NUJ Discuss the Future of Journalism

The National Union of Journalists held a conference in London to tackle media barons on Saturday. After 40% of jobs lost in five years, journalists, professors and students, authors and the public gathered to debate the damage media barons, like Rupert Murdoch are causing to journalism.

Guest speakers all communicated a need for the capitalism and monopolising in journalism to stop: academic James Curran said at the conference ‘we need to be politically brave and introduce anti-monopoly controls, there are economic solutions, a 1% levy on search engines that profit from news, and an independent public trust with press regulation that works.’ He called for a ‘culture change away from where journalists are scared of losing their jobs.’

Speaker Harriet Harman, Labour deputy leader and Shadow Cabinet member for Culture Media and Sport opened the conference stating: ‘Good journalism is vital for democracy.’ She also accused News International of ‘dehumanising’ celebrities in ‘pursuit of profit’.

Other speakers throughout the day included general secretary for the NUJ, Michelle Stanistreet who claimed the NUJ were not involved in talks with media barons and the ‘relentless pressure to make goods regardless of the cost’ meant drastically slipping standards in journalism came as 'no surprise’.

New socialist worker models of journalism were proposed. Examples of Co-op papers, such as the Camden New Journal, Islington Tribune and West End extra, were presented as examples of newspapers running independent of shareholders and media barons. They are run by the workers for the local people.

‘Hacked Off’ campaigner Thais Porthilo-Shrimpton was one of many to say ‘journalism is a service to the public that needs to be free of the shackles of commercialism.’

The destructive relationship between politicians and media barons was also described by left wing paper The Morning Star’s editor, Richard Bagley: ‘I cannot believe the relationship between Murdoch and Tony Blair leading up to the Iraq war.’ The conference is one of many across the globe where journalists are standing up to media barons and capitalist monopolies of the news.
More information on the event can be found at: www.tuc.org.uk