Privacy and Injunctions - Evidence - Parliament

National Union of Journalists (NUJ)—Written evidence
Conference also notes that Hutton also made the call for media commission in an Observer
article on 5 th September 2010 to examine Britain's media ownership and competition rules,
more especially in the light of the autumn 2010 announcement by the Culture Secretary
Jeremy Hunt of the government’s intension to lift ownership restrictions on local
newspapers and radio.
DM congratulates those involved in the campaign to ensure that this bid was subject to a
public interest test. It recognises that in such campaigns a key element is building a wide
coalition in support and the use of the internet to reach a wide audience.
NUJ Conference therefore instructs the NEC to:
• Support the call by Will Hutton and others for a media commission to examine
Britain’s media ownership rules;
• Ensure that the call is taken up in Parliament by the NUJ group of MPs;
• Continue campaigning with organisations like 38 Degrees and the Campaign for Press
and Broadcasting Freedom and to seek wide public support for tougher and clearer
rules on media mergers including opposition to any proposals by the government to
lift the existing ownership restrictions on local newspapers and radio.
The UK trade union movement response to the Murdoch scandal, phone hacking
and press regulation:
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) is the policy making body of the trade union movement
in the UK. The annual Congress meets every year during September and each trade union
can send delegates to Congress and 'motions' (resolutions for debate) are proposed and
discussed. These form the basis of the TUC's work for the next year. This year’s Congress
was in London in September 2011.
The following policy was agreed and is relevant to the Leveson Inquiry:
News International - TUC policy
Twenty-five years after the Wapping dispute, Congress remembers the shameful role News
International played on behalf of the Thatcher government in weakening unions throughout
the print media industry.
Congress notes the failure of recognition laws to protect unions in anti-union companies,
leaving workers vulnerable to the pressures of unprincipled employers.
The in-house News International Staff Association (NISA), set up and funded by News
International, failed to win a certificate of independence from the Certification Officer. Yet,
under UK recognition laws, Murdoch was able to use NISA to block legitimate attempts of
unions seeking recognition.
Congress therefore calls for the recognition laws to be amended to remove this barrier.
Congress also calls for the introduction of a conscience clause in law to ensure that
journalists standing up on a principle of journalistic ethics have protection against dismissal,
and for Congress to support the broadest dissemination of the NUJ Code of Conduct.
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