Barclays' management a threat to telegraph titles

Journalists on the Daily and Sunday Telegraph are to vote on strike action over pay, as the future of the company hangs by a thread.

At a meeting of more than 100 journalists, NUJ members voted overwhelmingly to reject a three per cent increase. Following two years of pay freezes, journalists are asking for a rise of eight per cent.

Voting in the ballot, which was endorsed by the NUJ National Executive Council on Saturday, will begin on 27th January and end on 10th February.

NUJ National Newspaper Organiser, Barry Fitzpatrick, said: "This company imposed a pay freeze despite very high profitability, making nearly £40 million a year and it's realistic to expect an agreement well above inflation."

The action comes as the group is set to be taken over following the downfall of its proprietor, Lord Black. And today the NUJ warned that the future of the titles will be jeopardised if the Barclay twins succeed in their plan to put the former Sunday Times editor, Andrew Neil, in charge of the papers.

Fitzpatrick said that Neil, the editor-in-chief of the Barclays' media holdings, has an appalling record in terms of both staff relations and commercial success.

Neil's stewardship of the Scotsman, has been marked by sliding sales, management bullying and a string of short-lived editorships.

Fitzpatrick said: "We are not impressed by Andrew Neil. His track record of cost-cutting and failing to bring staff with him does not bode well for future relationships."

Please take just a few seconds of your time to support fellow NUJ members working for regional newspaper group Newsquest.

For some months they have been campaigning against poverty pay at the company.

Newsquest and their parent company, Gannett made more than $1 billion last financial year and executives enjoyed a 43 per cent pay rise yet virtually every single journalist earns less than the national average non-manual wage.

Many earn just £12,000 a year despite having to live in some of the most expensive areas of the country and the company imposed below-inflation pay rises on many journalists.

We are campaigning for fair pay - for professional pay for professional people.

We are asking for a minimum qualified rate of £20,000 by 1 July 2005. Please support our campaign by forwarding the message below to Paul Davidson at London Newsquest adding your name at the bottom.

Thank you.

Jeremy Dear

To: pdavidson@london.newsquest.co.uk

Message of support

Dear Paul,

I am writing to express my support for the NUJ's Fair Pay Now campaign. Your journalists do a professional job and make a significant contribution to making Newsquest a profitable and successful company.

I believe they deserve to share in that success and urge you to take urgent action to address low pay in your local newspapers.

Limited places are still available on the NUJ Basic Newspaper Text Handling (Subbing) course.

The course will run from 6pm to 9pm on ten consecutive Tuesdays, starting on 20th January.

Venue:
College of Building and Printing
60 North Hanover Street, Glasgow

Course fee: £100

Please apply to Alice McCarney by telephone on 0141 248 6648/7748
or email: alicem@nuj.org.uk.

At the close of 2003 the BBC's Andrew Gilligan, whose journalism sparked off the Hutton enquiry, was named 'Person of the Year' in a UK Press Gazette poll.

And in his last interview as Director of the Press Complaints Commission Guy Black told the London Evening Standard that journalists should take pride in being the least trusted people in society.

What messages do these extraordinary facts send out to the public?

The Press Gazette justifies its choice by explaining that the fall out from Gilligan's 'sexing-up' story - David Kelly's suicide, the Hutton enquiry, a shake-up inside the BBC, changes in Government communications - has placed journalism methods under a scrutiny never known before - causing 'journalists to think more carefully about their methods than many of them have ever done'.

That is welcome indeed. The imminent publication of the Hutton report should trigger many changes in the way the public receive information from the media. It hardly makes Gilligan a hero, but it should set the scene for some radical rethinking.

In the spirit of the times PressWise will be changing in 2004. We shall continue to provide support for members of the public with complaints about the media, but we shall be focussing on dialogue between the public and media practitioners to enhance the compact of trust that should exist between them.

Which bring us back to Guy Black, whose task for the last 7 years has been to sort out problems caused by dodgy journalism.

Public distrust of journalists, according to Black "means they're part of a vibrant commercial industry that's working in the public interest, ruffling feathers, scrutinising people, making a nuisance of themselves from time to time. Journalist who are nice to people are not working in the public interest."

He seems to be missing part of the plot. Journalists need to be regarded as trustworthy by the public - otherwise they are not the watchdogs we need to keep the powerful on their toes. The public interest is best served when those with power - commercial and political - over the public are kept in check by media scrutiny. To be unpopular in those quarters should be the ambition of all good journalists; but to lose the trust of the public is evidence of failure.

Admitting their own fallibility, and developing more effective ways of keeping the public informed are both ways in which journalists can improve their standing in the eyes of the public. Discovering what the public want - not just what they will buy if it is 'sexed up' to titillate - is also part of the process.

During 2004 MediaWise will be seeking partners within the media and throughout the UK to generate a continuing dialogue about the role of journalism in a democracy.

To start with, in February we shall be publishing 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' a look at complaints procedures from the citizen's point of view. We hope that this will open up debate about correcting journalistic errors and the way in which PCC, OfCom and the BBC handle complaints.

We are looking forward to a year of changes - for better, more ethical, journalism in the service of democracy.

The conference was organised by the Ethics Council to identify the main threats, not only in terms of physical, but political might trying to suppress journalists and journalism.

Well attended and organised, the day began with a look at the law and how it is impacting on journalists. There are as many as 22 different laws which journalists can potentially break while carrying out their business, trying to break stories and inform the public.

Lawyers and QCs spoke about the dichotomy of the new Human Rights legislation being sat alongside the badly constructed Contempt of Court laws and called for them to be reformed. With regard to Scotland, I asked the panel what they thought of impending legislation on Freedom of Speech and whether it would be a "fudge or an information free-for-all" - "a fudge" was the answer from the learned guests.

Other sessions concentrated on the situation in the island of Ireland. In the North, at least 15 journalists have been issued with death threats, had their homes raided by the Northern Ireland Police Service and seen careers hindered by being forced to give evidence to public inquiries. Some of the journalists have faced contempt charges for not revealing sources.

The unanimous feeling was that journalism is under threat, especially post-Hutton, by an expectation by the courts and the public, that journalists must expose their sources. Not only will that make gathering news more problematic - as sources refuse to give up information - but also could leave journalists as sitting ducks, targeted by sectarian gangs or other equally violent groups in the UK. The biggest fear is that the still unsolved murder of Marty O'Hagan will not be the last in the North.

From the Blair government's apparent contempt for journalists to big business and the attempt by media conglomerates merging and acquiring news outlets, creating virtual monopolies in the process, the debate was long and wide-ranging. However, the personal testimony and experience made the issues come alive with a frightening sense of urgency - these issues may well be faced by any one of us, if we are prepared to stick to our professional integrity and not be harassed by the State or the Courts.

I trust that my participation added to level of the debate, with questions posed in each session, and will be happy to discuss any of the issues raised with members at any time.

The NUJ's Training Scotland programme gets into full swing in the New Year and the latest development will be the availability of an online version of our Newspaper Text-Handling course.

In the past, Training Officer and Assistant Scottish Organiser Angela Austin has been contacted by people who were interested in classes but unable to attend college because of other commitments and travel difficulties.

Now you will be able to study at home and all you will need is access to the Internet.

The 12-lesson course can be accessed from the end of January and the cost will be around £120 - £150.

A "sneak preview" of the site is available at www.MediaEditing.co.uk.

Course developer and tutor Jack Foley said: "Going online will benefit a great number of our members, especially by overcoming distance problems.

"Another benefit will be the ability to organise your time and learning to suit yourself.

"Where possible, of course, college attendance is hard to beat for camaraderie, problem-sharing, instant feedback and the chance to call me names, but this will be as good a substitute for the physical classroom as you will get."

Jack emphasised that the Newspaper Text-Handling course is not about using QuarkXPress or InDesign to sub-edit; it's about being getting the words right for publication.

"We used to call it Sub-Editing until the chief reporter of a national newspaper turned up one night," said Jack.

"Embarrassment all round."

Following a number of significant cases, members are reminded that they should exercise care when charging anything to their employers' accounts.

Specifically, there has been some difficulty regarding the use of taxis charged to the company, which have then become subject to investigation.

For the record, it seems to be worth pointing out that employers may implement extreme disciplinary measures, should evidence of irregularity be uncovered.

The same potential sanctions may result following investigations into expenses claims and it is worth noting that actual dishonesty need not be proven in these circumstances. For example, if an employee forgot to acquire a receipt for a legitimate expense on one day and sought to compensate by having the establishment supply a receipt for double the fee the following day, the person may well be liable to a charge of gross misconduct.

The NUJ does all that it can to represent members, advise them of their legal rights and seek to negotiate on their behalf. However, all employees have a responsibility to observe the legitimate terms of their contracts of employment.