As the Society of Editors conference continued today, the National Union of Journalists staged as many as 60 events across the country to call for journalists and editors to “stand up for journalism”.
Around 100 NUJ activists held placards and shouted slogans outside today’s conference in Manchester – taking place in what once was the Free Trade Hall – and called for the bosses inside to recognise the value of journalists’ jobs.
Petitions were handed in to the Welsh Assembly, the Northern Irish Parliament at Stormont and the Scottish Parliment at Holyrood today. Journalists in Germany and Serbia were set to stand up in silence for two minutes in solidarity with the protests.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said: “I’m delighted with the turnout, it represents journalists from across the media: we have people from BBC, ITV, freelancers, magazines and newspapers. It’s about fighting for the resources to enable journalists to do their job.”
Dear said he was “extremely disappointed” that editors at the conference had not accepted his invitation to join the union’s fight for more resources.
“It is about time that they saw their way to fight for more resources for their editorial departments and for owners to show they care about quality,” he said.
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