Blurred Keys

Drogheda photographers are “furious” at an agreement put forward between the NUJ and the IN&M owned Drogheda Independent, according to EPUK.org.

The NUJ’s Irish Executive Council are due to decide today to accept or reject the deal.

According to the Editorial Photographers site, the agreement will see that all staff journalists at the paper must be union members and will also include pay rises, in return the newspaper gets the clause that photography will be a part of a reporter’s job.

Freelance NUJ photographers are worried that the result will be that they will get less or no work from the Drogheda Independent, which currently pays less then the NUJ’s recommended minimum rates.

“Everybody supports the Drogheda Independent Chapel in their negotiations but the agreement, as it is written, will undermine journalists and should not be endorsed by a Union that purports to represent freelancers” EPUK.org quotes Alan Murphy, Dublin-based freelance photographer and NUJ member.

Murphy goes on to question if the union wants to continue to represent freelance photographers.

“The agreement contains provisions allowing selected, trained reporters to use digital photographic equipment. Implementation of this clause will be monitored by a joint union/management Working Party,” said Seamus Dooley NUJ Irish Secretary.

The union says that not carrying out the agreement see the new work practices going thought without benefits gained in negotiations.

EPUK points out that what is striking here is not the action by the newspaper but the endorsement by the NUJ. The new NUJ Code of Conduct removes previous mention of reporters not doing photographers’ jobs.

The newspaper says that it will not simply be handing out digital cameras to all staff, and refers to improvements to in cameras on mobile phones.

Although, to the best of Blurred Keys’ reasonably tech and photographic knowledge, the newspaper’s claim that cameras on phones are “comparable” professional equipment a few years ago is a vast overstatement at best. And the vast majority of camera phones are of poor quality.

Photographers are said to have found out about the current deal, not from the Dublin branch of the NUJ, but from irishphotographers.ie. (Vie Greenslade)

The new National Union of Journalists code of conduct as a result of the union’s recent ADM has been published at nuj.org.uk, here.

Also worth noting are pages on ‘Membership Responsibilities‘, and what the NUJ classes as ‘The Public Interest‘.

RTE.ie’s news editor has defended standards at the Irish state broadcaster’s online news arm saying defining stories as tabloid is “subjective”.

News editor Joe Zefran told Blurred Keys that the terms ‘tabloid news story’ and ‘respected state news outlet’ are “subjective at best”, and denied any trend of falling standards.

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Infamous Irish blog Blogorrah claim that they are to return “very soon”, after a month of no updates and speculation.

In the their first new post in some time the headline states “Blogorrah Will Return (Very Soon). In The Meantime…” and, in their own style, list “Ten reasons why Blogorrah took July off”.

Their last normal post was on June 12, another on June 21 claimed the website was undergoing a redesign.

The break in updates lead to many bloggers to ask ‘Where’s Blogorrah?‘. Their absence also lead to bloggers starting campaign-type blog posts demanding that somebody would bring back Blogrrah.

‘Sue Denham’ makes a valid point about how YouTube.ie, the YouTube Ireland portal, has been looking rather O’Irish since it was launched recently.

However, the pseudonym column in the Irish edition of the Sunday Times makes no reference to how the newspaper’s online Irish section is looking these days, rather empty that is (as pictured above).

As we’ve said before the Ireland section has been offline since the relaunch of timesonline.co.uk, it’s not often a week goes by where somebody questions where it has gone to, or will it be coming back.

As the World Health Organisation classes Ireland as the least violent country in Europe the church classes the violence levels as "close to a national emergency" according to the Irish Times.

While it might be wrong that anybody is being killed or murdered, the facts simply don’t back that there is any kind of crisis. Crime in the country is low per head of population, and there is no trend of alarming growth.

On the eve of the release of a WHO report that shows Ireland to be least violent state in Europe, the media and "leaders in society" are continuing to peddle outright twisted view that violence in the country is spiraling out of control, it simply isn’t.

In the Sunday Times yesterday a news report started with the view that the WHO report "seems to fly in the face of reality", the reality it seems is that the political and media hype flies in the face of reality and hard facts.

Challenging the idea that the level of violence is out of control is akin to challenging an urban myth that just won’t go away. Close to everybody is sucked into the myth and the fear, and the fear is irrational and near to unchallengeable.      

MORE: There is no crime crisis
MORE: Ireland ‘least violent country in Europe’
MORE: The hyping of crime

Communicorp, owned by Irish businessman Denis O’Brien, is to buy Today FM, FM104 and Highland Radio.

An RTE.ie news report states that it is understood €200m was paid for the stations formally held by the UK media group Emap.

Communicorp already own Dublin stations Spin and 98 FM, and the national talk station Newstalk. Today FM is also national, while Highland is based in the North West. 

As Adam Maguire points out, the combined Dublin market share of combined stations may now cause problems for the company with the Broadcasting Commission of
Ireland and the Competition Authority.

The Irish Times is also reporting (subs reqd) that the Competition Authority will now investigate if the company can hold both  Newstalk and Today
FM.

The company also owns Spin South West which is currently on a test signal and is due to launch to serve Clare, Limerick, Kerry, and parts of counties Tipperary, and Laois.

Communicorp now owns over 40 radio stations on Europe.

Meanwhile, while in the move Emap disposes of its Irish stations, it will still have a strong presence on newsagents’ shelves. The firm’s magazine portfolio include Arena, closer Empire, FHM, Grazia, heat, Mojo, Q, Top Sante, Yours, and Zoo.

National talk radio station Newstalk is running a documentary competition for students.

Media students or those who have recently graduated are being invited to work created between August last and this month. The deadline is August 17 at 4.30pm.

The station says it is looking for innovative, original and relevant work which is produced to a high standard. Audio which has been submitted for course work may be reworked.

Newstalk will broadcast the winning documentary, while runners up of a high standard may also be aired. According the radio station’s website, the winner will also receive an undefined cash prise and a month-long placement at the station.

For entry details and further information see newstalk.ie.

The Sunday Independent’s Liam Collins suggests that Vincent Browne, besides his recent radio movements, may also move in print.

Collins takes what looks like half a wild guess and says that Browne’s columns may end up at the Irish Daily Mail.

The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade says "I don’t think so", but isn’t that what most people would have said to the suggestion of Frank Connolly moving to the Mail?

Connolly was previously at Ireland on Sunday before it was re-branded as the Irish Mail on Sunday, but he — like Browne — doesn’t share the views of the typical image of the Mail.

But all three have common ground — getting a good story, they are apprently out to get the Irish Government or just Fianna Fáil, and they are all mortal enemies of the Independent News & Media.

It’s apprently the world against the Indo Sindo and FF.

Also on Sunday, Collins has pot shots at what he classes as "Dismal science merchants" (ie anybody that "talks down" the economy), naming George Lee (RTE), Richard Curran (Sunday Business Post), and David McWilliams (SBPost, Indo).

Then again, these day it looks like everybody hates the Independent group, or at least everybody hates the Sunday Independent, even the Irish Independent’s Ian O’Doherty…

There are some people out there who think that the Sunday Independent is an arrogant, solipsistic rag with delusions of journalistic adequacy. But they are wrong.  As last Sunday’s issue proved, it is actually the finest satirical publication available today and is better than The Onion, Private Eye and Mongrel all rolled into one.

How else could one explain Eoghan Harris reviewing himself on the Late Late and, bravely, fearlessly, courageously, giving himself a good review?

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The top story at the Irish Independent today was apparently the news that men talk as much as women, or at least that was the impression given by the newspaper’s daily morning email update (pictured above).

Meanwhile, for example, the morning news email from the Guardian leads with a story on 1.5m people who were wrongly told they risk heart disease, and the New York Times has a story on falling support from Republicans for Bush’s Iraq policy. [Note: Image cropped and bordered]

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