National Union of Journalists

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National Union of Journalists

National Union of Journalists
Founded	1907
Headquarters	Headland House, 72 Acton Street, London, WC1X 8DP
Location	United Kingdom, Ireland
Members	20,693 (2022) [1]
Key people	Laura Davidson, General Secretary (elect) Seamus Dooley, Assistant General Secretary and Irish Secretary Natasha Hirst, President Gerry Curran and Fran McNulty, Vice Presidents
Affiliations	IFJ, TUC, STUC, ICTU, TUCG, NSSN, FEU
Website	nuj.org.uk

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is a trade union supporting journalists in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The NUJ was founded in 1907^[2] and has 20,693 members. It is a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Trades Union Congress (TUC) affiliated, and a former member of the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU).

There is a range of National Councils beneath the NEC, covering different sections and areas of activity. There is an Industrial Council for each of the NUJ's "industrial" sectors:

• Broadcasting (BIC)
• Freelance (FIC)
• Magazine & Books (MABIC)
• New Media (NMIC)
• Newspapers & Agencies (NAIC)
• Public Relations & Communications.

The Photographers' Council, while not an industrial council, functions in the same way to campaign on issues relevant to the union's photographer, photojournalist and videographer members.

There are also National Executive Councils, covering all sectors, for Ireland and Scotland. The Irish Executive Council, which has a higher degree of autonomy, covers Northern Ireland as well as the Republic.^[3] Since 2016, in response to Brexit, the Union's Continental European Council further expanded the NUJ's remit to include NUJ members working in Continental Europe, in particular for NUJ branches in Paris, Brussels and the Netherlands, to campaign on issues of common interest.

The union's structure is democratic, and its supreme decision-making body is its Delegate Meeting, a gathering of elected delegates from all branches across the UK, Ireland and Europe. Between Delegate Meetings, decisions lie with the NUJ's National Executive Council, a committee of 27 people, elected annually by members. The NEC is chaired by a President, elected, along with a Vice-President and Treasurer, at the Delegate Meeting.

The General Secretary (GS) is elected every five years by a national ballot of all members and is held to account and responsible to the National Executive Council (NEC). The current GS is Michelle Stanistreet. The General Secretary is responsible for the day-to-day running of the union and directing its staff. However, important decisions such as authorising industrial action must be taken by the NEC.

1907 (1907): William Watts

1918 (1918): Harry Richardson

1936 (1936): Clement Bundock Tim Gopsill and Greg Neale, Journalists: 100 Years of the NUJ

1952 (1952): Jim Bradley

1969 (1969): Ken Morgan

1977 (1977): Ken Ashton

1985 (1985): Harry Conroy

1990 (1990): Steve Turner

1992 (1992): John Foster

2001 (2001): Jeremy Dear

2011 (2011): Michelle Stanistreet

2024 (2024): Laura Davidson(elect; starting January 2025)^[4]

Presidents of the NUJ:^[5]

The NUJ publishes a magazine called The Journalist. ^[6]

In November 2024, several BBC journalists quit the NUJ and a dozen more journalists in the UK were in the process of handing in their NUJ membership cards. This came after they were urged by the NUJ to wear the colours of Palestinian flag (red, green and black) or a keffiyeh to mark a 'Day of Action For Palestine'.^[7] Charlotte Henry who runs The Addition, a media and tech newsletter, announced that she was leaving the union because the industry had become a 'hostile environment for the Jews'.^[8] The Board of Deputies of British Jews has condemned both the NUJ and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), its umbrella union organisation "for failing to support Jewish workers".^[9]

• Public Relations & Communications Industrial Council
• Journalism
• Trade union

• National Union of Journalists website
• [1]
• Catalogue of the NUJ archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick