Do rank and file members of the NUJ support the union's stance in support of a new independent press regulator underpinned by statute?
Last week NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet reaffirmed her support for this stance. Her concern is that the new press regulator proposed by the media owners has no input from journalists or 'civil society'.
It is an issue which has seen every major publisher signal their opposition to the statutory-backed solution. Index on Censorship has also signalled its support for self-regulation.
The NUJ is frustrated that the press owners, via Pressbof, refuse to involve ordinary journalists in their plan for a beefed up Press Complaints Commission. While Press Gazette shares some of the NUJ's concerns about PCC2, on balance we still believe that the Government has no place regulating the press.
What do you think?
The poll is now closed – here are the results:
137 votes
Are you a member of the NUJ?
Yes: 69 per cent
No: 31 per cent
Do you agree with the NUJ stance in favour of statutory-backed regulation of the press?
Yes: 34 per cent
No: 66 per cent
3.10pm update: The result of this web survey suggests a good deal of disquiet about the NUJ leadership's stance. This has been borne out by the feedback on Twitter. It has been pointed out (see comments below) that you could vote twice on certain browsers. Why any journalist would want to 'fix' a survey like this escapes me (presumably one votes because one is curious to know the answer).
It is probably worth noting that all those who admitted to double-voting on Twitter were backers of the NUJ leadership stance.
UPDATE TWO: It has been quite rightly pointed out the the following caveat, included on our latest poll (which found a majority backing statutory regulation), should also be on this one:
Such online polls are not remotely scientific and obviously vulnerable to being hi-jacked by campaign groups.
@valerie_flynn I voted twice, how many times did you vote? It's meaningless. @pressgazette
— Donnacha DeLong (@donnachadelong) November 5, 2012
Poll: Do you support #NUJ stance on statutory-backed regulation of the press? pressgazette.co.uk/content/poll-d… You can vote more than once.
— NUJ LDN Photo (@NUJPhoto) November 5, 2012
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
