Later the NUJ President joined senior NUJ and Amnesty International Ireland figures in laying a wreath at the Veronica Guerin statue in Dublin Castle gardens declaring, “We salute those who have died in the cause of the truth. We also need to protect our ability to communicate the truth on a global basis and across all platforms in the future.”

At a meeting of Dublin branch in Liberty Hall NUJ President Barry McCall called for public support for the European Citizens Initiative which calls on the European Commission to bring forward measures to protect media pluralism and press freedom.

Mr McCall said: “It is standard practice for governments and competition authorities to intervene when a firm becomes dominant in any sector? But the media industry is even more sensitive to such dominance as with it comes potentially immense political power and influence. This is why different standards and thresholds must be applied to this bulwark of democracy and why the NUJ is supporting the European Citizens’ Initiative aimed at gathering a million signatures to a petition calling on the European Commission to bring forward to protect media pluralism and press freedom.

We need 9,000 signatures from Ireland to play our part in this critically important initiative. The NUJ will be campaigning to get its own members to sign up to the petition and we are calling on all trade unions, political parties, and the Irish people generally to get behind it so that we can prevent abuses of media power in this country in future.”

Irish Executive Council Cathaoirleach Gerry Curran told the branch that media freedom involved taking a stand in defence of journalism at home and abroad. Highlighting the fact that the NUJ will host the World Congress of the IFJ in Dublin next month he said the international focus on Ireland would give the NUJ a special role in highlighting the abuse of journalists throughout the world.

Irish Secretary Séamus Dooley joined Amnesty International Ireland in calling for the release of journalists like Ali Mahmoud Othman who are detained in Syria.

The NUJ and Amnesty International will jointly lay a wreath at the Veronica Guerin memorial in Dublin Castle at 3.30pm today, Friday 3rd May in memory of all the journalists who have been killed in the course of their work (Photos distributed afterwards by Maxwells).

Noeleen Hartigan, Programmes Director of Amnesty International Ireland, said:

“Syria is now the world’s most dangerous place to be a journalist. Scores of journalists have been detained, tortured or killed over the last two years. Others, like Ali Mahmoud Othman are detained in secret locations. Together with the National Union of Journalists we are today calling for the release of all journalists detained solely for their work to tell the world what is happening in Syria today.”

NUJ President Barry McCall said:

“It is our duty to ensure that each one of those journalists is remembered. Here in Ireland we know the pain felt by the murders of Martin O’Hagan and Veronica Guerin, both NUJ members committed to the highest principles of journalism.”

IFJ/EFJ called on their affiliates to launch a global fight back against rights-grabbing contracts that demand journalists to assign their authors’ rights to publishers.

“Fair contracts are the guarantee for high quality and ethical journalism,” says IFJ President Jim Boumelha. “However, the spread of buy-out contracts strongly impacts on the quality of journalism as well as the livelihood of journalists.”

Rights-grabbing contracts, or “buy-out contracts”, demand that journalists sign all moral and economic rights over to publishers. These include the right to protect the integrity of their work, be identified as the author and to receive equitable remuneration when work is re-used. Buy-out contracts assign media employers a worldwide, exclusive right to use, reproduce, display, modify and distribute their work on all types of platforms, known or future. They also allow media employers to transfer the work to third parties without additional payment to the journalist. The EFJ has been collecting information about unfair contractual terms and conditions and found that major newspapers, magazines and broadcasters across Europe widely use these unfair contracts.

“We were appalled by the extent of unfair contractual practices in the media industry,” said Arne König, EFJ President. “Media organisations asked journalists, particularly freelancers, to assign their exclusive rights for multiple use of their works for small one-off payments.”

The IFJ has called on over 170 national affiliates to collect rights-grabbing contracts and share such samples to illustrate the case and put pressure on national legislators to end the unfair contractual practices. Journalists’ unions are also being encouraged to sign the Fair Trade for Creators petition.

“We also call on media organisations to end this practice by starting negotiation with journalists’ unions on collective agreements that include fair terms and conditions on authors’ rights,” stated Jim Boumelha.

Authors’ rights are protected by international law: Article 27 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights confirms everyone’s right to protection of “the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author”. The Berne Convention, in Article 6bis, reads that “Independently of the author’s economic rights and even after transfer of the said rights, the author shall have the (moral) right to claim authorship of the work and to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification”.

“We call on national and European legislators to close the legal loophole and put an end to the unfair contractual practices,” demands Arne König.

You can find more information on the Campaign Against Unfair Contracts and bad examples contracts on this link: http://www.ifj.org/en/pages/campaign-against-unfair-contracts

For more information, please contact EFJ on + 32 2 235 22 00
The European Federation of Journalists is the European group of the International Federation of Journalists. It represents over 300,000 journalists in 37 countries.

The ten days following the Dublin Freelance Forum have been very much “I-told-you-so” days, and the last 48 hours in particular. You may remember that, together with Brian O’Connell, I spoke about multimedia and new ways of making money.

Philip O’Connor

Earlier in the week, I predicted a shift in European footballing power from Spain to Germany – for those of you of a non-sporting nature, German sides came out on top in both Champions League semi-finals against Spanish opposition.

Naturally enough, I did it in the shape of my regular Champions League column for svenskafans.com, and on their EuroTalk web TV show this morning (Thursday April 25).

The idea of simply writing a column and leaving it at that is now entirely alien to me; like Brian and the syndication of articles, it’s now about find more ways to get paid for what is essentially the same job.

For you, that might be getting a couple of slots on local radio and picking up some contributor’s fees for a story you wrote. Not only will you get extra cash, your original commissioning editor will be pleased with the plug.

I got up at 4am yesterday and made a flying visit to London, where I spent the day discussing the future with some of the most senior editors of a major news agency.

Again, as I said at the Forum, they are not yet structurally ready to deal with what we as multimedia journalists offer, or how we work; they are still in silo mode.

By that, I mean they have a budget for TV, a budget for sport, a budget for lifestyle features. They have different editors with different priorities and tight budgets, so every pitch ends up turning into a Mexican standoff, with whoever blinks first having to cover my lunch.

But while the commissioning process is not yet optimal, what they did tell me is that us multimedia journalists are in for a pot of gold at their restructuring rainbow.

Our ability to multitask helps them squeeze the absolute maximum out of budgets that are under non-stop pressure. And what they do, national media will soon be adopting.

Lastly, I took off out of the web TV studio to do a corporate communications job for a listed Swedish company – again, it was my multimedia abilities that got me the job ahead of my colleagues and competitors.

I’m currently sitting with a 400-word article and pictures for their internal website, as well as a bunch of raw video material they will use internally. I’ve worked hard today, but given how lucrative it was, I could take tomorrow off.

But I won’t, because while on the corporate job I had some conversations with some people that have led to more stories, one of which has already been commissioned by a business magazine. Naturally enough, I’ve sold them the pictures to go with it too.

The rest will go in the book of ideas, and I’ll go about finding editors to commission them.

Some will get commissioned. Some won’t.

But whatever happens, I won’t be short of stories to tell – or sell – for a long time to come.

PS: The offer of lifetime support in 140 characters is still there – add @philipoconnor on Twitter and ask away.

Freelance Forum

Philip “fell into” multimedia upon relocating to Sweden and began his career in the print media, later moving to online journalism. He’s a very pro-active worker and, during the forum, reeled off a list of the prestigious media organisations that have benefited from his services in the past.

Philip sells “raw content” to news agencies/radio stations and leaves the rest to the discretion of the editors who receive his work. Despite having an enjoyable career, he says it puts him under “a huge amount of pressure”, adding that he is now more concerned with covering “international” stories. Operating as a freelance, for him, is “hugely stressful” but doesn’t want to work at anything else.

One of the problems Philip encounters in Ireland is when some media organisations do not sufficiently value what he does. He has had “desperate problems” getting paid by RTE, in the past, after contributing his work to the Irish broadcaster. It is important that journalists are given credit, so as not to leave them “in a vacuum”, he explains.

Brian O’Connell, a journalist on The Irish Times since 2003 and a regular contributor to Pat Kenny’s radio programme, told the forum that “simple economics” has led him to work in other areas of the media. This isn’t difficult as there is “no great crossover” for him between working in the print and broadcast media.

Brian recommends that freelancers syndicate their work and, during the forum, spoke about the rights and entitlements for those following that career path. There are “far more opportunities in broadcasting now”, he stated, and no one should feel tied down to any single media outlet. Another development he is positive about is networking. Unlike the past when journalists were “guarding their own patch”, these days everyone is helping each other out and this should be welcomed.

Journalists need to be thinking about how they can turn what they do into a business. There is evidence that more money can be made through using technology rather than by working with traditional forms of media. As a fledgling journalist, I found what Philip and Brian had to say inspiring. They, and the others who spoke at the forum, made me realise how daunting a task freelancing really is. It is akin to being your own boss – a sole trader, if you like, with the enormous pressure that it brings.

The Press Code:

Commissioning Editors:

Working effectively across media:

Making it work:

But I was honoured to be asked to sit at the top table this week at the Dublin Freelance Forum.

Brian O’Connell – a journalist, writer and broadcaster I have the utmost admiration for – and I spoke about what we do, how we do it, and the fun and games of the business end of freelancing – getting paid.

The Dublin Freelance Forum is organised by the NUJ, and even if you’re not a member, you should go.

Why? Because the contacts you make there will go a long way to making what is often a lonely existence much more palatable – and profitable.

I ran into award-winning travel writer Yvonne Gordon, whom I hadn’t seen for an alarming number of years.

Yvonne and I operate in different spheres, with different networks of editors, but that is not to say that they are mutually exclusive – any freelancer is always looking for new angles, new phone numbers, new places to pitch.

We may not be able to do so today or this week, but no doubt the time will come when we can help each other. And thanks to the spirit of solidarity fostered by the forum, we will.

Here’s five things I either said, heard or thought of over that day.

1. Think big – talking heads on the TV will always tell you what an advantage we have being English-speaking. So use it.

Don’t limit yourself to the major Irish newspapers and radio stations – find broadcasters and publications abroad. Interview foreign citizens of interest and offer features on them to media in their home country.

For the most part they tend to take a lot of newswire stuff anyway, so translating your material from English to another language is just another step.

Remember, the world does not begin and end with the Craggy Island Gazette.

2. Technology is your ally – don’t be afraid of it.

Learn to take photos and shoot basic video clips. Learn how to put them together. The objective is not to be able to cover your sister’s wedding; it is simply to compliment what you do.

I’ll write a more comprehensive post on my regular kit later, but one tip – don’t be afraid to spend money. Buying the slightly cheaper camera, lens, tripod or dictaphone is more often than not an expensive mistake.

Your video won’t be quite up to scratch, your audio will contain great interviews but with unbroadcastable levels, and your tripod will be about as stable as a tourist leaving the Guinness Hop Store after two rounds of the tour.

Eventually, you’ll end up buying the more expensive gear anyway, so save yourself the trouble, bite the bullet and buy the best you can first time around.

3. Pitch stories as multimedia – even if, for the next year or two you’ll be banging your head off a brick wall.

Our customers may not be aware that they have this need yet, but as more media becomes digital-dependent, they will.

So package your stories with short videos and pictures, the same way as you provide sidebars, factboxes and statistics now.

Eventually they’ll realise that the need exists, and they’ll come to you first when it comes to filling it.

4. Talk to other freelancers – to those who have ever held a staff job, the benefits of being in a newsroom are immediately apparent.

You’re an insider, getting instant feedback and knowing exactly what they want editorially.

We don’t have that, and the only way we can get it is to talk to other freelancers and our editors. So keep the lines of communications open, especially in the bad times – it could be that simple things are stopping you from being successful, and a second pair of eyes might see what you can’t.

5. Help others out where you can – I don’t have any secrets, so I don’t mind sharing what I know.

I may not give you my story ideas, but I’ll happily tell you how I come up with them, and what you might consider doing to improve yours.

We’re in a competitive business, but I’m confident enough in my way of working to believe that I’ll continue to succeed, and your success doesn’t necessarily come at my expense.

Besides, if you help others, you’ll find that they will also help you, so use Twitter, e-mail, phone calls, whatever – just make sure that you don’t end up isolated and out of the loop.

Working alone doesn’t have to be lonely, and besides – there’s very little in journalism that can be entirely achieved by just one person. Everything we do of any great value requires us to interact, not least with one another.

Rosaline Kelly

Ms Kelly worked as a magazine journalist in London and served as President of the NUJ from 1975 to 1977. On retiring from active journalism she returned to Ireland. She lived in Co Wicklow and was instrumental in establishing the retired members section of the NUJ in Ireland. She was a member of Dublin Freelance branch.

NUJ President Barry McCall described Ms Kelly as one of the best known figures within the NUJ.

Mr McCall said: “Before the phrase ‘glass ceiling’ was coined Rosaline Kelly was setting a headline for woman activists. She was elected to the union’s National Executive Council in 1972 and quickly established a reputation for commitment, energy and a direct debating style which was to become her hallmark.

Rosaline had a long association with the NUJ Standing Orders Committee and was regarded as an expert on procedures. She had a strong commitment to the welfare of members and this was reflected in her deep involvement in the union’s charities and in the establishment of a retired members section in Ireland. She never lost her enthusiasm and only ill health prevented her from attending our delegate meeting in 2012. It would have been her 50th consecutive delegate meeting. Rosaline Kelly was an NUJ institution and her passing will be mourned throughout the union.”

NUJ General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet also paid tribute to Ms Kelly.

She said: “Rosaline Kelly was one of the outstanding characters within the NUJ. She retained throughout her life an abiding commitment to the principles of social justice. Rosaline was fiercely proud of the NUJ and took particular pride in the Code of Conduct. Rosaline believed in the highest professional standards and was a strong supporter of our work at the Leveson Inquiry. Decades after her retirement from journalism she was sharing her advice and wise counsel. Her presence at union gatherings will be greatly missed.”

Séamus Dooley, Irish Secretary expressed sympathy on behalf of the Irish Executive Council. He said: “Rosaline spent her working life in England but in retirement she became active in Ireland, becoming the voice of retired members and ensuring that their interests were represented at all times. With the former Irish Secretary Jim Eadie she led the way in ensuring that retired members continued to play a role. She will be remembered for her style, her humour and her forthright manner. Rosaline disliked the term ‘woman president’ but there is no doubt she was a role model for women in a male dominated industry. Her integrity, her selfless dedication and her commitment made Rosaline a role model for all union members and it’s for those qualities that she will be remembered.”

Rosaline is reposing at McCrea’s funeral home in Wicklow town.  Removal from funeral home at 6.15pm tomorrow, Friday 12th April, arriving at St Patrick’s church in Wicklow town at 6.45pm.

Funeral Mass  at 10am on Saturday morning, April 13th,  in St Patrick’s church followed by cremation at 12.30pm in Mount Jerome, Harold’s Cross, Dublin.

The President, Barry McCall said he was shocked and dismayed at the attack on local journalists made last night (April 8th) at a meeting of Newry and Mourne District Council and at the unwarranted accusation of bias against professional journalists employed by newspapers serving their local communities.

Barry McCall

Cllr Reilly made his comments during a debate on strip-searching in prisons arising from a motion tabled by fellow councillor Davy Hyland.

During the debate Cllr Reilly, speaking in the third person, declared, “The press, looking at Reilly with disgust when he talks, they are Provos too probably”.

In response to a request from fellow councillors he declined to fully withdraw the remarks Cllr Reilly declared: “I haven’t called the press…any particular journalist a Provo. I will make generalised statements that some papers have a nationalist/republican bias. It is a commonly held perception among the unionist community.”

The five journalists in attendance presented Mayor John McArdle with a signed request for Cllr Reilly to withdraw the remarks. Cllr Reilly insisted that he had made no charge against any individuals and therefore no precise apology was needed.

Mr McCall said the journalists concerned had no right of reply at the meeting and should not have been subjected to verbal abuse by Mr Reilly. “He should clearly and unambiguously withdraw his description of the media as Provos. The media in the area serves the community and to imply that any of the publications represented at the meeting were linked with an illegal organisation was entirely unacceptable,” Mr McCall said.

NUJ Irish Secretary Seamus Dooley. Photo: Ronan Quinlan

Seamus Dooley, Irish Secretary, NUJ also strongly condemned the comments made by Cllr Reilly.

He said: “This is an outrageous attack on the local media which should not go unchallenged. Elected representatives need to be mindful of the potential implications of public utterances of this type. Mr Reilly has abused his position and failed to avail of the opportunity given to withdraw his statement. He occupies a leadership position with UKIP Northern Ireland and I call on the party’s MLA David McNarry to disassociate himself from the comments of Cllr Reilly. As a public representative Cllr Reilly is entitled to express strong opinions but not in a manner which is unacceptable or seeks to tarnish the reputation of individuals.”

The first episode in the series aired on NEAR FM last Tuesday at 3:30 and can be listened to on YouTube (below) or on Bandcamp (audio only). It is scheduled to be syndicated on local radio stations across the country in the coming months.

Our next episode will be on the role of women in the Lockout and should be out in early April. You can keep in touch with the project by liking our Facebook page or going to our website.

Tickets cost €10 for NUJ members, and €25 to non-members.

The one-day event is organised annually by Dublin Freelance NUJ branch.

Full details of the event are now available. To view, simply download the PDF file opposite.

In addition to presentations from commissioning editors outlining what they’re looking for in a pitch, this year’s sessions also include information on how to stay onside with the Press Council code of conduct, pitching for radio and making the most of multimedia opportunities, and how to make the most of your time to increase earnings.

To book your place, follow the link here to the “Freelance Forum Spring 2013 Reservation” page, and make your booking using Paypal or your credit card.

Freelance Forum

See you there.