Friday 6 November 2009

Quotes of the Week

Candidate for The Journalist editorship Mark Watts: "EXCLUSIVE. Trotskyist group the socialist workers party helped to re-launch “NUJ Left” last November as a vehicle to take control of the national union of journalists."

Roy Greenslade on Mark Watts: "His investigations are a sham. Worse, his journalistic pomposity is an insult to our trade."

Sunday World Northern editor Jim McDowell defends his right to publish a picture of an apparent suicide victim: "It was in the public interest. That is what newspapers do. They lift stones and they look underneath the stones and they publish the stories. I apologise if relatives of deceased people who took their lives are hurt or distressed by this. I took the decision to run this picture because this poor man had been left hanging in public view for such a long time. It wasn't meant to be voyeurism."

Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Matt Bagott: "I believe our watchwords, both in the media and as the police service, should be compassion and kindness and I would not support the publication of photographs of that distressing nature.”

Ex-Gloucestershire Echo editor Anita Syvret: “The worst case scenario is that ‘the local rag’ goes belly-up in one British town after another, and with it will die a community touchstone, the lifeblood of British society, and guardian of local democracy. As for the readers - they won’t even notice their local paper has gone until it’s too late. The best we can hope is that the men and women now at the helm, caught between reduced profits and an ever greater demand for resources, don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. And that the readers and advertisers stick with them.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists in a letter to Gordon Brown, urging an investigation into the death of Sultan Munadi in Afghanistan rescue raid: "Many questions remain, among them whether Munadi’s rescue was a central objective, what circumstances existed when he was killed, and why his remains were left behind after British forces withdrew."

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Jon
Thanks for writing about NUJ Left.
As a result of all the publicity during the Journalist election campaign we have had hundreds of extra vistors to our website.
So we have decided to hold a NUJ Left get-together on the evening of the election count.
All NUJ members are invited to join us anytime from 5pm on Monday November 16 for a drink at the Bread and Roses, a pub owned by the trade union movement, on Clapham Manor Street, Clapham, London, SW4 6DZ.
It's just off Clapham High Street where there are loads of buses - and a short walk from Claphan North and Clapham Common tube and Clapham High Street train stations.
http://www.breadandrosespub.com/finding-us.aspx
It will be an entirely informal event in the bar. Please come and ask us about the NUJ Left, discuss the outcome of the Journalist editor election, the union, socialism, or anything else that takes your fancy.
If you don't know what any of us look like we'll be wearing green on white NUJ lapel badges.

If you are from outside London you might prepfer to attend the NUJ Left public meeting at 6pm on Thursday November 19 in the Southport Theatre and Convention Centre, Promenade, Southport, PR9 0DZ. All trade unionists welcome.

If you would like to join the NUJ Left it costs a pound a month. You can pay for as long as you like. Just see one of us at the Bread and Roses or at the NUJ annual delegate meeting in Southport.

Miles Barter
Treasurer
NUJ Left
http://www.nujleft.org/