The Birthday Party topic is always going to be, right? deadpans. “In Jenin, there is a and expectations, things change. Harold Pinter Theatre, London, Oxford University Press, http://tinyurl. refugee camp, and in that refugee “Some people in the camp think until 14 April com/yc3nfpy8 camp is the Jenin Freedom Theatre. women shouldn’t be on stage at all, If you’re looking for theatre in the “Thousands of people live in the others think all comedy should be West End, it’s hard to see beyond this FIRE! The Cotton Mill Disaster That camp. It’s huge. It’s crowded, it was about resistance to the Israeli amazing Birthday Party revival. Set in Echoed Down The Generations razed to the ground, during the occupation. There’s a complexity and a rundown seaside boarding house Dave Hulme intafada. It’s a really, really cramped the show attempts to unpick that.” and starring Toby Jones as Stanley NUJ life member Dave Hulme would series of alleyways with people Mark says the show is “the story and Zoe Wanamaker as Meg, Pinter’s like to thank all the journalists who living on top of each other. of trying to be yourself in a place ambiguous comedy of menace sees a made his first-ever book possible, but “And in the middle of it all is a where everyone wants to put you birthday party turn into nightmare on he can’t because they’re all dead. But theatre. What I love is that a theatre in a box”, explaining “I want people the arrival of two sinister strangers. Hulme, who spent more than 25 in a refugee camp defies people’s to come out of it with a bit more http://www.thebirthdayparty.london years working in BBC local radio, preconceptions about refugees. Are understanding about the complexity newspapers and news they desperately trying to get to of Palestine and the struggle people Books agencies, acknowledges Britain? Or are they waiting with a have to find their own voices.” The Ghost of Franz Kafka them in his book. The book, begging bowl for Bob Geldof to turn He adds: “It’s lots of fun. It’s like a Patric Cunnane meanwhile, tells the story of up? The theatre allows them to Liberation version of Fame.” NUJ member Patric Cunnane the fire that destroyed the create art, and to find beauty and www.markthomasinfo.co.uk has published a collection of Vernon cotton mill in his his latest poems, The Ghost home town of Stockport in

20 | theJournalist arts

1902. Drawing parallels with the Book review Grenfell disaster, Hulme writes about how the mill owners escaped justice although nine people died. Three decades of the complete journalist [email protected] Donald Trelford was the financial and African interests. As Music complete journalist: hard- NUJ FoC, I and chapel committee Sandfest 2018 working newshound, excellent colleagues became deeply involved. Glasgow Concert Halls, 18 March writer, as he demonstrates in My criticism of Trelford is he does not arts If you love the 1980s, then this Shouting in the Streets: Adventures mention the role we played –first, by Down’s syndrome fundraiser is for and Misadventures of a Fleet Street championing the interests of readers you. Billed as a celebrated mix of Survivor – as well as an editor who while achieving mass support for Scottish pop music, it has a house laid out his own front page. He is best editorial safeguards. band featuring members of Aztec remembered for editing the Observer We also got the potential sale Camera, Del Amitri and Love & for almost three decades, overcoming referred to the Monopolies and Money, plus appearances by The many obstacles (or owners). Mergers Commission. A condescending Bluebells, Altered Images’ Clare A Coventry grammar schoolboy, under-secretary dismissed us because Grogan and Hipsway’s Grahame he was attracted to upmarket the paper lost money. At a meeting Skinner. All compered by comedian celebrity. The index is packed with with trade secretary John Biffen, I and actor Sanjeev Kohli. the great and the not so good. handed him a set of leaked accounts www.dsscotland.org.uk In 1980, owners ARCO wanted to that showed it was profitable. a must read for all journalists sell the paper to Tiny Rowland’s Donald’s fascinating coverage of Jonathan Hunt Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly Lonrho, which had conflicting the demise of the old Fleet Street is www.bitebackpublishing.com Young Adult. Out now After a four-year break, Young Adult signals a return by Essex boy Sam Duckworth. Politicised as a teenager show is a mix of feminist theatre and Festival The Laugharne Weekend by spending the weekend on his own stand-up comedy looking at how ‘not St Patrick’s Festival (two events) West Wales, 6-8 April in the Leftfield after being dumped by far’ women’s rights have come since Dublin, 15-19 March Imagine being in the pub when all his girlfriend at Glastonbury’s gates, winning the vote. Starting on the Cork 16-18 March the coolest cult novelists, musicians, he makes music as inspiring as it is front lines of the First World War with Now in its 23rd year, the major thinkers and controversialists turn moving. The album is a collection of Flora Sands – the only British woman international festival in Dublin is a up at the same time. That’s what it’s 10 songs addressing social change. to have officially served as a solider in showcase for Irish artistic talent and like to be at the Laugharne Weekend, Sometimes that war – the show documents achievements. The theme this year a literary and arts festival in West experimental – folk, women’s struggles through the – “Home” – has inspired a unique Wales, whose musical director is electronica, brass decades as they faced social film project, and is expressed in street former Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci member – and always stereotypes while trying to make theatre, talks, walks, spoken word, Richard James. engaging, it’s good to their own way. The second act literature, music and visual art. Already announced are musicians have him back. – Nigel Farage might want to If you’d prefer something a little Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita, https://www. look away now – touches on the more low key, try Cork’s St Patrick comedian Adam Kay, singers Peggy xtramilerecordings. issues of breastfeeding in public, Festival, which promises a city Seeger and David Soul and – bizarrely com the tampon tax, childbirth and brimming with music, food and all – former England cricket captain the gender pay gap before concluding things Irish as it commemorates 100 Mike Brearley. Comedy with the true story of 17 years since women were granted www.thelaugharneweekend.com Not Yet Suffragette women serving life in jail suffrage rights in Ireland. Riverfront, Newport, 8 March for having a miscarriage www.stpatricksfestival.ie Film Oxford Playhouse, 27 and 28 March in El Salvador. http:// The Guernsey Literary and Potato Natalie Ann Cutler’s one-woman www.entreprenher.co.uk corkstpatricksfestival.ie Peel Society Released on April 21 A film of a book (2008’s Mary Ann Spotlight: a historic house Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ best- selling historical novel) about a book time into the splendour of a Victorian of letters, this charming picture tells Take a step back into Victoriana mansion house, with Japanese, the tale of a spirited journalist Punch cartoonist Edward Linley his sister Maud, who didn’t want it Middle Eastern and Chinese objects forming an unexpected bond with Sambourne, his wife Marion, their because she already had a large and furniture, art, and original the residents of Guernsey in two children and their servants lived house elsewhere in the city. decorative schemes. the aftermath of the Second at 18 Stafford Terrace in Kensington When Maud died, the house was The house has featured in films World War. in Victorian times … and it’s as if they sold by her daughter, Anne, Countess (A Room With a View) and TV Deciding to write a book about still do. of Rosse, to the GLC and leased to the dramas (Arthur and George, Squares). their war experiences, Juliet Ashton Bachelor son Roy kept the interior Victorian Society. In 1980, it was It’s open on Wednesdays, Saturdays (Lily James) embarks on a path of largely unchanged until his death in opened to the public. and Sundays. self-discovery, coming across love, 1946, when the property passed to Visitors take a genuine step back in www.culture24.org.uk/se000329 friendship and loss along the way www.thewayitwas.uk

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 That it is unlawful to discriminate because of the other seven characteristics such as being a transsexual person, Press freedom being pregnant or because of disability, TIM ELLIS sex or religion is well known. That this vs freedom of applies to age it seems is not. Given this, it’s likely that in dealing expression with everyday affairs, age will be seen as less of a priority, less important and I disagree with Raymond Snoddy (“Beware, the not as urgent and concerning to other freedom of the press is at stake,” Journalist, sections of society. If this is to be the December-January). case, it is a misjudgment of the To accuse the Stop Funding Hate campaign of importance of older people’s affairs. posing a threat to press freedom seems to be The affairs that we, the old, are applying double standards. addressing (pensions etc) will one day Provided nobody breaks the law and physically be everyone’s concern. tries to stop distribution of newspapers or Roy Jones contravenes the Racial and Religious Hatred Act, NUJ 60+ Council then the Daily Mail and chums have the right to publish their often bigoted views, those that find Publishing earnings will them offensive have the right to protest and to close the gender pay gap lobby advertisers, the advertisers have the right to May I pay tribute to the powerful ignore the lobbying if they so wish, Mr Snoddy has evidence of our general secretary the right to criticise the campaign, Michelle Stranistreet to the committee and I have the right to disagree of MPs investigating the gender pay with him. £30 gap at the BBC. This all seems to me to be one prize She is to be congratulated for giving big exercise in freedom of the BBC’s former China editor Carrie expression – and certainly no letter Gracie the high-profile public backing of threat to press freedom. our union. Glyn Roberts Carrie talked of the appalling lack of London transparency over pay in our main public service broadcaster. Michelle told 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 MPs of the “scourge of unequal pay“ at the BBC and the growing sense of anger Pressing newspapers to Nor is Wilson claiming that his Don’t forget that the law and frustration among female staff. change is legitimate definition of fairness is universal. He is covers age discrimination It’s a scandal we know affects the Raymond Snoddy exaggerates when he just inviting those who share it to join In 2012, “age” was added to the seven public and private sectors. says the Stop Funding Hate campaign him in expressing it. protected characteristics that under the So is an answer to guarantee pay threatens newspaper freedom. Nobody The John Lewis quotation is Equality Act of 2010 made transparency as happens in Norway, is denying the Express, Mail and Sun disingenuous: “Withdrawing discrimination unlawful – but nobody where your salary is not a secret? Since the right to publish what they like advertising on the basis of editorial seemed to notice. 2008, the earnings of every taxpayer within the law. But neither am I giving coverage would be inconsistent with The act bans discrimination against have been in the public domain. up my right not to buy them, which I our democratic principles which include adults in the provision of services and Some in Britain may regard this as a exercise every day. freedom of speech and remaining public functions. “Age discrimination is gross intrusion into their privacy. I believe Putting pressure on them to change apolitical.” unfairly treating people differently it offers a bold move to ensure greater is legitimate. Major brands have been It would have been some day for because of their age,” it states. pay transparency and accountability. applying precisely that pressure to the their democratic principles if they had Direct age discrimination is where Secrecy over pay means injustice and huge social media companies. That advertised in Marxism Today. They someone is unfairly treated in creates unfairness. The NUJ should look and its analogues are no doubt what did not, and are now being asked comparison with another, for example at the Norwegian approach and lobby Richard Wilson meant when he said – not to advertise in Bigotry, Hate and where an older person is refused for a similar law. as quoted by Snoddy – “The end point Bias Today. admission to a gym or from holding John Hess is a media that does the job we want Martin Hillman office in a club or association because Life member it to.” Edinburgh of their age. Nottingham branch

22 | theJournalist inbox

There is a lot of ignorance and no. It’s the plural of medium. But about council housing “media” in this sense is being used as It is deeply ironic that in the December/ a synonym for the collective noun “the twitter feed January edition you published a letter press”, whose individual members are Tweet us your feedback: @mschrisbuckley about journalists being ignorant of not usually mediums. council housing, by a journalist who It’s very well explained by the late, Johann Tasker (@johanntasker) 12/12/2017, 19:05 shows, er, ignorance about council great Bill Walsh, former chief copy-editor @raquellemartin @Razorpix @NUJofficial Just seen and read it housing. of the Washington Post, in his Sharp Rachel – fantastic piece. Thank you for putting ag-journalism on the Terry Wardle appears to believe it is Points blog entry: “I am a member of map! the fault of councils that the proportion the media: but I am not a medium” of their tenants in work has fallen. (www.theslot.com/media.html). Rachel Martin (@raquellemartin) 12/12/2017, 11:46 Not so. It is actually central As he writes: “People who say ‘the Over the moon to be featured in the latest edition of The Journalist government policy, forcing the sell-off media is biased’ mean there’s an magazine. Can’t wait to see it in print! Thanks to @Razorpix for the of social housing without replacement, inherent bias in reporters and TV photos. @NUJofficial that has led to it becoming a tenure of anchors. They don’t mean there’s an last resort. inherent bias in TV cameras, radio Ben Cowles (@Cowlesz) 12/12/2017, 15:22 Councils only allocate homes to microphones and printing presses.” Love the cover of this month’s the Journalist @NUJofficial pic.twitter. people in serious housing need David Westacott com/OaXtSz7FXg because they must ration access to Vienna their dwindling stocks. Linus Rees (@LinusRees) 12/12/2017, 16:59 Michael Lloyd ARE YOU JUST The ever brilliant Steve Bell @BellBelltoons illustration on December Edinburgh STARTING OUT? cover of @NUJofficial magazine. Journalists have a lot to answer for. Are you starting out in your Cartoonists like Bell put them to shame The inside story of scoops journalistic career or maybe Thank you for including the article beginning work on a new strand of Andrew Don (@DonsHardNews) 13/12/2017, 15:29 “Hold the front page!” in the October- journalism? We need more @simoncreasey2 Good piece you wrote in @NUJofficial November edition of The Journalist. contributors for our popular Starting #theJournalist on #freelances and libel cover. Personally, I’d It is always inspiring to read how the Out column. Many people say they recommend all freelances to insure even if mainly B2B. It ain’t worth biggest scoops were landed and how like the optimism and drive of the risk not to the reporters had to deal with them Starting Out. Certainly our writers before they were published. show an inspiring enthusiasm for Helena McManus (@HelenaScullion) 1 3/12/2017, 23:12 Ian Weinfass our trade despite the many @NUJofficial thought-provoking article by Mickey Carroll in latest Surrey challenges posed by its ever issue of The Journalist. Sad to say I’ve only tended to interview young changing and ever demanding people around exam results time. Plural or singular nouns, nature. If you’d like to or rather a bit of both write a column – and be paid for it Jem-gle Bells Collins (@Jem_Collins) 14/12/2017, 12:02 “Isn’t media a plural noun?” asks Jane – please email some details to This, in the new @NUJofficial is giving me life after my work party. Hammond (Letters, December- [email protected] @MickeyCarroll0 is my new god. pic.twitter.com/TpW0eHyONz January). The answer of course is yes

STEVE BELL THE OWNERS

theJournalist | 23 obituaries

UNISON

Lorna Birchley Chris Bartter Jim Brennan

Lorna Birchley was an award-winning Chris Bartter, socialist, journalist, Jim Brennan, a trailblazer in journalist with BBC news and current trade unionist and campaigner, died journalism training and an NUJ affairs programmes. on 28 October aged 64 from a heart member of honour, has died aged 96. She worked with investigative programmes and attack. Jim was the first full-time lecturer in the early as a Panorama and Newsnight producer, but will Larger than life, he was a lay publicity activist days of the National Council for the Training of be remembered most for her spirit in defending and campaigner in Scotland when I first met him Journalists in the early 1960s, setting up a course the rights of people with disabilities at work. in the 1980s when I was a publicity field organiser in Harlow, Essex. Born in 1957, Lorna was academically gifted, and for public service union Nalgo (now Unison). His career began at the Derby Evening Telegraph attended Bishop’s Holt Grammar School. Aged 13, Scotland was his adopted home. Chris was in 1939, but was interrupted by the Second World she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, an illness born in north London then moved to Dorking in War, in which he served as a paratrooper. After that made school and university studies tough. Surrey before moving on to Glasgow to study at being demobbed, he returned to newspapers, In 1982, Lorna was sacked from a trainee post the University of Strathclyde. In 1975, he went to working in Fleet Street as a reporter for The People. at the Middlesex Advertiser when the company work at the Mitchell Library, now one of Europe’s Jim was a pioneer in journalism training. He was claimed she had failed to fill in her application largest public libraries. There he joined Nalgo involved with the NCTJ from its creation, first as form correctly by not disclosing her diabetes. and met his partner Doreen Keen. a member of the network of volunteers from the Lorna refused to accept this and the group Chris moved from being a leading publicity NUJ and the Newspaper Society who ran courses. chapel went on strike. After two weeks of action, and campaigning activist to become the union’s Jim worked at The Guardian in Manchester, as a the company reinstated her. There was another first full-time Scottish communications radio producer for the BBC in the north west, and happy ending – it was on the picket line that she organiser, where he inspired and trained may lay spent some time training journalists in China. met her future husband Dick Bower, FoC at the activists in publicity and campaigning skills. Beyond retirement age, he freelanced, using the NUJ chapel in Ealing. They married in 1988. They He also had great organising skills, chairing the new medium of the internet to launch what he had one daughter, Lizzie, who was born in 1993. 7:84 theatre company, building Glasgow’s citywide called “news-viewsletters” starting with the weekly Later she worked as a freelance in BBC local trade union May day festival and, following his Derby Guardian, then the Derbyshire Guardian radio then moved to Radio 4’s In Touch, where retirement from Unison, helping to launch the and titles for Leicester, Lincoln and Nottingham. she campaigned for the rights of blind and Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation In his mid 80s, he set up an electronic partially sighted people at work. She then joined and the Havana Glasgow Film Festival. newsletter for over-80s silver surfers, and the station’s Face the Facts, where she broke the Chris was a regular contributor to the cultural lobbied political parties on behalf of the story of BSE, a scoop that opened doors to BBC pages of the Morning Star and his blog Grumping National Pensioners Convention. TV programmes. She worked for Panorama, with the Captain had a big following. He was also He was chair of Derby and Burton branch for a interviewing defecting KGB colonel and British a tireless campaigner for the Scottish Freedom number of years, which I chair now. He was a secret agent Oleg Gordievsky, and covering the of Information Campaign. But it was not a solo mainstay of the branch and, with other officers, withdrawal of Soviet troops from Eastern Europe. act; Doreen, who survives him, was also his made sure it met regularly. As her health deteriorated, she had to give up partner in his political and campaigning work. Jim was dedicated to journalism and training her career at the BBC. Lorna then worked as head Chris had a great sense of humour as well as and helping young reporters for many years. He of communications for the Classics for All charity. great kindness. He is sorely missed not only by continued working and campaigning almost She will be remembered as a journalist of his army of friends but also by all who came into until the age of 90, a remarkable feat. impeccable integrity, whose commitment to contact with him. Jim’s wife of 75 years, Mary, died in 2014. He is justice went hand in hand with a determination His life has been an inspiration for many and survived by a son and daughter, grandchildren to get the facts absolutely right. he will live on in our hearts and minds. and great grandchildren.

Patrick Kelly Barry White Kevin Palmer

24 | theJournalist obituaries

later join them, operating as a picture editor and administrator. The Report photographic archive is still active, with many photos available. Guttmann had excellent contacts in the labour movement and the progressive cultural forces then emerging within Britain. In 1964, Romano acted as the official Labour party photographer, photographing Harold Wilson as he travelled across Britain leading his party to victory in the October general election. Then came his greatest scoop. Guttmann, using his contacts book again, managed to gain permission for three men – renowned journalist James Cameron, Cagnoni and news cameraman Malcolm Aird – to be the first independent, western reporters to enter North Vietnam, in November 1965, at the height of the war being fought against the US. Romano produced a number of evocative photos of the ordinary Vietnamese people reflecting their daily lives as they lived through Romano Cagnoni the bombing of their homes by seemingly Gerry McCann overwhelming forces. His photos of president My father, photojournalist and Ho Chi Minh and prime minister Pham Van The NUJ has paid tribute to Scottish longstanding NUJ member Romano Dong were splashed across the front covers of photographer Gerry McCann, who has Cagnoni, died in Tuscany on 30 many major magazines, including LIFE, died at the age of 64. January 2018 aged 82. Espresso, The Observer and The Economist. In a thirty-year carer McCann undertook Former Sunday Times editor Harold Evans Two years later in 1967, he headed for Biafra to assignments all over the world, but was probably said he viewed Romano as “one of the most cover the three-year Nigerian Civil War for best known for his long stint as the main important photographers of the 20th century.” Report. Romano’s commitment to the Biafran photographer for the Times Education Romano Cagnoni was born in the coastal people’s cause, reflected in the powerful photos Supplement Scotland. Tuscan town of Pietrasanta. After school and he took, used extensively across the world’s Originally from Lanarkshire, Gerry attended ignoring his father’s advice to become a press, made it very much “Cagnoni’s war”. He Holy Cross High School in Hamilton. His bookkeeper, Romano found work in a received the US’s prestigious Press Award for his editorial photography appeared in nearly every photographic studio in his home town where coverage of the war in LIFE magazine. British newspaper and many others around the he learned the basic skills of his trade, later By the early 1970s, Romano had parted world. In 1988 he documented the results of war turning to beach photography to supplement company with Simon Guttmann and Report. He and famine in Ethiopia – and returned to the his income. began to freelance, covering stories for country 20 years later to pick up the stories of He arrived in London in the late 1950s and numerous publications including The Observer some of those he had met in the wake of the launched a freelance career photographing and Sunday Times magazines. conflict. His work also illustrated numerous many weddings within the newly immigrant The next decade started with him producing books. black community around east London’s two photo essays on the Russian army’s Gerry joined the NUJ in 1986 and remained a Hackney, as local studios would often refuse presence in Afghanistan and, later, its military loyal member until his death. A familiar face at these commissions because of racial prejudice. presence in Poland. He worked clandestinely, NUJ events in Scotland and beyond, he will be Often he found himself emerging from the using a camera loaded with small 110mm film remembered for his doggedness and receptions almost as tipsy as the wedding that he hid in a large mitten with a hole cut in it. commitment to social justice. guests, such was their kind welcome. In 1991, he went to photograph the conflict in John Toner, the NUJ’s Scottish Organiser said: His first scoop came when he climbed down the former Yugoslavia; images were again used “Our paths crossed many times over the years. from the rooftop of the Dorchester Hotel to across the world’s press. In 1995 in Grozny, he set It was Gerry’s devotion to photography as a photograph Elizabeth Taylor on the balcony of up a photographic studio in the middle of a war craft and to the importance of a trades union her hotel room dining with her husband Eddie zone during the conflict between the Russians to protect all journalists for which I will Fisher. Taylor was in London to film Cleopatra, and Chechen rebels. remember him.” but refused to face the press. Romano made Even into his 70s he worked in Syria and, enough from these paparazzi pictures to buy following up an idea of his wife Patti, gave Tim Dawson the better equipment he needed to take the refugee children phones and asked them to take photos he really wanted to take. selfies as they somehow survived living in the A fellow photographer, Alan Vines, introduced camps. Romano to Simon Guttmann, one of the He is survived by his third wife, Patti, his first founding fathers of photojournalism in late wife Helen, his son Stefano (myself) and 1920s Berlin and the man said to have given a daughter Tania, his three grandchildren, Rosa, camera in 1932 to his then darkroom boy Robert Tommaso and Anna, and his older sister Capa. Guttmann persuaded Romano to join him Anna-Maria. in working for his photo bureau Report in London. Helen Warby, Romano’s wife, would Stefano Cagnoni

theJournalist | 25 and finally

Rapid response unit will limp along

And, given that it is a basic tenet of our justice Truth unit won’t keep system that you are innocent until you’re proven guilty, wouldn’t anyone accused of publishing fake up, says Chris Proctor news be granted an appeal? There is evidence that some judicial appeals are less than ‘rapid’; for he government announced last example, the Weston brothers began arguing about month that it was going to set up a the proceeds of the family printing firm in 1963, ‘rapid response unit’ to deal with fake finally settling the matter 43 years later when only news. This would be heartening one of them was still alive. A master of T except technology is a greased gazelle understatement, the survivor, Glyn, was quoted as and regulation is a lame elephant. Catching up is saying: ‘It has dragged on a bit.’ going to be tricky. My point, as far as I remember it, was that speed On the positive side, it could mean we Brits will be to an elephant is not the same as alacrity to an hearing less from the US president, who, when not antelope. And frankly you need to be sharpish to railing against it, dispenses fake news like it’s going keep up with social media. If it takes you two seconds out of fashion. Despite all the competition, one of my to post something online, you either live in a deep favourite Trump remarks is still: “I’ve made stuff up crevice halfway up Snowdon or you should forever, and they always print it.” change provider. That was on the record. How much credence do And what will the anti fake news unit be you give to a quote from someone who has already expected to do at the speed of light? Only said they make stuff up? And, marvellously, even this ‘combat disinformation by state actors and statement is false as he patently hasn’t been making others’ and ‘deter the actions this happen forever – there was a golden age of of those creating fake pre-Trump. news’. Should be easy It was even fake news when Collins made ‘fake enough! news’ its word of the year as – and I concede I’m no I know politicians and mathematician – it is approximately two words. governments are reluctant to admit that Back to the government initiative. It’s the idea of a they are not almighty know-alls. But in ‘rapid response social media capability’ that astounds this case, they should concede they’re onto me. I mean, if it takes from July 2009 until July 2016 a loser. Quite apart from anything else, they to come up with a report on the Iraq war, how long is themselves regularly seek to falsify or at least it going to take to decide whether it is fake news to ‘massage’ the truth. Remember Jo Moore? suggest that the UK will raise £350 million a week to It’s false news to pretend that you can fund the NHS if it supports Brexit? control false news. UK governments have been This should rightly be investigated as the new unit trying to do this since 1665 when the London is supposed to probe anything to do with national Gazette was set up to combat ‘reckless’ security, which the Remainers claimed would come publication of baseless rumours that could under threat if we left the EU. On the other hand, that endanger national security. They’ve not done may be false news, too. particularly well in the intervening 353 years, It’s not easy, is it? Because, before it can do anything, have they? the elephant lumbering after the fake news antelope The only long-term answer – as the NUJ has will need to define what ‘truth’ is. This can be tricky. pointed out – is educating people to recognise Philosophers, from Aristotle to Julian Assange via false news. If we cannot solve the problem, we Keats, have been debating its nature for thousands of need to be equipped to deal with it. Schools, years. Is it true that Nelson Mandela was a freedom colleges and universities need to reach out to fighter, as people think? Or was Margaret Thatcher teach us all how to build the critical skills we need being truthful when she said he was a terrorist? Did to function as a democratic society. the UK economy truthfully grow by 0.6 per cent in It’s more practical than training elephants the final quarter of 2017? Is Pamela Anderson, 50, to sprint. really smitten with footballer Adil Rami, 32?

26 | theJournalist Training

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