A war of words has erupted after a full-time National Union of Journalists official resigned from his post after a year.

The union confirmed today that Miles Barter has left his role as campaigns officer for what are understood to be personal reasons.

Mr Barter told the jourmalism blogger Jon Slattery: “I’ve done a year in the job and that’s enough. I want to go back to freelancing.”

Claims that he was asked to leave by general secretary Jeremy Dear were today described by one senior union official as “completely inaccurate.”

The claims were made by Mark Watts, who came third in the recent election for editor of union magazine the Journalist won by Christine Buckley.

Mark Watts claimed on his website that Mr Barter was asked to leave after openly campaigning for Richard Simcox, who came seventh in the poll.

Mr Barter told Slattery: “Watts couldn’t have got it more wrong if he was entering a ‘getting it wrong’ contest.”

Until last year Mr Barter was the union’s Northern organiser before being recruited to work in the campaigns and communications department under Stephen Pearse.

Comments

chaz (27/11/2009 12:42:23)
Mr Barter told the jourmalism blogger Jon Slattery: “I’ve done a year in the job and that’s enough. I want to go back to freelancing.”
Ahh…the siren call of the council press office is hard to resist…..and the only option.

No lawyer but (27/11/2009 13:03:16)
I trust Mark Watts recognises the seriousness of this error. Both Miles Barter and Jeremy Dear would have a strong case to sue for defamation if they wanted to – or at least go for malicious falsehood. Mr Watts should remove the story from his website and apologise immediately and publicly to prevent any further harm.

stewart perkins (30/11/2009 10:09:27)
Well, best of luck to Miles Barter. He was a superb Northern Organiser, and an extremely effective campaigns officer. He will be greatly missed by all those with the NUJ’s interests at heart.

Chris Youett (30/11/2009 10:47:39)
We’ll miss Miles at Headless House. He was a superb Northern Organiser- and only left because he was worn out. Stay in touch, mate, because we still need someone to “blame” for all the stitch-ups in the NUJ.

Fiona O’Cleirigh (30/11/2009 18:57:09)
It’s odd that someone who has done a year with the National Union of Journalists should consider this a good time for a journalist to go freelance.