I’ve been a member of the National Union of Journalists for decades. Every month, as the £32 direct debit slips out of my bank account, I wonder why on earth I am paying to support an organisation that, as well as backing every hard left cause around, seems more concerned with restricting the ability of journalists to do their job than protecting it. The NUJ has long backed de facto state regulation and in February 2017 supported a parliamentary plan for Leveson-style regulation.
But for reasons which, I shamefully admit, have been based mainly on inertia I’ve carried on as a member. Today that inertia – and my membership – ends.
The NUJ’s response to Jason Arday’s death and to the media coverage of his plagiarism and Walter Mitty fantasies is so grotesque
The NUJ’s response to Jason Arday’s death and to the media coverage of his plagiarism and Walter Mitty fantasies is so grotesque – and so inimical to even the most basic idea of what journalism and a free press should mean – that I can no longer in good conscience remain a member of the union.
On Tuesday, the NUJ published a statement effectively accusing those news organisations and journalists who covered the Jason Arday story of racism: “The NUJ Code of Conduct is an ethical framework for journalists carrying out their work. The Code states that journalists should not produce ‘material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed, legal status, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation.’
