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THE NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS (NUJ)

Under the constitution of the Press Council, the NUJ was given two members, nominated by the newspaper industry, out of a total membership of 36 members. The Report, correctly, states that the NUJ had withdrawn its members from the Council in 1980, as a result of a growing disenchantment with the functioning of the Press Council.

What the Report omitted to state was that the NUJ resumed its membership in April 1990, thus restoring the actual arithmetical balance between the 18 independent members and the 18 newspaper members. The importance of this omission is that for a period of nearly a decade the independent members formed the majority of the Council’s membership. When, therefore, a new chairman was sought in May 1988 there was a majority of inde­pendent members to select the new chairman. Ever since 1966, as a result of the second Royal Commission on the Press chaired by Lord Shawcross, the chairman was appointed by the Council, and not by the newspaper industry, as became the practice of the Press Complaints Commission from January 1991 and onwards.

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Source: Blom-Cooper Louis. Power of Persuasion: Essays by a Very Public Lawyer. Hart Publishing,2015. — 374 p.. 2015
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