Branch members on the media

Read articles by NUJ Scottish Organiser and Glasgow branch member, Paul Holleran, and branch member, David Miller, in the Scottish Left Review.

Paul argues for a Scottish Press Commission while David ponders the potential of a socialist media policy for Scotland.

Action for Equal Voices

50=50 Campaign Conference
Action for Equal Voices
Saturday 1st March
STUC

The 50=50 campaign is to host a conference on women's representation and participation in the Scottish parliament, at Westminster, in local government and public bodies.

The cross party event will discuss strategies for making progress on this issue.

The event is supported by Engender, the Equal Opportunities Commission, Edinburgh University and the STUC Women's Committee.

A full programme and registration form is available for download.

Lunch and a creche will be provided.

NUJ Scottish Office Info

The first of the regular Scottish Office news reports can now be found on www.allmediascotland.com.

The portal, run by NUJ member, Mike Wilson, will provide news, contacts and gossip for all of the media industries in Scotland.

The Scottish Executive Council is funding the NUJ pages and members are encouraged to drop in regularly.

Women in Journalism News

A reminder that Scottish Women in Journalism are having our first overseas speaker next week at 7.30pm on Tuesday 25th February. Professor Ludmila Selzneva will speak about the Changing Roles of Women and Men in Post-Soviet Russia.

Ludmila is a highly distinguished historian, currently writing Mikhail Gorbachev’s biography. But more importantly than that she was a goverment adviser during the period of perestroika and still advises President Putin. She’s connected - and very charismatic. We expect her talk to arouse lively debate.

The venue: The Court Senate Room of Strathclyde University. It’s situated in the Collins Building, Richmond Street, Glasgow.

Afterwards we’ll be having an informal reception for Ludmila on the mezzanine floor of Bargo in Albion Street. Free wine and good craic - or whatever the Russian equivalent is!

Contact Jean Rafferty on 0141-613-2669 or by e-mail on jeanrafferty.fire opal@btopenworld.com. You can turn up on the night but we want to make sure we have a glass or two of wine to offer you.

Don’t forget to look at Mike Wilson’s new site - www.allmediascotland.com. You can let people know who you are - and (very important for all us nosey journalists) find out who they are. If you want to find out what’s going on in Scottish journalism, this is the site for you.

Final reminder of event this week: Moving Conversations - Journalists on Film, Film on Journalists

Date: Thursday 20th February

Time: 6pm

Place: The Filmhouse, Lothian Road, Edinburgh (Screen 1)

Ticket: £5.50 (£4) concessions

Ticket Line: 0131 228 2688

The third in the current series of Moving Conversations explores the world of journalists and journalism through film. The event brings together Allan Little from the BBC, Mark Nicholson from the Financial Times, Kirsty Milne from The Scotsman and Shane Danielson, former film journalist and director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Each will unveil their favourite movie about journalism and fight it out over their choices, making a positive case or otherwise for their chosen profession.

The audience will be given ample scope to question the panel and the debate will be followed by The Sweet Smell of Success; Alexander Mackendrick's dark satire on the world of the newspaper columnist, starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.

This builds on the success of the two recent Moving Conversations, one which exploded the myth of the video game geek and the other which touched on some personal experiences of the Holocaust.

www.futuristcinema.com

NUJ against the war

The NUJ in Scotland turned out in force at the Glasgow anti-war demonstration.

Pictured are Jim Knox (far left), Scottish Organiser, Paul Holleran (second from right) and Glasgow Branch Chair, Rory McLeod.

(Click photo for larger image)

NUJ Scottish Office Report February 2003

Daily Newspapers

The NUJ Scottish Organiser was invited to make a submission to the Competitions Commission on the proposed sale of SMG Publishing. Concerns were expressed towards the approach by any new owner, particularly in respect of maintaining quality journalism in all the titles.

Trinity Mirror

After a series of negotiations with the Managing Director and Managing Editor the new extensive agreement has been produced which includes policies on dignity at work (bullying), working time, transparent expenses guidelines and ethics. The chapel endorsed the new agreement at a mass meeting, but warned the company they were not prepared to accept the agreement in theory only but would expect the policies within to be implemented and accepted by editorial management.  A bullying claim under the new agreement was submitted against a member of the news desk. An investigation was initiated and the outcome is awaited with interest.

Agreement was reached on an across the board pay increase of 2.25 per cent.  Additional increases of between 10 and 20 per cent were also agreed for around 20 members, as a start to addressing pay anomalies. The chapel accepted the deal unanimously.

Scotsman Publications

Talks on pay have started this month with the possibility of a two-year deal and addressing low pay/anomalies in line with SMG and Trinity. Formalisation of the Time Off In Lieu agreement in the Evening News is also on the horizon as talks continue.

Aberdeen Journals

A formal submission for recognition has been made to Aberdeen Journals through the CAC following rejection by management of a voluntary deal. Recruitment increases despite efforts by management to intimidate staff.  The tribunal of former MoC Eugenie Verney took place last week and will continue at a future date.

Weekly Newspapers

Pay talks are under way at both Trinity-S&UN and Johnston Group all sides appear to have a large gap to bridge.

Recruitment at Archant (CML-Eastern Counties) has increased dramatically leading to a recognition claim to management.

New house agreement talks are to begin soon at Scottish County Press, now part of the Johnston Group following a pay increase of around 3 per cent.

Recognition talks continue with Borders Weeklies, covering two titles in Peebles and Galashiels, while recruitment at Haddington will bring the East Lothian Courier into the claim.

Broadcasting

SMG Broadcasting are heading towards a ballot for industrial action after the company imposed a deal on staff.

Books and Magazines

The NUJ at Harper Collins are digging in after pay talks got off to a poor start. The company appears unwilling to negotiate in a meaningful manner at the moment.

The Scottish Organiser will meet staff at Lexus Publishers in Edinburgh this week as the UK-wide campaign for recognition gets under way.

PR

An NUJ member was sacked by her employers in the Scottish Parliament last week. The union is now negotiating with the employers’ legal representatives for a mutually agreed settlement.

Recruitment continues at the Scottish Parliament and a training programme for MSPs researchers and Public Relations Oficers organised by the Assistant Organiser is leading to increased interest and recruitment. A media awareness training programme for PRs/civil servants has also been introduced.

We have started talks with senior management at the Scottish Parliament on new terms and conditions affecting party staff. Talks are ongoing with PROs in the parliament with a view to initiating a campaign for salaries of party and parliamentary staff to be paid direct by parliament, removing the onus of paying for staff from MSPs through allowances.

Freelance

Talks are about to start with SMG Publishing on a new freelance agreement. A meeting has been sought with Glasgow City Council as the union seeks agreement on contract issues including copyright for freelances working in local government.

The copyright dispute with Scotsman Publications is progressing towards the courts following an insulting reply by the company. One test case is proceeding over breach of copyright for use of photographs on the website.

Training

We have successfully bid for funding from Scottish Enterprise (£50K) for a literacy campaign, highlighting the shortcomings in education in the areas of grammar and language. Work has started on developing an online training project linked to this funding.

Paul Holleran

Media with a mission

Glasgow will host a special Indymedia event in March. Indymedia promotes issues-based video, audio and text journalism that would normally struggle to get an airing in mainstream media.

Camcorder Guerillas is a weekend of screenings and workshops to be held in Glasgow 7th - 9th March and will mark the launch of Indymedia Scotland.

The weekend event will bring together Scotland's radical underground film-makers with activists who want to know more about how the alternative media work and how Indymedia and political film-makers can be of use in political campaigning.

The weekend will include a hands-on workshop where people from campaigns can make their own micro-video, upload it to the web, and show it at the GFT over the weekend.

The showcase screenings at the GFT will be 'Seeing Is Believing', a feature-length documentary on international camcorder activism, and 'Blue Vinyl', a hard-hitting but entertaining feature length documentary about industrial poisoning.

The film maker, Judith Helfand, (who has been compared to Michael Moore) will attend the event to give a master class about her own experience of film as a campaigning tool for industrial and labour issues.

Information on applying for tickets will be published here when the full details are finalised.

Photoshop for photographers

For the attention of all NUJ photographers.

I have been asked by a training company to find out if there is any interest in an open evening on Photoshop for photographers.

The event is likely to be a couple of months away.

As numbers will be limited, places will initially be offered to those who reply first to the email address below, then once the date is known places will be allocated to the next on the list depending on how many cannot attend on the actual date.

The main part of the evening will take about an hour with half an hour for questions afterwards.

Beer and wine is being provided. Oh and the event is free. Please reply using the email address below.

James H.W. Campbell LBIPP
Vice Chair, Edinburgh Freelance Branch, NUJ
Email: nujnews@themythicalimage.com

Glasgow branch motion to ADM

The Glasgow branch's motion to ADM will be worded as follows (subject to being ruled in order by the Standing Orders Committee):

Amended Motion No 173

"This ADM condemns the negative and stereotypical representation of Muslims within the Media.

"This ADM is concerned at the level of ill-informed and biased reporting on racial, Islamic and terrorist issues within the media.

"This ADM instructs the NEC to liaise with the Ethics Council and The Black Members Council to expand and update the NUJ's 'Guidelines on Race Reporting' to include guidance on religious, ethnic minority and terrorist reporting.

"In addition, this ADM instructs the NEC to:-

ensure the widest distribution of NUJ's 'Guidelines on Race Reporting'

take measures to encourage its usage and ensure full support for all members who stand by the NUJ's Code of Conduct and guidelines when they are pressurised to indulge in racist or Islamophobic reporting."

Glasgow Branch

Glasgow delegation for Llandudno

The Glasgow delegation for the Annual Delegates Meeting was elected at the January meeting. The delegates are Susan Carden, Ann Coltart, Elyas Hussain, Jim Knox, Val McNulty, David Miller and Bernard Thompson.

Chair, Rory MacLeod, will attend as a member of the NEC and Angela Austin will attend as Branch Secretary and a union officer.

The ADM will be held between 3rd and 6th April in Llandudno .

The Glasgow branch amended its original motion, which concerns the reporting of Islam and was declared void by the Standing Orders Committee due to uncertainty of meaning. The full amended motion will follow.