A second journalists’ union has entered the debate over how often council newspapers should be allowed to publish.
Earlier this week, the National Union of Journalists hit out at government plans to restrict so-called ‘town hall Pravdas’ to four editions a year.
Now the Chartered Institute of Journalists has come out in favour of the crackdown, branding the NUJ’s stance “astonishing”
The Newspaper Society and other industry bodies claim council newspapers compete aggressively for readers and revenues with the local press.
Amanda Brodie of the CIoJ said: “We fully support Communities Secretary Eric Pickles in his attempts to limit the publication of local authority newspapers to no more than four times a year.
“We are astonished that the NUJ has come out against the proposed legislation, which is aimed at supporting local newspapers, and can only help to safeguard journalists’ jobs. This is not a political issue, as the NUJ seems intent to make it.
“We believe there is no viable alternative to backing the Code with legislation. Many LAs have continued to flout the guidelines, proving they are unwilling to comply voluntarily, and must now be forced to do so.
“The CIoJ has been campaigning vigorously for some time on this issue, and we were proud to be part of the process which led last year to this proposal to put the Publicity Code guidelines on the statute book. We lobbied MPs and made representations to Parliamentary inquiries on this subject.
“Our members have become increasingly concerned at the creeping impact of these town-hall ‘Pravdas’ on local newspapers. These council publications promote their own version of local authority ‘news’ which is often biased in its reporting, giving local residents a skewed version of the facts behind the way their local council is run, and failing to highlight any shortfall in standards.
“Only local media, which is independent of political or other influence, can hold local authorities to account for the way they handle taxpayers’ money.”
Communities secretary Eric Pickles has announced legal curbs to give effect to the current voluntary code on local authority publications which restricts them to four a year.
Figures published in a parliamentary answer earlier this year showed one in ten councils are ignoring the code.
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Editors moralising about the handling of taxpayers money then demanding public sector press officers act as auxiliary journalists for their chronically understaffed and badly-prioritised newsrooms is more than a tad hypocritical.
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I am sick of reading about how PRs “do journalists’ jobs for them due to staffing” – this is quite simply and utterly untrue. If PRs did not exist for every police force and council, as they did not a few years back, the public would get a much more honest view of what their authorities were up to – instead, as it is, journalists have to dig through piles of spin and nonsense to even the most simple of inquiries. No journalist or newspaper I know would dream of publishing a press release without editing it and examining it for possible hidden angles first.
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Good job I didn’t say that then, JJ. Journo in failure to understand a simple nuance shocker.
“No journalist or newspaper I know would dream of publishing a press release without editing it and examining it for possible hidden angles first.”
You must deal with better ones than I do then.
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It would help if Eric Pickles would meet with the local press – i tried several times to discuss Nottingham City Council with him, – and the production of the Nottingham Arrow – as expected – he wouldn’t meet with me – !!
The Nottinghanm Arrow is a total waste of tax payers money …. its nothing more than an access to their own vanity !!!!! costs a fortune and ironic – but they have been very unhelpfull with the release of exactly how much it costs ….. its appalling !!
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They’re spin doctors, not reporters.
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Steve A is right. Why are taxpayers funding the production and distribution of these ‘Pravdas’ when the same info is available online for free or distributed as press releases to local media – well before the same info appears in the council newspaper?
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