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My experience at the"other end" of a news story

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Santha Rasaiah said, following the Queen’s Speech, that she had never known a government workload like it and her fears that much of the legislation would be rushed proved to be true.

Rushed legislation makes bad legislation and that’s what we have in front of us now. Of course, we don’t even know if we’re going to get a Freedom of Information Act as it stands at present.

But we have been successful in certain areas and we must continue to fight on those issues that affect us.

The society is now nearly two years old. I believe it has forged a new personality as an organisation that can truly represent all aspects of the media.

It is vital that no ‘us and them’ grows up in the organisation. It is vital that whether we are in the smallest of newspapers or the largest of television stations that we all appreciate that what affects one of us can affect all of us.

And it means that we must continue to have representatives of all sectors of the industry involved.

But it means that the members must work hard to ensure that they understand the needs of all their colleagues – again whether they be in the smallest of newspapers or the largest of television stations.

In Ed Curran, our incoming president, we have a man of huge stature both within the industry and in his own part of the United Kingdom.

All of us as editors have daily pressures – few of us could have faced the continuous pressure that Ed has faced in his time as deputy editor of the Belfast Telegraph, editor of Sunday Life and editor of the Belfast Telegraphin the last couple of decades.

He is the right man to take the organisation on to new heights and newinfluence and I commend him to you. (To read Mr Curran’s speech on becoming President, click here)

I would also like to pay a special thanks to Sophie Dukan and DavidFulford-Brown at the Society headquarters in Cambridge, along with my ownsecretary, Louise Robjohn – all of whom have combined to keep me on the roadand in the right place at the right time – despite there being many balls inthe air at the same time.

And my final thanks must, of course, go to our executive director BobSatchwell.

I would like to think my anally-retentive attitude towards organisation hasjoined nicely with Bob’s creative view of the world and of life to helpcement the foundations of the organisation that is clearly of great need tonot only our profession but the public at large.

  • To visit the Society of Editors website, click here.

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