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MEDIA MONITOR: ITV told 'Keep it local'
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First Meridian, now ITV Central’s Nottingham studios are faced with closure. But the company’s plans are meeting strong resistance from journalists in the East Midlands newsroom. 5,000 local people have signed a petition, and the NUJ has the support of BECTU and Amicus in its campaign.In addition forty-seven MPs have signed an early day motion, tabled by Mansfield Labour MP Alan Meale, expressing concern at the studio closure. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon is a Midlands MP but as a member of the Cabinet cannot sign an EDM. He has written to OFCOM chief executive Stephen Carter about the proposed closure and the relocation of operations to Birmingham.
The Commons Culture Media and Sport Select Committee has also thrown its support behind the NUJ campaign to keep ITV regional news produced locally. Its report, Broadcasting in Transition (HC 380), makes some strong recommendations, including ‘the first major test for OFCOM’ being ‘the protection and maintenance of regional commitments by Channel 3 licensees. It also sees ‘no reason why this process should not be conducted in public’.
Later on the report refers specifically to the way ITV has proceeded apace to downgrade production facilities with ‘scant consultation with the trade unions’. Again the report urges OFCOM to ‘monitor the situation closely, and to take steps to safeguard the present high quality of programming in all sub-regions across the whole country. The potential threat posed by over-consolidation of regional and sub-regional news production centres will provide an early, major and crucial test for the credibility of OFCOM’.
The NUJ and ITV Central journalists have set up a website to coordinate the campaign: www.notfrombrum.org.uk (Click on link below)LINKSwww.notfrombrum.org.uk
Last modified: Tuesday, April 13, 2004
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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
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
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
Miscellany
THE MEDIA AND THE MINERS
Campbell In Denial
WITHOUT COMMENT
Judge drops Bloody Sunday threat
RACISM AND THE MEDIA - UPDATE ON FREEPRESS 138
Public Interest Tests
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Digital radio: when more means less
MEDIA MONITOR: Nasty Racist Reporting
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WITHOUT COMMENT
book review: Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq, ed David Miller (Pluto Press £12.99)
BOOK REVIEW: Journalism Principles and Practice, by Tony Harcup (Sage, £18.99)
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