Shut Up For Journalism

Editor’s note: This article was originally posted on the website by an EPUK writer on August 18th, but was removed afterwards when the editor became aware that the first and last paragraphs were not consistent with the news ‘house style’. It was subsequently referred to by Jeremy Dear in his Opinion piece for EPUK, and has been put back on the site in its original form in the interests of transparency.

The article is 277 words long, and is only a small part of EPUK’s coverage of the Drogheda dispute which totals well over 10,000 words. You can read all EPUK articles relating to the Drogheda dispute here

Fresh from turfing photographers out of work and silencing any of their members who protest, the National Union of Journalists has been busy promoting Stand Up For Journalism, ‘a day of action in defence of quality and standards in media, against job cuts and for fair pay and decent pensions.’

In an attempt to encourage participation the NUJ mailed members news of the promo site: ‘A Stand Up for Journalism discussion board has been set up for members to debate the issues which are affecting them. You can share ideas and inspiration for the day and debate ways to protect journalism for the future.’

Unfortunately the first post on the discussion board was a highly critical comment from an Irish NUJ member regarding the controversial Drogheda Independent deal. Mysteriously, the discussion board became unavailable shortly afterward, and remains so over a week later, although the rest of the site seems to work just fine.

True revolutionaries that they are, the NUJ have scheduled SUFJ for November 5: perhaps photographers will feel moved to attend with an effigy of Jeremy Dear ready for burning.