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How the media lost touch with work
DATELINE: 13/6/11Not since the wage restraint of the 1970s or the mass redundancies of the 1980s has there been the prospect of a co-ordinated withdrawal of labour by the trade union movement. But such is the level of opposition to cuts in public services, changes in employment conditions and the loss of pension rights that the coalition government might well be on the point of provoking a demonstration of industrial action and trade union solidarity of a kind not seen for thirty years.
Plans are already in train for a possible mass walk-out on Thursday June 30 – more than a million union members including teachers, university lecturers, tax officers and countless other public sector workers are due to take part.
But a lot has changed since the rolling strikes of the 1970s and 1980s: the union movement faces not only much tougher legal restraints than in those earlier years but also a far different and potentially more hostile media environment. Any mention of strike action produces predictable knee jerk headlines about a winter – or perhaps – summer of discontent and another outing for those grainy old photographs and television footage of rubbish piling up in the streets.
We’ve already had a taste of the kind of coverage that can be expected following the warning by the Business Secretary Vince Cable that if there is co-ordinate strike action it may lead to tougher trade union laws.
In this month's Radio Free Press podcast are three people who speak up for the trade unions, who seek to communicate on their behalf – Geoff Martin, Sian Jones and Francis Beckett.
Last modified: Thursday, June 23, 2011
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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.
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DATELINE: 26/3/10
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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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