After being derecognised in Rupert Murdoch's flight from Fleet Street to Wapping 25 years ago, the NUJ has established a chapel at News International.
According to the latest issue of The Journalist, the first act of the chapel will be to take legal action to protect journalists' sources at The Times and Sunday Times after the company passed data, including Sun reporters' emails, to the police.
It says three new chapel officers, all Times journalists, have liaised with colleagues on the other two titles and a meeting of all NUJ members at News International is planned.
According to The Journalist, the chapel officers have agreed to be named on an application for an injunction against News Corporation to prevent its Management and Standards Committee passing on information identifying legitimate sources.
It says: "Material handed over to Scotland Yard by the committee included emails, expense forms and transcripts of internal interviews with staff, leading to the arrest of nine current and former Sun reporters on suspicion of allegedly making illegal payments to public officials.
"The same exercise is planned by the MSC at The Times and Sunday Times. Journalists on all three newspapers are deeply concerned that whistleblowers will be identified."
- Barrie Clement, in a feature in The Journalist, names a Sun journalist who tried to commit suicide after being arrested and quotes a "senior Sun source" saying: "There is fear and anger in the newsroom and a sense that reporters have been thrown to the wolves."
If you are interested in press freedom here is a great debate by Worldbytes, where volunteers consider the Counter Leveson Inquiry, a campaign launched by the online journal Spiked. Journalist Patrick Hayes challenges participants not to go along with the inquiry's dangerous assumptions. He argues that free speech and a free press with no 'buts' are essential for democracy.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.worldbytes.org/dont-shout-at-the-telly-the-leveson-inquiry/