Tag: nuj

NUJ London Digital Media Branch donates to the John Schofield Trust

December 2, 2025

The NUJ London Digital Media Branch has agreed a £1,000 donation to the John Schofield Trust as part of their ‘Big Give’ Christmas campaign – a contribution doubled to £2,000 through match funding, made in memory of our Al Jazeera colleagues killed in Gaza and the hundreds of other journalists in Palestine who have lost their lives simply for doing their jobs.

This follows our statement in the summer condemning the targeted killings of Al Jazeera journalists and media workers. Among them were Anas Al Sharif, Mohammed Qraiqea, Ibrahim Al Thaher and Mohamed Nofal. Seven people went out to report the truth and never came home.

Since 7 October 2023, at least 195 journalists and media workers have been killed, 181 of them Palestinian. It is the deadliest conflict for our profession in living memory. Every loss is a family changed forever, a newsroom silenced, a community left without its storyteller.

Our branch’s donation is made in solidarity with those colleagues, and in recognition of the work still needed to support the next generation of journalists — especially those who come from the very backgrounds our industry continues to let down.

The John Schofield Trust’s work could not be more urgent. Their data from 2024 underlines a newsroom reality that remains stubbornly unequal:

  • 66% of their fellows went to non-selective state schools, in an industry where 43% of Britain’s top journalists were privately educated.
  • 41% of fellows are from minority ethnic backgrounds, compared with 12% of UK journalists overall.
  • 45% were the first in their family to attend higher education — in a sector where 82% of journalists hold a degree.
  • 25% of fellows are disabled, compared with 22% across the industry.
  • 37% identify as LGBTQ+, against 6% in UK TV and radio.
  • 29% were eligible for free school meals — in a profession where 75% of journalists come from the highest social classes.

This is what real change looks like: mentoring, skills, confidence and access for young journalists who might never otherwise get a foot in the door of a newsroom. The Trust’s work is slow, deliberate, and above all else, human – the exact opposite of the violence that took our colleagues’ lives.

Our donation is a small act of remembrance, and a practical one. It says that the journalists we’ve lost mattered – and that the journalists coming up behind them matter too.

The targeting of reporters must end. There must be an independent investigation into these killings, and accountability for those responsible. Press freedom is not a frivolous idea; it is paid for, far too often, in the lives of people who believe the public has a right to know.

We honour those who died by standing with those who still choose to do the work.

If you are able to, we encourage you to support the John Schofield Trust directly through their Big Give campaign. Every donation is doubled during the match-funding window, meaning practical help goes further at a time when it is most needed.

The branch at NUJ DM 2021

June 1, 2021

The branch had a very successful time at the NUJ’s Delegate Meeting (DM) 2021 a couple of weeks ago. The conference business took place on Zoom over 2 days and the branch’s delegation was the full eight people for the first time ever.

More notably, seven of the eight were first-time delegates at DM, with only branch chair and delegation lead Matt Capon having previously attended a DM.

The branch put forward a number of motions to modernise how the union works. Key motions passed were:

  1. Allowing chapels to approve new member applications (proposed by Christina).
  2. Replacing proposer and seconder on the form with something clearer and more useful (successfully proposed by Ruby in the face of strong opposition).
  3. A motion instructing the union to survey the levels of non-unionised staff in our workplace and to look at expanding the union’s membership criteria to recruit them (proposed by Nino. Our original suggestions to also look at other options were defeated in a confusing seriatim vote!).

Our motion in changing the union’s name to just the NUJ was amended to an instruction to the union to consider changing its name. Simon did his best, but there was strong opposition to an immediate change and delegates voted for the compromise.

Alannah proposed our solidarity motion with the I’m a Photographer not a Terrorist website, which was accepted.

Matt successfully intervened with our amendment to a great motion extending our student membership to include graduates who haven’t yet got a job in journalism. Our only issue was the name and DM agreed that Developmental Membership is better than Probationary Membership.

Nima was due to speak on our motion about the union doing more for our members who have been made redundant. Alas, the timetable changed as the meeting dealt with business faster than expected. So Matt stepped in and successfully defeated an NEC attempt to change the instruction to develop training courses to “investigate developing”. As Matt said, he didn’t investigate making a sandwich at lunch, he just made one.

Finally, there was a motion about organising in foreign-owned media, in particular Arab media, that we amended to focus on congratulating our members in Alaraby and Iran International on achieving recognition. Tooba seconded the motion, putting the focus on how difficult it can be for journalists from other countries to get help if they’re not unionised.

It is important to ensure that the exact text of motions as agreed is circulated, particularly when motions are amended by other parts of the union. The text that was agreed is below, including an Arabic translation below:

Late Notice Motion 7, as amended

DM welcomes the recent successes in achieving recognition at Alaraby and Iran International. DM congratulates the members at both companies whose long fights to achieve recognition in the face of numerous obstacles are an inspiration to us all.

This DM notes that:

The UK in general and London in particular has become a world centre for foreign news media production. In particular, the Arab market has recently seen the arrival of a number of new journals, papers and media outlets, which in some cases rely heavily on the financial backing of certain wealthy states and individuals, often therefore operating as vehicles for the aims and objectives of their backers.

A number have bases in the UK.

This DM notes that in some instances employment practices have fallen significantly short of those championed by the NUJ and reasonably expected by workers in the UK. Among these have been the denial of opportunities to experienced and well-qualified journalists because of their national background or political perspectives.

This DM also notes that there have also been instances of bullying, sexual harassment, racial and sexual discrimination and the arbitrary termination of contracts – often with visa implications.

With union representation secured at Al Jazeera and now Alaraby, the union is in a strong position to recruit and organise in the rest of the Arab-owned media in the UK. There is clearly much still to do to secure full trade union protection for all journalists working for foreign-owned news media outlets in the UK.

This DM therefore instructs the NEC:

1.To develop links with journalists and media workers (both employed and unemployed) working in this sector and to work with branches such as the London Central branch and the London Independent Broadcasting and New Media branch, both of which have been working to establish links with journalists in this sector, as well as with the Black Members Council, to build on what has already been done and recruit to the union and gain recognition across the field.

2. To work to defend all employees’ rights to freedom of expression and the respecting of differences on political views by the employers.

3.To place the demand for ethical journalism based on our code of conduct at the heart of our work with all media, including UK-based foreign-owned media.

4.Work with TUC sister unions to build the NUJ’s presence in this sector and to take action to organise a one-day event to bring this work to broader attention.

DM 2021 Late Notice Motions and amendments, available online

The text of the motion is available in Arabic. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to format the text properly, so it’s attached as a PDF instead.

DM Motion Arabic TranslationDownload

Branch moves online

March 31, 2020

For obvious reasons – Coronavirus in case you’ve been living under a rock for a few weeks – having a branch meeting in the physical world was not possible. However, we are the branch of broadcasters and people who move online, so the solution was obvious.

The first online branch meeting took place on Tuesday, 31 March 2020 with guests from PressPad talking about their project.

The other advantage of online meetings is that they’re easy to record. The audio is available now.

And here’s a video of the section of the meeting with guests from PressPad on Facebook Video.

Draft motion 4: Applications

October 13, 2019

DM recognises that the requirement to name a proposer and seconder is more honoured in the breach than in the observance. It ceased to be a reason to reject applicants many years ago and can be confusing to applicants who may know no other members of the NUJ.

DM instructs the NEC to amend the rules to remove this condition from applications and to replace it on applications forms with an optional question about NUJ members who may have recruited them or encouraged them to join.

Proposed by: Donnacha DeLong.