6.30pm, Tuesday 29 March 2016

The Studio, London Welsh Centre, 157-163 Gray’s Inn Road London, WC1X 8UE

PLEASE NOTE NEW VENUE: MAP http://www.londonwelsh.org/contact-us/

At this month’s meeting photojournalist and NUJ member Stuart Freedman will give a talk on his experience of having his first book being published.

The Palaces of Memory is a journey into India through the Indian Coffee Houses, a national network of worker-owned cafés which can be found in cities throughout the sub-continent. The Coffee Houses simultaneously speak of a Post-Independence optimism and a now-faded grandeur. Buried deep within the country’s collective memory they have for decades acted simultaneously as political and artistic salons as well as simple eating places.

Stuart is photographer and writer based between London and New Delhi. A member of Panos Pictures, he has, over more than two decades, covered stories from Albania to Zambia and his work has featured internationally including in Life, Geo, Time, Der Spiegel, Newsweek, The Sunday Times Magazine, Paris Match, Smithsonian, Condé Nast Traveller.

The Palaces of Memory – Tales from the Indian Coffee House is published by Dewi Lewis with a foreword by Amit Chaudhuri and was shortlisted for the Pictures of the Year (POYi) best book award in the United States.  http://bit.ly/1nIyPt8

NUJ Delegate Meeting (DM 2016) Southport

We will also be looking at the motions proposed for the NUJ Delegate Meeting that will take place in Southport from Thursday 14 April to Sunday 17 April 2016. This will give us the opportunity to discuss the policies being lined up for our union, and to vote on how our delegates should address them at DM. The final DM agenda is available from the main NUJ website. https://www.nuj.org.uk/about/union-democracy/nuj-delegate-meeting/ At the January AGM we elected three out of our four DM delegates (John Rogers, Michael Cole and Michael Preston). The fourth delegate will be elected at this month’s meeting.

Election of branch officers

The following vacant branch officers posts will be up for election. Secretary, Membership Secretary and Union Learning Representative.

Given the dramatic turn of events in regards to the acquisition of Demotix and Corbis by Getty/Visual China Group last week, the NUJ London Photographer’s Branch is looking to put together a late notice motion to be presented to the NUJ delegate conference and/or the NEC.

If you would like to feed your concerns into this please email: [email protected]

Please indicate whether you are an NUJ member.

If you are an NUJ Member, the next meeting of the NUJ London Photographer’s Branch – 23rd February – will be discussing and considering the issues arising from the sale. Please see our website for details.

You can read more about the deal and its implications for Corbis and Demotix photographers here.

The London Photographers’ Branch will hold its Annual General Meeting on 26 January at the NUJ national office, Headland House, 308 / 312 Gray’s Inn Road, WC1X 8DP. It will start at 6 pm sharp.   Any motions members want to discuss must be submitted by noon on 26 January. Please send them to: [email protected].

It’s at the AGM when the activities for next year are broadly discussed and new Branch officers are elected to the committee. Any full branch member can be nominated for a post or can nominate themselves. This can be done prior to the AGM or during it. In addition, we have customarily also elected two, three or four additional members to offer general support. Temporary and Student members cannot hold a formal position, but in the past have been co-opted onto the committee in a non-portfolio role.  Joining the committee is a great way of contributing to the running and success of the branch.  No experience is necessary.  If you are thinking of standing or would like more information, please email: [email protected].

According to our Standing Orders (7) the following officers are elected:

• chair
• vice chair
• secretary (to keep records and convene meetings)
• membership and recruitment / retention officer
• treasurer (responsible for the funds in the care of the branch and for keeping accounts (must over 18 years of age)
• welfare officer ( A welfare officer to care for the interests of sick members and their spouses and liaise with  the NUJ Extra)
• equality officer  (equality officer to promote equality issues and provide a focus for questions and  complaints arising from the code of conduct)
• Union learning representative

We will also be electing our delegation to the next NUJ Delegates Meeting, which will be on 15, 16, 17 April and will take place in Southport.  The LPB is entitled to 4 delegates.

6.00 pm Tuesday 29 September 2015, Headland House, 308-312 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8DP

Film and discussion on reporting the refugee crisis with branch member and videographer Jason Parkinson.

6.00 pm Tuesday 28 July 2015, Headland House, 308-312 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8DP

Phil Turner at the scene of the South Asia Earthquake in 2005. He travelled there with a number of Pakistanis from Rotherham to report on the devastation that affected so many families in the North of England. Photo © Guy Smallman

The NUJ has condemned a move by the Rotherham Advertiser to impose compulsory redundancy on long term Father of Chapel and union activist Phil Turner. This move is being seen as blatant victimisation of an activist whom has helped his chapel win and retain many agreements over the past few decades. Messages of support for Phil whom has worked at the publication for 30 years have been flooding in. Read more on the NUJ website here.

His colleagues have responded to his victimisation with a unanimous vote for strike action. Staff will be out this coming Thursday, June 11th, for 24 hours. There will be a picket line and we encourage all local NUJ and trade union members to support it. There will also be a rally this Saturday, June 5th, which we ask people to attend.

At our June meeting the LPB committee agreed a £100.00 donation to the strike fund which has been sent to the branch secretary at the Rotherham Advertiser. A motion will be put before the branch later this month.

Messages of support should be sent to [email protected]

6.00 pm Tuesday 26 May 2015, Headland House, 308-312 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8DP

This month’s discussion will look at some of the legal issues faced by photographers and videographers as they go about their work.  As speakers we will have two eminent lawyers.  Gavin Millar QC is a noted specialist in all areas of media law, including defamation, privacy, breach of confidence, publishing contempts and reporting restrictions. He often represents media outlets, journalists and politicians in both civil and criminal proceedings.  Shamik Dutta specialises in pursuing civil claims and public law challenges against the police and in enforcing the rights of those subject to unlawful immigration detention and unlawful deportation. He also acts for the families of individuals who have died in police and prison service custody.

The discussion will be followed by other items of branch business.

For many years increasing evidence has pointed to police intelligence units’ interest in journalists whose work led them into contact with political and environmental protestors.  For this month’s branch discussion, five of the six NUJ members who fought to reveal that they were listed as “domestic extremists” on a secret police database will be coming in to talk about their experiences.

David Hoffman writes:  “Around the turn of the century the attention being paid to me and to my colleagues by police attached to the National Public Order Intelligence Unit became increasingly obvious. The Forward Intelligence Teams made it obvious that we were being targeted. They followed us around, filmed us close up while staring hard at us and did their best to intimidate us. Recordings of their comms made it clear that they saw us as ‘The Enemy’. Gathering intelligence would be done more subtly. This was designed to scare us off and to prevent us producing the reportage that we were getting published. Although this was flattering it was an anti-democratic abuse of police processes. As journalists we had to oppose it. Our current group legal action is one aspect of that opposition.”

NUJ Freelance member Adrian Arbib and NUJ LPB members David Hoffman, Jules Mattsson, Jess Hurd and Jason N. Parkinson will talk about what led to the exposing of their files, and the implications this spying has on press freedom in the UK and abroad.

6.00 pm Tuesday 31 March 2015, Headland House, 308-312 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8DP

This month’s meeting will be packed with useful advice and tips for working lens-based journalists, and will also highlight related NUJ policy.

For most of us, operating alone out of town, or even out of the country, goes with the territory. For this discussion Matthew Aslett, one of our well traveled members will explain why the NUJ recommends Hostile Environment Training for certain situations, what other precautions to take in our day-to-day schedule, what research to undertake before leaving home, and how everything from a basic understanding of encryption to a good knowledge of the law can avoid costly and dangerous situations.

We will also hold elections for our vacant committee posts of Union Learning Representative and Equality Officer, should anyone wish to stand for them.