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Whistleblower Nurse Appeal
DATELINE: 7/8/09
Margaret Haywood is the whistleblowing Nurse struck off the Nursing register by the Nursing and Midwifery Council for secretly filming appalling treatment of elderly patients in a NHS hospital for the BBC's Panorama programme. Over 43,000 people have now signed an online petition from the Royal College of Nursing calling for her reinstatement. Campaign members and friends are asked to sign it too.
The petition has been a catalyst for an outpouring of anger about poor treatment of the elderly that is all too common in the NHS. Many comments on the petition from patients and their families confirm this, and the frustration of staff who fear victimisation if they speak out about unnacceptable standards of care.
The tribunal which struck her off was acting on a complaint by a hospital management which allowed neglectful, inhuman and degrading treatment of elderly patients. Nothing was screened without the permission of the patients or their families, and they supported Nurse Haywood at the tribunal.
This case shows the failure of the Nursing & Midwifery Council to defend the human rights of patients to decent treatment in the NHS, and it sends a scary message to anyone over 60, or with older loved ones. In this case the public had every right to know that people were routinely abused in hospital, but Haywood has been victimised as a result.
I hope you will sign the petition, and alert others. The human rights of (we) the older people in this country are too often ignored, yet the overwhelming support for the petition indicates a strength of feeling and anger that is out there.We need a vociferous campaign about the ageism, injustices and mistreatment that Margaret Haywood's case has exposed both before and after the next general election.
Please do all you can to encourage people to sign the RCN petition. Even a junior health minister said the decision to strike off Nurse Haywood was wrong. Her appeal will be held at the High Court in September.
LINKSSign the petition
Guardian blog
Daily Mirror comment
Panorama programme
Last modified: Friday, August 7, 2009
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
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DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Free Speech & Censorship
Breen judgment a landmark victory for press freedom
An untold story?
Hundreds demonstrate their freedom to photograph
Olympic builders forced to sign gagging orders
Brown backs down in expenses row
Access to MPs' expenses move criticised
Triumph for journalists' rights as Sally Murrer wins her case
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AGM condemns threats to Media Lens
CPBF condemns Tesco libel action
Unite demands reinstatement for Pizza man
Response to the Ministry of Justice proposal to extend FoI
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