View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
February 20, 2003updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

NUJ boss ‘more left wing than Gilchrist’

By Press Gazette

Dear: scathing attack by outgoing CIoJ president

Chartered Institute of Journalists president Andy Smith has used his farewell speech to make a scathing attack on long-term rival the NUJ.

Smith compared NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear to the leader of the Fire Brigades Union and accused him of “making Andy Gilchrist look like a Blairite”.

He also castigated the NUJ for blocking the institute’s application to join the International Federation of Journalists, thereby denying CIoJ members the right to an international press card. He claimed this meant the NUJ had a de facto monopoly in both Britain and Ireland.

“We all thought the closed shop was dead,” said Smith, “but the NUJ has reintroduced it for any journalists seeking international press accreditation.”

Former Conservative Party chairman Lord Tebbit joined the newly elected president of the CIoJ, Stuart Notholt, in attacking political correctness and the “misuse” of language in Britain’s news media.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Speaking to an audience of CIoJ members at the Reform Club in London, Tebbit urged journalists to reject political correctness in favour of “open, honest and vigorous debate”. But he blamed “timid” politicians, including members of his own party, for allowing PC language and ideas to take hold in Britain by default.

Notholt said that political correctness was an insidious process that was taking Britain in “a totalitarian direction”. He referred to the arrest of journalist and Daily Telegraph contributor Robin Page, who had asked why minorities such as foxhunters were denied the same rights and legal protection as ethnic minorities, as an example of how “even the police had become susceptible to absurd political correctness and anti-racism”.

Making his inaugural speech as president, Notholt also condemned the tendency towards the “tyranny of statistics” in modern Britain.

“The old adage about lies, damned lies, and statistics has never been truer than today,” he said. “We are awash with targets, quotas, league tables and key performance indicators – and yet the daily experience of many of our fellow citizens is of rapidly declining public services.”

In a time of weak official opposition to the Government, it was up to the news media to ask searching questions, he suggested.

By Jon Slattery

Topics in this article :

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network