The International Federation of Journalists has warned that journalists reporting from danger zones face "increasingly frightening choices" when carrying out their work.

The IFJ was responding to the attack that led to the death of freelance cameraman Simon Cumbers and injuries to BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

"The targeting of journalists by ruthless terrorists presents the media with its greatest challenge," said IFJ General Secretary, Aidan White.

"We cannot bow to the intimidation of cold-blooded and ruthless killers, so we must face up to the reality that, in this new climate of terrorism, more actions must be taken to protect our people, because we can be sure more attacks will take place."

With more than 50 killings of journalists and media staff - most of the victims in Iraq - the IFJ says that 2004 has already been marked out as one of the worst years on record for such attacks.

Last month, the IFJ's World Congress made protection of journalists and support for the International News Safety Institute the main priorities of the Federation's new working programme.

White insisted: "We must improve safety training, provide protection for people when they are reporting from dangerous areas, and ensure that governments and security forces are doing everything they can to improve levels of protection for media people."

"Journalists must be equipped to take the hard decisions about the risks they face, but they can only do that with confidence if they are certain that everything is being done to minimise the dangers."

The One Workplace Equal Rights Campaign is to host a series of seminars for trade union representatives and officials, with the aim of raising awareness of the different ways that discrimination can affect specific groups.

The project will also promote and develop the new phase of the Scottish Executive's One Scotland Many Cultures campaign, which is intended to tackle racism at workplace level. The seminars will also define basic legal rights for these groups.

Provisional dates of seminars are as follows:

• Wednesday, 16th June: Glasgow
• Tuesday, 22nd June: Edinburgh
• Tuesday 14th September: Aberdeen
• Tuesday 26th October: Inverness

The NUJ has demanded that the sources of the infamous "hoax" prisoner abuse pictures, published in the Mirror, be protected.

Regardless of disputes about the provenance of the photos - and the subsequent sacking of Piers Morgan - the NUJ insists that the vital principle that journalists do not betray confidential sources must be maintained.

Anticipating pressure from their employers, the NUJ urges Mirror journalists to resist pressure or even instructions to compromise their sources.

The NUJ has offered support and legal advice to the three Mirror journalists, reported to be the only ones who know the names of the soldiers who supplied the photos.

The union has pointed out that, although the pictures may represent, rather than depict, real events their validity should not be totally dismissed on that basis.

NUJ General Secretary, Jeremy Dear, said: "This likely explanation does not mean that a fraud has been perpetrated.

"Piers Morgan and the Mirror may have over-sold the images for the sake of a story, but the soldiers are not responsible for that.

"There is at least the possibility that the soldiers, known through the Mirror as A and B, have performed a public service by bringing out the allegations of maltreatment of detainees in Iraq. The photos were to illustrate an account they gave of the allegedly savage beating of one young man. As long as that possibility remains they certainly deserve protection."

The duty to protect confidential sources is enshrined in the NUJ Code of Conduct and the union will do all in its power to assist members who defend that principle.

Glasgow branch has a new representative to the Scottish Executive Council after members attending the Annual General Meeting elected Joe Owens in place of Kath Kyle, who had vacated the post.

Kath will be moving to Dublin on Tuesday and will be missed by branch members as sadly as by her colleagues at the Scottish Socialist Voice.

In the other AGM elections, the sitting committee members were returned unopposed.

The committee is:

Chair - James Doherty
Vice Chair - David Miller
Secretary - Bernard Thompson and Angela Austin (Jobshare)
Treasurer and Equality Officer - Ann Coltart
Welfare Officer - Grace Franklin

Val McNulty and Harry Conroy were again returned as auditors.

Glasgow branch members are to be urged to support the "Hands off your BBC" lobby of the Westminster Parliament on Wednesday, 19th May.

On Thursday the branch will welcome former BBC Scotland FoC and Scottish National Executive Council member Pete Murray, who will explain the importance of the campaign.

It is hoped that there will be sufficient support from members in Scotland to make the hiring of a minibus viable.

The lobby, which will be led by the Deputy General Secretary, John Fray, is to demand that the BBC remains public and free of commercial interference in the face of external threats from several areas.

Members are also asked to contact their MPs personally to demand that they support public service broadcasting.

Read the NUJ submission to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the BBC Charter Review (MS Word document).

For some years, Harper Collins has been what might euphemistically be described as a challenging workplace as far as the union is concerned.

However, the difficulties the NUJ faces with the publishers were not helped on Tuesday when Assistant Organiser Jim McNally arrived to hold talks on redundancies with a Human Resources manager.

Unbeknown to Jim, the HR representative would be unable to make the meeting - because she had been made redundant.

The NUJ Evening Times chapel have joined Scottish Organiser Paul Holleran in celebrating a victory for common sense following restructuring negotiations in the pagination department.

The company had been seeking to make redundancies as part of changes brought in with the introduction of new PDF technology.

However, following an exchange of views between the union and editor Charles McGhee, a compromise was reached with jobs being created for two pagination staff in the production department, while another two were happy to accept voluntary redundancy packages.

Paul Holleran said: "This was like a breath of fresh air, with a pragmatic approach by Charles McGhee and Tim Blott, the Newsquest Strathclyde MD, reaching a mutually acceptable agreement which has boosted morale in the chapel overnight.

"This of course is in contrast to what has been happening with The Daily Record & Sunday Mail management where we are heading towards disastrous industrial action over an almost identical situation."

As the union gets on with the job of trying to resolve disputes at several workplaces, communication with Glasgow branch members was also affected by a strike.

While sitting at his PC last week, your dedicated website editor was startled by a blue flash accompanied by a sound, which prompted him to duck and cover in the best traditions of US domestic defence policy.

Having satisfied himself that the phenomena were the result of natural causes - and having invented several new expletives - he eventually found that fried modem had been added to his menu of gripes and moans.

Tardy diagosis and remedial action resulted in the website being out of action for a few days.

Following the story on the US protest against low pay at Newsquest, the company have issued a statement, which they have asked to be published.

Statement from Newsquest Media Group 5th May 04

"Although the NUJ, for its own reasons, continues to target Newsquest for its activities we do not believe that the pay for our journalists is out of step with other newspaper companies.

"Indeed our staff retention rates, together with our success in attracting some of the brightest talent in the UK - including from other newspaper companies - tends to suggest our journalists feel they get a fair deal.

"Newsquest employs more than 1,500 journalists and our record in areas such as training is second to none."

NUJ members are today staging a protest over pay at the US headquarters of one of the UK's major newspaper publishers.

In the first move of its kind journalists working for Newsquest are taking their campaign for fair pay direct to the heads of US parent company the Gannett Corporation.

Protestors will move a motion at the AGM of Gannett in Washington, calling on shareholders to limit excessive pay awards for executives and to reward hard-working staff, including journalists, for their work in helping the company make profits topping $1.2 billion last year. They will also leaflet shareholders outside and inside the AGM.

The group from the UK, which includes present and former Newsquest journalists, will join representatives from US newspapers owned by Gannett and members of The Newspaper Guild, the NUJ's sister union in the US in staging the protest over poverty pay. Leading the group is the NUJ's National Newspapers Organiser Barry Fitzpatrick.

Gannett owns more than 70 daily papers, including the top-selling USA Today. In Britain, Newsquest is the second-biggest owner of regional papers, with more than 300 titles.

Experienced Newsquest journalists can earn around £10,000 less than the average UK wage.

However, the President, chairman and CEO of Gannett, Douglas H McCorkindale, is the seventh-highest earning executive in the USA, with a total package worth $19.9 million last year.

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: "We are taking our campaign for fair pay right to the heart of Gannett. At a time when some Newsquest journalists qualify for state benefits because they are so badly paid or are having to work at second jobs we are calling on shareholders to limit the excessive pay awards for executives and to improve rewards for those hundreds of journalists who help make Newsquest such a successful company.

"The best way to continue to build a successful newspaper company is to invest resources in editorial, including journalists pay. A well-rewarded, well-motivated workforce is the only sustainable basis for long-term success. Paying poverty pay simply causes staff turnover, absenteeism, resentment, demoralisation and lack of motivation.

"How much longer can a company that makes hundreds of millions of pounds profit every year deny its staff a fair day's pay for a fair day's work?"