SOUTHPORT, UNITED KINGDOM – 22.11.09. Marc Vallée addresses delegate at the National Union of Journalists Annual Delegate Meeting in Southport on Sunday 22 November 2009. Published here by kind permission of the Jane Hobson. (c) Jane Hobson, 2009.
For the last four days I have been at the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Annual Delegate Meeting (ADM) in Southport as a delegate from the London Freelance Branch. Yesterday I spoke in favour of Motion 152 on the 1984-85 miners’ strike and how industrial conflict and political dissent is reported.
The motion recognised how the Conservative government mobilised the resources of the state to defeat the strike and the role the media played in this.
I highlighted the stunning photographic account of the miners strike (PDF) by the veteran photojournalist John Harris. Coincidentally John was photographing ADM for the NUJ this year. I also spoke about the attacks by the state on frontline journalists who report and document political dissent and conflict today.
Motion 152 (below) from Leeds Branch was passed.
ADM notes that 2009 is the 25th anniversary of the great miners’ strike of 1984-85 and welcomes the publication by the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom of Shafted: The Media, the Miners’ Strike and the Aftermath.
ADM further recognises that the Conservative government mobilised all of the resources of the state to defeat the strike. With the exception of a few honourable journalists, the media was complicit in this, playing a significant role in the destruction of mining communities and the industry.
ADM recognises that the responsibility for this does not rest with individual journalists and reporters, but with senior editors and news controllers acting on the behest of their owners and controllers. The important exception was local and regional newspapers rooted in mining communities which did often report in a more balanced way.
ADM also notes that during the miners’ strike there were over 70 industrial correspondents and reporters. Now there are, at most, three with a specialist industrial brief.
As trades unionists confront the worst recession since the 1930s, the vital role of journalists on local and regional newspapers being able to report the impact of the economic crisis on jobs and local industry is being undermined by the savage cutbacks in jobs by the big regional newspaper groups.
ADM instructs the NEC to inform other trades unions and the TUC of this situation in order to gain wider trade union support for the campaign to defend jobs and standards in the local and regional media.
