The thorny issue of a demarcation line between
journalist and campaigning activist once again
raised its head at the last Liverpool ADM. There
are those within the union who seem to think that
no distinction is suitable and that journalists
should experience no inhibitions in relation to
participating in protests or campaigning. Given
that journalists are frequently amongst the most
diligent campaigners it is not all that remarkable
that at times the role of journalist and campaigner
would seem to fuse. And as has been demonstrated
by the actions of Thames Valley Police when they
arrested Rodney Mansfield and photographer Nick
Cobbing, the police themselves want any distinction
blurred for the purpose of policing journalism
under the auspices of policing protests.
Journalists
like everybody else in society should be free
to engage in political protests and their membership
of the union should not function as some sort
of constraint on campaigning. But again like other
members of society journalists should only be
in protests as protestors and not as journalists
per se.
Journalists
should not be compromising the integrity of journalism
while they pursue their own particular campaigning
interest, no matter how just that campaign may
be. The press card should never be produced to
advance a particular interest other than the interests
of journalism. Given the very real conflict of
interest scenario that is bound to arise can a
journalist as protestor have the confidence of
the public to report fairly on the behaviour of
both the protestors and those policing the protest
alike?
There
are of course occasions when journalists may find
themselves faced with making an on the spot decision.
At an anti-war protest in Belfast three years
ago, I attended as part of the protest. When the
police began to use violent tactics against the
protesters, many of them in school uniform, I
produced my press card and confronted police with
it. I did not feel in that circumstance that I
was using it in furtherance of the protestors'
demands but as an exercise in monitoring aggressive
state power for the purpose of curbing it. My
verbal exchange with the police concerned not
the merits of the demands being made by the anti-war
protestors but the heavy handed measures employed
by the police. While my action can in no way be
considered as an act of newsgathering it was,
I believe, consistent with journalistic principles.
The
union is obligated to defend its members but it
can only defend its members journalistic activities
and not whatever else they do. The union must
defend journalism in every circumstance. It does
not follow from this, however, that it must also
defend journalists in every instance.
An
edited version of this featured in the Journalist
September 2006
