NUJ president claims it is a 'false belief' that council papers are unfair competion to local press

NUJ president Pete Murray is showing no solidarity with the Newspaper Society in its campaign against what it sees as unfair competition from council funded newspapers - claiming that it is "a dogmatic adherence to a false belief".
The NS today called for talks with Eric Pickles, the new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to discuss local press concerns about council newspapers and local government advertising practices. It follows the new coalition government's policy document’s commitment to “impose tougher rules to stop unfair competition by local authority newspapers.”
But Murray, in a response to the Queen’s Speech, said today: “We are concerned about the new government’s lack of clarity on definitions of so called ‘responsible journalism’ and the dogmatic adherence to the false belief that local authority newspapers represent unfair competition.”
Proposals welcomed by Murray were reform of the libel laws, plans to stop the misuse of anti terror legislation and the restoration of the right to peaceful protest.