The National Union of Journalists has done much to improve its reputation over the past number of years during a particularly difficult period of staff cutbacks at newspapers and broadcasters.
You might be forgiven for thinking the days when it gleefully strayed into political territory were long over. But elements of its old Trotskyist militants remain, as an emailed circular to members of its London magazine branch illustrates.
In what surely ranks as an unwise, ill-timed and unsympathetic initiative, some branch members - and maybe only one - have put down controversial motions for discussion at the branch’s meeting next Monday that have upset many of their colleagues.
Several people who received them have been infuriated and outraged by the sentiments they express and reject their underlying political messages.
The email begins by informing members that “the killing of 10 journalists at Charlie Hebdo has thrown up a myriad of controversial issues, among them the whole notion of freedom of speech and increasing Islamophobic reporting in the UK media.
“Cartoonist Tim Sanders and Hassan Mahamdallie, editor of Critical Muslim, will kick off a discussion focussing on these issues”.
It then notes that motions relating to the issues will then be debated. Here they are in full (with spelling errors corrected, but grammar untouched):
“This branch notes: The shocking murder to 10 journalists at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo by Islamic terrorists.The murders come amid an atmosphere of rising Islamophobia across Europe and the UK.
The role of much of the media in stoking Islamophobia. Sadly Charlie Hebdo has played a part in doing this in France.
The anti-migrant atmosphere being created in the UK as the mainstream parties target migration in an effort to undermine the rise of Ukip in the run-up to the general election.
The annual conference of Unite Against Fascism on 21 February. The Stand Up to Racism and Fascism Demonstration in central London on 21 March. Campaigns such as Media Workers Against the Nazis and Expose that have played a role in giving journalists the confidence to take on racism, Islamophobia and anti-migrant reporting in the 1980s and 1990s-2000s respectively.
This branch believes: The murderers of the 10 journalists must be condemned absolutely, and the killers brought to trial. Attempts to link a defence of freedom of speech with yet more attacks in Muslims should be condemned. There is no such thing as an absolute freedom of speech.
There is a need to build a campaign among media workers on the lines of previous ones to combat racism, Islamophobia and anti-migrant reporting.
This branch resolves: To encourage as many branch members as possible to attend the UAF conference, and specifically the media workshop, with a view to setting up such a campaign.
To send a delegation with the branch banner on the 21 March demonstration, and encourage members to join it.
Then the email suggests that members should agree to the placement of this contentious statement on its website:
“The demonstration in Paris of more than 3 million people shows the strength of feeling arising from the attacks on the journalists at Charlie Hebdo.
The killings of journalists, other workers and two police officers is a tragic event, as are the deaths of the four hostages taken at the Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris on the same day.
The NUJ has an excellent track record in campaigning against the killings and imprisonment of journalists around the world, and we acknowledge and fully support this work.
But how does this commitment to press freedom sit when leading this demonstration are people such as foreign minister Shoukry of Egypt, Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, and King Abdullah of Jordan, among others, whose countries or organisations rank highly in violations towards journalists and repression of press and journalistic freedoms, including murder and imprisonment.
And the NUJ has gone further than supporting the journalists and has suggested this is an attack on free speech and says it ‘celebrates’ the satire of Charlie Hebdo.
‘By joining this march the NUJ will be celebrating the work of the journalists at Charlie Hebdo, who paid with their lives, and ensuring that satire and independent journalism cannot be suppressed in this way’.
We find the ‘celebration’ of this racist and islamophobic ‘satire’ distasteful at best, and dangerous and harmful at worst.
The murders come amid a rising tide of racist attacks against migrants and Muslims across Europe, fuelled by politicians and, sadly, much of the media.
It is premature to align our union with a narrative of ‘free speech’ and ‘press freedom’ which will be used inevitably to further denigrate Muslims and Muslim communities.
This crass and often misrepresented article of journalistic faith is already encouraging right-wing organisations, politicians, and racists to call for further restrictions on civil liberties and press freedoms by the one body with the real power to gag and control us – the state.
The NUJ needs to have a far more sophisticated answer than these ‘us or them’ polemics”.
How odd would it be for a journalists’ union not align itself with press freedom?
All of this is clearly designed to embarrass the NUJ’s leadership. The general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet, and the Irish secretary, Seamus Dooley, attended the rally in Paris.
And the NUJ, in concert with its 500 members in France, showed consistent support for the Charlie Hebdo staff and their freedom-of-speech rights.
Unsurprisingly, trades union haters will seize on this email in order to criticise the NUJ. One of the first to do so was Guido Fawkes who published the motions on his blog under the headline Loony NUJ magazine branch preparing to slam Charlie Hebdo.
