National Union of Journalists

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is a trade union supporting journalists in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The NUJ was founded in 1907^[2] and has 20,693 members. It is a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Trades Union Congress (TUC) affiliated, and a former member of the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU).

National Union of Journalists

National Union of Journalists
Founded	1907
Headquarters	Headland House, 72 Acton Street, London, WC1X 8DP
Location	United Kingdom, Ireland
Members	20,693 (2022) [1]
Key people	Laura Davison, General Secretary Seamus Dooley, Assistant General Secretary and Irish Secretary Natasha Hirst, President Gerry Curran and Fran McNulty, Vice Presidents
Affiliations	IFJ, TUC, STUC, ICTU, TUCG, NSSN, FEU
Website	nuj.org.uk

Structure

NUJ Headquarters, Gray's Inn Road, London

There is a range of National Councils beneath the NEC, covering different sections and areas of activity. There is an Industrial Council for each of the NUJ's "industrial" sectors:

• Broadcasting (BIC)
• Freelance (FIC)
• Magazine & Books (MABIC)
• New Media (NMIC)
• Newspapers & Agencies (NAIC)
• Public Relations & Communications.

The Photographers' Council, while not an industrial council, functions in the same way to campaign on issues relevant to the union's photographer, photojournalist and videographer members.

There are also National Executive Councils, covering all sectors, for Ireland and Scotland. The Irish Executive Council, which has a higher degree of autonomy, covers Northern Ireland as well as the Republic.^[3] Since 2016, in response to Brexit, the Union's Continental European Council further expanded the NUJ's remit to include NUJ members working in Continental Europe, in particular for NUJ branches in Paris, Brussels and the Netherlands, to campaign on issues of common interest.

The union's structure is democratic, and its supreme decision-making body is its Delegate Meeting, a gathering of elected delegates from all branches across the UK, Ireland and Europe. Between Delegate Meetings, decisions lie with the NUJ's National Executive Council, a committee of 27 people, elected annually by members. The NEC is chaired by a President, elected, along with a Vice-President and Treasurer, at the Delegate Meeting.

The General Secretary (GS) is elected every five years by a national ballot of all members and is held to account and responsible to the National Executive Council (NEC). The current GS is Michelle Stanistreet. The General Secretary is responsible for the day-to-day running of the union and directing its staff. However, important decisions such as authorising industrial action must be taken by the NEC.

Leadership

General Secretaries

1907 (1907): William Watts

1918 (1918): Harry Richardson

1936 (1936): Clement Bundock Tim Gopsill and Greg Neale, Journalists: 100 Years of the NUJ

1952 (1952): Jim Bradley

1969 (1969): Ken Morgan

1977 (1977): Ken Ashton

1985 (1985): Harry Conroy

1990 (1990): Steve Turner

1992 (1992): John Foster

2001 (2001): Jeremy Dear

2011 (2011): Michelle Stanistreet

2024 (2024): Laura Davison^[4]

Presidents

Presidents of the NUJ:^[5]

1907: R. C. Spencer

1909: G. H. Lethem

1911: John Hunter Harley

1913: W. T. A. Beare

1914: F. E. Hamer

1916: E. Williams

1917: A. Martin

1918: F. J. Mansfield

1919: James Haslam

1920: J. E. Brown

1921: Thomas Jay

1922: T. A. Davies

1923: Walter Meakin

1924: T. K. Sledge

1925: Thomas Dickson

1926: A. J. Rhodes

1927: H. A. Raybould

1928: F. W. Bill

1929: H. D. Nichols

1930: W. G. Mitchell

1931: W. Betts

1932: J. G. Gregson

1933: James Hume Aitken

1934: E. J. T. Didymus

1935: R. S. Forsyth

1936: F. G. Humphrey

1937: F. P. Dickinson

1938: E. S. Bardsley

1939: James William Thomas Ley

1940: Ernest E. Hunter

1941: T. Foster

1942: D. M. Elliot

1943: A. Kenyon

1944: R. J. Finnemore

1945: A. J. Gibson

1946: F. Treavett

1947: J. E. Jay

1948: L. R. Aldous

1949: H. D. Moxley

1950: Jim Bradley

1951: J. Taylor

1952: Henry Bate

1953: P. W. Jarrett

1954: E. A. Lofts

1955: A. D. Ramsay

1956: G. Reid

1957: T. Bartholomew

1958: G. R. Mead

1959: R. G. Venmore-Rowland

1960: M. J. Williamson

1961: P. G. Reid

1962: K. L. Ley

1963: William Heald

1964: G. Byrne

1965: L. H. Kirwan

1966: D. C. Tuckett

1967: G. A. Hutt

1968: Kenneth Holmes

1969: Cyril Kilner

1970: C. Bland

1971: Douglas Rees

1972: Harold Pearson

1973: John Bailey

1974: Ivan Peebles

1975: Ken Ashton

1975: Rosaline Kelly

1977: John Devine

1978: Denis Macshane

1979: Jacob Ecclestone

1980: Francis Beckett

1981: Harry Conroy

1982: Jonathan Hammond

1983: Eddie Barrett

1984: George Findlay

1985: Ray McGuigan

1986: Bob Keogh

1987: Lionel Morrison

1988: Barbara Gunnell and S. McGuire

1989: Paul McGill

1990: David Sinclair

1991: Chris Frost

1992: Jim Boumelha and R. Trevor

1993: John Toner

1994: Anita Halpin

1995: Kyran Connolly

1996: Jeremy Dear

1998: Mark Turnbull

1999: Christy Loftus

2000: Dave Toomer

2001: Rory MacLeod

2002: John Barsby

2003: George Macintyre

2004: Jim Corrigal

2005: Tim Lezard

2006: Chris Morley

2007: Michelle Stanistreet

2008: James Doherty

2009: Peter Murray

2011: Donnacha DeLong

2012: Barry McCall

2014: Andy Smith and Adam Christie

2016: Tim Dawson

2018: Sian Jones

2021: Pierre Vicary

2023: Natasha Hirst

Publications

The NUJ publishes a magazine called The Journalist. ^[6]

Controversies

In November 2024, several BBC journalists quit the NUJ and a dozen more journalists in the UK were in the process of handing in their NUJ membership cards. This came after they were urged by the NUJ to wear the colours of the Palestinian flag (red, green and black) or a keffiyeh to mark a 'Day of Action for Palestine'.^[7] Charlotte Henry, who runs The Addition, a media and tech newsletter, announced that she was leaving the union because the industry had become a 'hostile environment for the Jews'.^[8] The Board of Deputies of British Jews has condemned both the NUJ and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), its umbrella union organisation "for failing to support Jewish workers".^[9]

See also

• Organized labour portal

• Public Relations & Communications Industrial Council
• Journalism
• Trade union