Thursday 14 July 2011

South Yorkshire journalists confirm strike action


Journalists at the Johnston Press-owned South Yorkshire Newspapers have voted unanimously to confirm their strike which begins tomorrow (Friday) over threatened editorial redundancies.

The threatened cuts would hit the weekly South Yorkshire Times title at its office in Mexborough. The striking journalists say they are shocked at the threat to the job of the paper’s editor Jim Oldfield, whose commitment to local campaigning journalism they say has helped to make the paper the best-performing Johnston Press weekly in the region.

The NUJ parliamentary group of MPs has tabled an early day motion in the House of Commons supporting journalists in Yorkshire "who are leading the fight for quality journalism and local news" and endorsing the NUJ campaign to defend the quality of news service that journalists bring to their local communities . The MPs call on the paper’s Johnston Press group proprietors to withdraw the proposals "which will cost jobs, undermine the future viability of the affected titles and damage the provision of local news in South Yorkshire".

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