Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, addresses DM2025

Davison welcomed delegates and said it was great to be in Blackpool at her first DM as the new general secretary of the union.

Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, paid tribute to her predecessor Michelle Stanistreet, who she said looked out for the interests of the union, for members and for journalism.

She said at the end of DM, conference would have committed to a programme of work providing a crucial framework on how we move forward together.

On industrial work, Davison said the volume of industrial work had delivered results for members. PA Media achieved union recognition after four years of campaigning with resistance from the organisation. She thanked reps who had led on the campaign as delegates applauded their achievement.

Davison said the PA recognition campaign was a good template of how we can achieve things when we work together, and also extended her solidarity to members at PA Media who were now facing threats to their jobs.

She recognised that recognition has also been achieved in other workplaces including at Novara media, Health Service Journal, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Bullivant Media and the union is close to achieving recognition at further workplaces.

In recent weeks, News Corp owned Dow Jones, were close to submitting an application for statutory recognition. Without warning, the company recognised News Union, an organisation that holds no certificate of independence affirming it is fit to represent members.

Davison said:

“I have a message for companies that think they can use loopholes to cheat our members out of union protection. There is international, trade union and parliamentary backing for our members in this fight. We won’t give up on them or changes to the law.”

Davison also referenced the Springer Nature strikes that delivered significant improvements in pay and conditions with lively picket lines. On the sale of The Observer, she said the actions of our members put in place protections and opened up a voluntary redundancy scheme.

Pay deals have been agreed over the past two years including at Business Insider, Reach plc and improvements to the minimum salaries of Local Democracy Reporters. Davison recognised that freelance rates had been agreed at The Guardian but for most freelances, rates had been static for several years. She said a new member of staff would work on this area to win improvements for freelances and was an investment for the union.

Davison said the union had been fighting cuts at the BBC and a strike in Summer 2023 had delivered significant concessions. The Save Radio Foyle campaign had led to an extension of the proposed daily breakfast show.

“Public service broadcasting must be universally accessible, fair and funded sufficiently.” Davison said.

The BBC’s Culture Review is expected imminently, and the union wants to see practical evidence of real change that address members’ concerns; that all will be held accountable if they do not heed codes of conduct. She said the union would scrutinise the full findings and continue its engagement with the BBC.

On journalists’ safety, Davison referenced materials produced by the union including the Journalists’ Safety Toolkit and the Journalists’ Safety Tracker, capturing incidents against journalists as they arise. She urged the reporting of SLAPPs using the tracker, whilst calling for legislation to sufficiently tackle the issue.

The use of Terrorism legislation against journalists and in particular photographers, was also raised by Davison, an issue the union has been vocal about.  

On artificial intelligence, Davison said the union had raised issues publicly, for example, when Getty and Shutterstock announced their merger, the NUJ immediately raised the issue of members’ copyright work being used without their consent for AI learning.

“Use of our members material must be on the basis of an opt-in, not opt-out mechanism.”

The NEC has tabled a late notice motion on latest developments at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which confirmed this week that the PSNI will suffer no consequences for the contempt shown toward the IPT process or behaviour against ‘No Stone Unturned’ journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney.

Davison reminded delegates that Séamus Dooley, NUJ assistant general secretary was engaging with the important McCullough review.

Remembering Lyra McKee, she sent the union’s collective support to her family in the ongoing legal process. The NUJ has also repeatedly called for determined action to bring the killers of Martin O’Hagan’s killers to justice.

On wider union achievements, the NUJ’s general secretary said the union had achieved more than £7million for members, mostly in settlement agreements. She said the union had also launched or intervened in many legal cases.

On International, Davison referenced figures from the International Federation of Journalists indicating that at least 157 journalists have been killed since 7 October 2023.

“It is vital that those responsible are held to account. There are now many complaints before the International Court of Justice. For Palestinians, for Israelis, for anyone who cares about the rule of law, the facts in these cases must be exposed to the daylight, and where fault is found, sanctions applied.”

Davison said she looked forward to the NUJ’s participation in the IFJ’s centenary in Paris.

Closing her address, Davison said “We will build chapels, we will defend jobs and improve pay. We will campaign for our freelances. We will fight for a better media that serves everyone, we will support our colleagues around the world.”

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