Workers Memorial Day in Bristol

Workers Memorial Day was on Sunday 28 April.  There was a gathering for all faiths and none at the Cathedral, College Green from 1pm to 2pm, and then a wreath laying at the Workers’ Memorial Plaque in Castle Park at 2.30pm. Speakers included the NUJ’s General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet.  Journalists are among those workers killed [...]

BBC strike Thursday 28 March at 12 noon

The BBC are holding a national strike, Thursday 28 March, for 12 hours from 12 noon.   There will be a picket line at BBC Bristol offices at the Whiteladies Road and Belgrave Road entrances, so please come and show your support at 12 noon. This strike is a joint one with the broadcasting union BECTU. [...]

Can a regulated press be a free press?

Bristol NUJ debate hears from union leader and libertarian free-speecher on eve of Leveson report NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet and former Living Marxism editor Mick Hume both say they want a free press – but they have different views on what it entails. The pair were debating in front of a lively Bristol audience in the union’s [...]

Benn Lecture sparks attacks on NUJ

BRISTOL NUJ’S Benn Lecture later this month on the Leveson Inquiry has been the cause of attacks on the NUJ for allegedly calling for state regulation of the Press. The Sun and Guido Fawkes have both picked up on publicity we put out for the lecture, which features NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet and Mick [...]

Mediawise attacks bully boys who fear Leveson will clip their wings

OUR forthcoming Benn Lecture on the Leveson Inquiry has stirred a storm of attacks on the NUJ for allegedly backing state regulation of the media. Here Mike Jempson, Director of Bristol-based MediaWise Trust, and Vice Chair NUJ Ethics Council, gives some background – and brings the debate up to date IT WAS inevitable that the bullyboys [...]

Five minutes to midnight: End in sight for regional papers?

As the stripped down Post prepares to shed more than a third of its staff this week in the latest round of redundancies, is the death knell sounding for regional daily newspapers? Chris Oakley, former editor of the Liverpool Echo and owner of the Birmingham Post and Mail and then the Yorkshire Post, certainly thinks [...]