“More than 80 NUJ members in the north east of England are to ballot for industrial action over job cuts,” the National Union of Journalists announced today.
“The proposed Newcastle cuts would mean 18 editorial jobs losses. There was a previous round of redundancies in November last year.”
Journalists at the Trinity Mirror Chronicle and Journal group in Newcastle have notified management of their decision.
“A motion of no confidence has been passed in a senior Trinity Mirror executive by journalists in Newcastle,” reports HoldTheFrontPage.
“National Union of Journalists members at ncjmedia met yesterday to discuss last week’s departure of regional MD Steve Brown.
“The NUJ chapel passed a resolution saying it had no confidence in the ability of Trinity Mirror Regionals MD Georgina Harvey to lead the company.”
Journalism.co.uk succumbs to linking another ‘top 10’ type list… This is from the Jill Geisler, group leader, Leadership and Management Programs, at the Poynter Institute.
“Dear Potential Employer:
Please accept this letter of recommendation for the journalist applying for your job opening…”
Followed by 10 reasons it’s a good idea to employ a journalist. Number one: “Journalists will improve the writing, photography, or design in your organisation.”
70 journalists were killed worldwide in 2008, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), said in a release today. The journalists and other media employees were killed worldwide ‘because of their professional activities in 2008, with the conflict in Iraq continuing to be the most deadly assignment for journalists’ the release said.
WAN said that several press freedom organisations track the number of journalists killed each year. “The numbers vary based on the criteria used by different associations. WAN’s figures include all media workers killed in the line of duty or targeted because of their work. It also includes cases where the motive for the killings is unsure or where official investigations have not been completed,” the release explained.
Much as I hate people dictating how Twitter and other social media tools should be used, ‘Josh’ makes a good point about using Twitter for easy vox pops. Simply cutting and pasting Tweets that happen to fit the subject of whatever article you are writing is lazy journalism. It’s also a privacy issue. Full blog post…
US-based site BeatBlogging.org is collecting names of journalists who use Twitter to “help report, find sources, ask questions and more”.
Beatblogging.org is part of NewAssignment.Net, and is on a mission to look at “how journalists can use social networks and other Web tools to improve beat reporting, with an empahsis on “pushing the practice” and spotlighting innovation”, according to the site’s authors.
They have 57 responses so far, mostly US-based. So how about we get a UK thing going here? If you are a journalist using Twitter in the manner described above, please leave a comment with your Twitter handle below. I’m @johncthompson and this blog’s other authors are @jtownend and @lauraoliver. All our news is broadcast on @journalismnews (and you can talk to us on that channel too).
Although reports with additional information are available online, exact details of the journalists kidnapped in Somalia remain unconfirmed. Articles that name the journalists have been removed from various news sites.
BBC yesterday reported:
“A British and Spanish journalist in Somalia have been kidnapped from the north-eastern Puntland region, local authorities say.
“Government officials said the pair were taken from their hotel in the port city of Bossasso.
“(…) the journalists were in Bossasso to cover the story of piracy hijackings off Puntland’s coast. He says the foreigners were abducted by gunmen along with two local reporters.
“‘The two foreigners are British and Spanish,’ Abdulkebir Musa, Puntland’s assistant minister for seaports, told news agency AFP.
“The office of Puntland’s president confirmed this information to the BBC.”
Journalism.co.uk will update when further reports are received from the relevant sources.
Journalists facing the axe at Tribune’s titles are using the Tell Zell blog to protest against the publisher’s owner Sam Zell.