Bristol NUJ

Karen Reissman, a nurse and Unison representative working in the NHS has been suspended from work for speaking to the press about the impact of health cuts in her region.

Unison have organised a campaign for her reinstatement and to highlight the right of health professionals to speak out against cuts. Whistleblowers are vital to enabling the media to expose failings in the NHS. NUJ members are urged to support the campaign to reinstate Karen.

Details are available here.

The NUJ has successfully secured a £26,000 payout and a £7,000 a year pay rise for a member on a national newspaper who was paid less than her male counterparts for doing the same job. The company agreed to settle the claim before it went to a tribunal. The win is just one of a number of recent victories on equal pay for work of equal value. If you want to know more about your rights visit www.eoc.org.uk or www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk If you think you may have an equal pay case click here and answer the questionnaire.

www.nuj.org.uk

The NUJ is compiling evidence to submit to a TUC commission on vulnerable workers. They would like to hear from any freelance workers on their experiences of being denied basic employment rights at work. If you have any experiences to share in confidence about abuses in the workplace please email campaigns@nuj.org.uk

Fancy being one of the President’s Men for the weekend? A Course is being run to develop and update investigative skills, and hear speakers including Seymour Hersh - who revealed the torture at Abu Ghraib - and David Leigh on BAE systems. Three days of intensive training with a reduced rate for NUJ members of £200, 20- 22 July at City University. For more information or to book visit www.tcij.org

Copies of the NUJ history are still available to buy online.The book tells the dramatic story of the union’s first 100 years. The book is published by Profile Books at £17.99 but is on offer to NUJ members for the special price of £10. To buy online there is an extra £2 charge for post and packaging, making the full price £12. Click here to place your order now!

This year is already on course to surpass 2006 as the deadliest year for journalists, as the plight of Alan Johnston shows, and many governments and even news organisations don’t appear to take this seriously.

According to the International News Safety Institute (INSI), 101 journalists and media staff lost their lives in the first six months of this year. Last year, 168 journalists were killed while on duty. Iraq is by far the deadliest country, accounting for 40% of fatalities.

“Journalists are in more danger now than ever before,” INSI director Rodney Pinder told the BBC . He said more attention needed to be given by media organisations to the security of their staff. Journalists are in more danger now than ever before Rodney Pinder, ISNI Director “The BBC is one the most careful organisations when it comes to ensuring the security of its journalists, but many others are not”, Mr Pinder said. INSI, which describes itself as “a non-governmental organisation dedicated to the safety of journalists and media staff and committed to fighting the persecution of journalists everywhere”, highlights the dangers facing journalists and the hotspots. Besides Iraq and the Middle East, danger zones include Somalia, the Philippines, Mexico, Colombia, Russia and Haiti. The number of journalists and media staff killed per year has risen sharply in the past five years, from 70 in 2002 to 168 in 2006 and, if current trends for the first half of 2007 are confirmed, it could go over the 200 mark.

Apart from murder, journalists face abductions, beatings, threats and acts of intimidation in most of the countries mentioned in the INSI statistics. Although the overall picture looks grim, Mr Pinder thinks there is some scope for optimism. “We have succeeded in persuading the UN Security Council to adopt in 2006 Resolution 1738, which condemns attacks against journalists in conflict situations,” he said. “We need to persuade governments to bring to justice all those who kill or assault journalists.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/6268864.stm

NUJ BRISTOL BRANCH MEETING; WEDNESDAY 11TH JULY 2007;

THE HUB, 35 KING STREET, BRISTOL, BS1 4DZ; 7PM.

Hello to all our members,

Our next NUJ Bristol Branch Meeting is on Wednesday 11th July 2007, 6.30pm for a 7pm start. We are having this meeting at a new venue, The Hub, 35 King Street, Bristol BS1 4DZ, which is two doors down from the Old Vic Theatre.

The Hub is part of a network of physical and virtual spaces connecting social innovators around the world, and provides office and meeting facilities. (http://www.the-hub.net). They have a bar onsite to buy drinks. After the meeting we can explore the delights of King Street on a summer evening.

This will be our first Branch meeting since our AGM in May. We will be taking forward our ideas and plans for the coming year, and hearing about what has been happening within the Branch, the Chapels, and Freelance issues.

We can also celebrate the news that NUJ recognition has finally been achieved at the Bristol Evening Post and the Western Daily Press. This is a major victory for union rights and will extend NUJ negotiating rights across both papers to cover all the company’s editorial staff.

There are also vacancies available on the NUJ’s Councils if anyone wants to be nominated. So please come along, share your thoughts and ideas and help make your union work for you!

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday 11th July. You’ll be very welcome.

Anti-nuclear campaigner and whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has been sent back to jail for six months with a further six month suspended sentence, after giving interviews to journalists in the international media in breach of his parole conditions. These forbid him from talking to the press or having contact with foreign nationals.

“The International Federation of Journalists today condemned as “senseless and inhumane” the decision by an Israeli court to send Mordechai Vanunu, the man who told the world that Israel has developed nuclear weapons back to jail – three years after he ended an 18 year sentence for the original offence.

“Mordechai Vanunu has served his sentence and now he is being victimised for the crime of speaking to journalists,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. “It is senseless and inhumane to return him to prison because he acts according to conscience.”

While Israeli officials insist he still poses a security threat,  Mordechai Vanunu says he does not want to divulge any more classified information about the Dimona nuclear plant where he worked. He is banned from leaving Israel but wants to start a new life abroad. His lawyer said that Vanunu was convicted for the mere act of speaking to  non-Israelis, rather than the content of those conversations.

Despite the heavy price he had paid with his prison sentence he said he had no regrets.

http://ifj.org/default.asp?Index=5080&Language=EN http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6261204.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6607199.stm