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Guard ‘evicts’ two journalists from shopping centre

Two journalists claim they were evicted from a shopping centre by a security guard while reporting on a protest.

Freelance journalists Tim Lezard and John Millington were reporting from a demonstration by the GMB union outside a branch of Next in the Churchill Square Shopping Centre in Brighton on Tuesday.

But they claimed they were asked to leave the security manager, who would not show his ID, and followed the pair to inform them they were being evicted, despite the fact they were already leaving.

John has blogged about the incident, saying he and Tim produced National Union of Journalist press cards but the security manager said he was not prepared to discuss the issue and threatened to call the police.

His blog added that camera crews had previously been asked to stop filming the protest at the centre.

Tim, who was previously president of the NUJ and is a founder of the Union News website, has also tweeted about the incident, saying “We did demand to see his ID. I was all up for standing my ground & waiting for cops, but had to get back to #TUC12.”

The GMB protest was being held to object to pay levels for staff at Next.

Management at the shopping centre has not responded to requests for a comment.

3 comments

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  • September 12, 2012 at 10:35 am
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    Manufactured ‘news’ is not news. So many left-wing activists and journalists don’t understand this.

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  • September 12, 2012 at 11:49 am
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    Not quite sure what you mean by manufactured news. If it happened, it is of interest and, some would argue, news. However the definition of news is an entirely different argument.
    The Wolverhampton based Express & Star – the best-selling regional evening in the country – used to have a banner in the newsroom what declared: If it moves, it’s news.
    Surely it is a matter of freedom and doing one’s job properly. And why didn’t the so-called security manager show his id? It should have been on display anyway, therefore he was not doing as he should.

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  • September 12, 2012 at 1:09 pm
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    I’m not particulalry sympathetic to the NUJ and its left leaning ways, but the security manager should have handled things better and shown his ID – that’s bad practice and should be reported to the Security Industries Association. The hard fact is that shopping centres are usually private property, not public places as such, and so it’s much easier to enforce security measures and prevent journos or TV bods from working within them. Cenbtre management would be quite within their rights to turf off media people arriving unannounced on their property.

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