Unions Take Stands For Journalists And Everybody Else

Michael Hedges May 1, 2018 - Follow on Twitter

All the forces challenging the media world have put pressure on media trade unions, associations and related support groups. They have stood up reasonably well. If anything, these organizations remain strong voices for media workers set upon by various tormentors.

Safety and security, quite interrelated, are primary concerns of journalist unions as Labor Day, also known as May Day, arrives to recognize all workers and their rights. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) raised alarms after the shooting of 12 journalists, two fatally, covering ongoing protests in Gaza. Ahmed Abu Hussein, a reporter for Gaza radio station Al Shaab, was wearing the blue “press” vest when shot. He died two weeks later. “Protective gear that clearly indicates individuals are members of the press should afford them extra protection (and) not make them targets,” said Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) MENA coordinator Sherif Mansour to Al-Jazeera (April 25).

Every journalist, press freedom and human rights organization condemned in the strongest terms the apparent targeting of journalists in Afghanistan on Monday (April 30). Ten media workers were killed in two suicide bombings, including AFP’s Kabul chief photographer Shah Marai, BBC reporter Ahmad Shah, RFE/RL journalists Abadullah Hananzai and Sabawoon Kakar, Ali Salimi and Salim Talash of MashalTV, Nawruz A. Khamoosh and Ghazi Rasuli of 1TV, and Yar Moh Tokhi of ToloNews, according to the Afghan Journalists Center (AFCJ). "The attack today on journalists… is a war crime,” said an ADCJ spokesperson, quoted by Xinhua (April 30).

The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), assisted by the Norwegian Union of Journalists, conducted a two-day workshop on workplace safety for women journalists. In the recently released Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) Press Freedom Index Ghana ranked 23rd globally, highest in Africa. Norway topped the list.

A journalists’ safety initiative of the Somalia Information Ministry, announced in April, was criticized by the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) as a “smokescreen,” reported Suna Times (April 24). "This event is a perverse assessment of Somali ministry of information officials implicated in possible violations of human rights abuses of serious nature,” said NUSOJ Secretary General Omar Faruk Osman. The NUSOJ has asked the International Labor Organization (ILO) to look into attacks on journalists and the trade union.

Safety for whistleblowers has the attention Deutsche Journalisten Verband (DJV), which supports the draft directive of the European Commission. “Whistleblowers acting in the public interest must finally be effectively protected,” said DJV chairperson Frank Uberall in a statement (April 29). The DJV is in the midst of contract negotiations, actually stalled, with the German publishers collective BDZV asking for a 4.5% salary increase for daily newspaper workers.

Certainly, contract negotiations and, if failing, disputes are the best known charge of unions. In the UK the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and technicians union Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union (BECTU) are supporting industrial action, also known as a strike, among London union members working for the Al-Jazeera English television network. This particular dispute is over pay; the company has not negotiated the annual pay raise in three years. “We’ve been very patient,” said NUJ spokesperson Brian Ging, quoted by the Guardian (April 28).

Union organizing holds a special place in the hearts of generations of journalists past and have slowed to a trickle in the digital age. Quite surprising, at least to some, was the recent move by workers at US newspaper Chicago Tribune to form Chicago Tribune Guild, affiliated with the communications Workers of America (CWA). More than 85% of employees signed the signature cards required for National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recognition. Employees at the newspaper, now owned by a company called Tronc, have never had a union. As expected, the publisher opted not to recognize the new union, reported NBC Chicago (April 25), meaning an NLRB-sanctioned vote will be held.

See also... in ftm Knowledge

Press/Media Freedom - Challenges and Concerns

Press and media freedom worldwide is facing challenges from many corners. As authoritarian leaders impose strict control over traditional and new media with impunity, media watchers have concerns for democracy. This ftm Knowledge file accounts the troubles of this difficult decade. 88 pages. PDF (December 2011)

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