Showing posts with label NUJ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NUJ. Show all posts
Anthony McIntyre ☠ Earlier in the month the National Union of Journalists gathered in Dublin to remember and pay homage to dead journalists.

128 journalists have lost their their lives reporting from conflict zones in the period January 2022 to November 2023. The geographic spread is anything but slim. The NUJ report that journalists have died in Haiti, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Mexico, India, Brazil, Chad, Turkey, Central African Republic, Ukraine, Guatemala, Philippines, Bangladesh, Israel & the occupied Palestinian Territory, Chile, Honduras, Yemen, Ecuador, USA, Paraguay, Somalia, Colombia, Kenya, Syria, Cameroon, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Albania, Lesotho and Lebanon. Countries we would know much less about were journalists not prepared to take the risks so necessary to maintain an informed world. 

My bus into Dublin fell behind schedule so proceedings were under way by the time I arrived but I did manage to hear Mary Curtin read Seamus Heaney’s poem “From the Republic of Conscience.”A number of her colleagues then read out a list of names at the end of which they placed a red carnation on the ground. Siobhan Holliman, Neil Ward, Ronan Brady, Judy Murphy, Anton McCabe, Gerry Curran, Kitty Holland, Damien Tiernan, Emma O’Kelly, Fran McNulty, Ian McGuinness, Reza Nuri, Norma Prendiville and Michael Foley all stepped up to the microphone. A microphone is a vital tool of the trade through which journalists amplify the news that others do not want heard. On this occasion it was used to speak of those who would never speak into one again.


The pipes of Noel Pocock filled the air with a dirge for the dead, each note a salute to the motionless 128 pens.  

We hear about journalists dying, but insufficiently join the dots to see a pattern, allowing for a tendency to take hold that their deaths are isolated incidents of bad fortune that do not accumulate to the scale that was made evident at the vigil. I commented to NUJ Irish Secretary Seamus Dooley as we were leaving that the vigil was a wake up call. Journalists are an endangered species in an increasingly dangerous world. 

He, in a grim warning, stated that the list of the dead “would inevitably be out of date and may even have been overtaken by horrific events in Gaza.”

In a firm abjuration of the murderous attempts to silence journalists he told those who had assembled:

We gather today in sorrow. We gather to mourn our dead with dignity but let that dignity not be mistaken for lack of anger. The scandalous contempt for the rights of journalists under the Geneva Conventions and Protocols by the Israeli government cannot be justified by the vile actions of Hamas. We mourn the loss of life in Israel and Palestine. The blood of journalists is no different to the blood of the other men, women and children who have been slain in this horrific war.

As a union of journalists, we want to highlight the attempt to silence journalists and journalism, to close down media outlets and to prevent the story of the ongoing assault on human rights being told by independent journalists working in horrendous conditions.

While at the commemoration my daughter, having just finished work, joined me. She might have been the youngest person there. It caused me to reflect on the extent to which young people grasp the essential function journalism performs. I am not sure that many of her generation know that journalism scales great heights by virtue of having to make the climb, gravestone upon gravestone of murdered colleagues.

And then today the news from Gaza via the Committee To Protect Journalists which fulfilled the ominous prophecy of Seamus Dooley: 53 journalists and media workers killed to date. The Israeli policy of muzzling journalists at home is mirrored by murdering them in the Occupied Territories. The Israeli war on hospitals, the war on children is now a war on journalists.

And our heads will bow mournfully again.

Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Sightless Eyes

Anthony McIntyre feels the National Union of Journalists missed an opportunity to showcase the type of threat journalists face as they go about their vocation. 

For anything but the right reason, when we learn of events like the murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, it is all too commonplace to see what Einstein did, "spooky action at a distance.”

When the young journalist Lyra McKee was killed last year, her colleagues intuited correctly that, unlike the killing of Martin O’Hagan two decades ago, it was not a focused attack on journalists, rather a transfer of hideous malice. The projectile of hatred was aimed towards another, not her.

That's hardly the full story. In an era where the leader of the "free world" increasingly demonizes the "free press", both threats and violence against journalists and the profession of journalism are much closer to home. As recently as yesterday the NUJ released a press statement:

Two journalists working for the Sunday World newspaper have been contacted by police and told of a series of "imminent threats" of attack by criminals and loyalist paramilitaries including the West Belfast Ulster Defence Association (UDA). One NUJ member was contacted in the middle of the night by the police and alerted to a threat. Another NUJ member has been issued with a shoot to kill threat and is also at risk of entrapment and attack. Both individuals have been named in various threatening social media posts and both journalists have been threatened on previous occasions.

Appalling, but it is far from an isolated incident. Earlier in the week there were reports of threats having been issued against a journalist working for the Belfast Telegraph.

Increasingly, the website of the NUJ finds itself flagging up the type of intimidation that is wielded against journalists in Britain, the union's general secretary Michelle Stanistreet, voicing her own concern.

If you’re being threatened with rape, if you’re being threatened with grotesque violence, your family members, your children are being threatened over social media, you can’t simply think, ‘Don’t feed the trolls, don’t engage with it … You have to take those threats very seriously. And even if you weren’t, the very fact that this content is appearing in your life, in your home, is incredibly unsettling, and it’s affecting people’s mental health and their well-being.

The backdrop to the Stanistreet comments was a NUJ survey which estimated that one in five journalists claimed to have been physically attacked while a staggering 51% had experienced online abuse, with ethnic minorities and women bearing the brunt.

The specificity of the rape threat being used against journalists was earlier made evident by the UK journalist Lizzie Dearden:

I had been getting hundreds of threatening messages from people calling for me to be raped, attacked or killed. They had been sparked by a report I wrote from a terror trial – an account of what had been said in the court – that was published on The Independent.

It was with this invidious spectre hovering menacingly in the background that a charity group took the initiative and organised an online workshop to explore the matter. Compass Rose Network describes itself as: 

a charity set up in response to dealing with conflict, trauma, peace and reconciliation. We run workshops where ordinary people relate their narratives of conflict and trauma but also how, by telling their story they have gained a transformative life changing experience.

The thinking behind the event, according to one of the proposed speakers, was to "to discuss attacks on women journalists." Invitations had been sent to journalists around the world as well as to academics and others who might have an interest in the subject matter.

Listed as panel speakers were journalists working and living in the North, Felicity McCall, Trisha Devlin and Kathryn Johnson, each of whom was expected to outline their knowledge or experience of the dangers faced by journalists. The keynote address was to be given by Trisha Devlin, who according to one of the organisers, had been subjected to horrific abuse,  “trolled, abused and the safety of her and her baby threatened by loyalist gangsters.” 

 
In an even chillier echo of the experience of those British journalists outlined by Michelle Stanistreet and Lizzie Dearden, the type of horrific abuse hurled the way of Trisha Devlin included a threat to rape her infant son. It is without the slightest difficulty that we can conjure up the horrendous vista of some knuckle dragger being more than prepared to follow through on his threat and then use political motive to mask his predilection for children. As in the case of Lyra McKee who had gone to the PSNI accompanied by a NUJ official to complain about being persistently bullied, stalked and intimidated - ironically on this occasion allegedly by a fellow member of the NUJ - the police have continued farcically directing onlookers away from the scene of the crime. 

With police disinterest shaping a "look the other way" approach, it was crucial that CRN's workshop proceeded so that attention could be brought to matters that both the PSNI and Police Scotland would for some reason rather not see the light of day.

Nevertheless, the CRN event ended up being pulled in the most puzzling of circumstances that gravely dismayed the organisers who took to Twitter to express their disappointment:

It has unfortunately come to our attention that a journalist has made a complaint to the NUJ regarding one of our members. This is in relation to a personality clash + only that. As a result of this action we feel that they have prohibited the valuable work that CRN aim to do ... Many journalists will now not get the opportunity to tell their stories or participate in the upcoming workshop which has gathered an attendance from all backgrounds globally. The fact that @NUJofficial were NOT sponsoring this event nor did they contact us is disappointing ... Very sad state of affairs..... that freedom of speech is hindered by the very body who continually fight for it.... based on a vindictive complaint.

According to Lesley Stock, a former PSNI officer and one of the minds behind the event, CRN was contacted by participants claiming to have been informed by their union "that a ‘complaint’ had been lodged by another female journalist about one of the organisers.” Ms Stock further felt that the NUJ in London left the three journalists with no option other than to withdraw from the event.

The NUJ's reason for not wanting its members taking part is apparently down to three tweets posted earlier in the year by Ms Stock about a NUJ member, which the latter is said to have taken offence at. The tweets are available online and it seems beyond question that while sarky there is nothing in them that would remotely lend itself to a legitimate reason for seeking to dissuade journalists - including one under serious threat - from joining the panel.

If events like these which afford journalists some protection at an otherwise foreboding moment - where the police are culpable of a complete failure - are to be scuttled it should be for reasons of the utmost gravitas rather than the piffling one upon which the decision to upend this workshop seems to have swung.

Journalism matters, journalists under threat matter, and the voices of journalists like Felicity McCall, Kathryn Johnston and Trisha Devlin matter in the battle against all forms of perverse obscurantism and the threat posed from that quarter. They are voices that should be amplified not muffled. Lesley Stock and her colleagues at CRN deserve credit for doing in essence what the NUJ should be doing. 

While what is happening to journalists is no laughing matter, if a laughing stock does emerge from this gratuitous cancellation - or the feet of someone are to be placed in stocks as atonement - it will not be Ms Stock.

 ⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Voices That Need Amplified Not Muffled

Anthony McIntyre thinks the NUJ should, if requested, assist Jamie Bryson in a case of journalistic privilege.

Jamie Bryson & The NUJ

Nothing justifies the taking of life. Those who have killed in the name of our religion today claim to be avenging the insults made against Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace. But nothing is more immoral, offensive and insulting against our beloved Prophet than such a callous act of murder - Dr Shuja Shafi, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

Today saw me back in Dublin for the second time this week for the same type of thing: solidarity with the Parisians done to death last Wednesday by the goondas of clerical fascism. This morning's event in the grounds of Dublin Castle was organised by the NUJ, a body of which I am a member despite various attempts to have me booted out, ironically, for observing the precepts of freedom of expression.

A couple of hundred people turned out brandishing Je Suis Charlie posters on a sunny but cold morning. The Garda Commissioner was there as were government ministers, newspaper editors, journalists and the Lord Mayor of Dublin. The French ambassador to Ireland was also on the platform and addressed the crowd. It was a pretty high profile turn out. The Irish establishment it seems has signed up to the concept of free speech having previously spent decades devising and implementing censorship and blasphemy laws.

My disdain for the Labour Party notwithstanding, I was glad to see Tanaiste Joan Burton on the platform. I think it is important that government figures publicly commit themselves to freedom of expression so that when the moment comes, as it assuredly shall, it can be made harder for them to introduce the censorious measures that will further muzzle society and prevent it discussing in depth the things that concern it.  I could not desist from wondering if she had the same thoughts I was having about her party’s history of suppressing freedom of expression most notably through Conor Cruise O’Brien, the country’s most notorious censor in modern times. I further contemplated how Frances Fitzgerald might reconcile her support for free speech with her plans to introduce new laws aimed at muzzling ideas she does not like. 

If that sounds churlish too bad, but I am allowed to say it because free speech is chic  this week.  We know ministers blow hot and cold, tell you what they think you want to hear rather than what you need to know, their commitment to anything honourable, invariably transient. During the summer when I stood in Drogheda protesting Israeli terrorism and the mass slaughter of mostly Muslim civilians, there were no Labour or Fine Gael luminaries in sight. But there were no cameras either, which perhaps explains it.

This morning, the names of the nine journalists, two police officers and the caretaker who died were read out by two members of the French community in Ireland. The secretary of the Irish NUJ, Seamus Dooley, commented on the location, right beside the Chester Beatty Library, as “a symbol of creativity and multiculturalism where the jewel in the crown is the 6,000 piece Islamic collective, which reflects the true spirit of Islam.” Dooley described Wednesday’s events in Paris as the absolute blasphemy, murder in the name of a deity. He also recalled Veronica Guerin and Martin O’Hagan, Irish journalists murdered because of the job they did.

The wider threat to journalists was a theme revisited by NUJ Irish chair Gerry Curran:
In the past two decades 2,000 media workers, 900 of whom were journalists died as a result of work related incidents. Only 30 per cent died as a result of being caught in cross fire or in a war or crisis zone. 70 per cent or over 600 journalists have been targeted and murdered in the past twenty years. Many more have been seriously threatened, injured or tortured. We live in a world where journalists are the prey of those who do not want their activities reported.

It was important that the Irish NUJ organised today's event. When journalism is tardy in rallying to the defence of journalists, others will hardly step into the breach a la galloping cavalry. About now Seamus Dooley should be in France, where he will be meeting with fellow journalists and attending the unity March in Paris tomorrow. Irish journalism, much battered by censorship laws, and not always robust in pushing back, is asserting where it stands on this very important matter.

Come Monday the matter should not be laid to rest with the dead as they are placed in their graves. The NUJ should now do two things:

  • press to have the Irish Blasphemy Law consigned to the Ark. 
  • publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons in its own magazine, The Journalist
Then we can really claim to be Charlie.





The Absolute Blasphemy: Murder in the Name of a Deity

This article is in response to an article by Irish News Editor Noel Doran that featured on Letters Blogatory.

It was pleasing, if hardly intellectually stimulating, to find Noel Doran at last do something other than use the threat of legal coercion to silence voices he takes umbrage at. However, it has hardly gone unnoticed that he concluded his piece with a call for a robust piece of writing to be suppressed. I will not wait to the end of this current piece to tell him that is not going to happen. The article by Paul Campbell stays in place, and if wasting time suits him, Noel Doran can have a censor lawyer use up a paper mill churning out threatening letters by the tonne.

The Goose, the Gander, and the Irish News: Response to Noel Doran

Today The Pensive Quill carries correspondence between NUJ Member-for-life Ed Moloney and Irish News Editor Noel Doran that previously featured on The Broken Elbow.
Scroll down for updated (October 3) correspondence

Noel Doran Declines Right To Reply In Allison Morris Scandal
Ed Moloney

September 30, 2013

Noel Doran Declines Right To Reply In Allison Morris Scandal - with updated correspondence

Irish News NUJ Chapel Rule 24 Complaint against Belfast & District branch member Anthony McIntyre on behalf of Allison Morris 

The Irish News NUJ Chapel have followed up their complaint on behalf of Allison Morris with more details.

Their enlarged complaint is carried here as it was submitted to the Belfast and District Branch on Thursday, 26 September, 2013, in its entirety.








The Irish News NUJ Chapel here sets out its Rule 24 complaint against Belfast & District branch member Anthony McIntyre.


Rule 24
Discipline, reads as follows:

(a) If after due inquiry, in accordance with the procedures and time constraints laid down in Appendix C, the NEC is of the opinion that a member has been guilty of conduct which is detrimental to the interests of the union or of the profession of journalism, or is in breach of the union’s code of conduct or membership responsibilities…

The chapel believes that Anthony McIntyre is in breach of the NUJ Rule Book, specifically Membership Responsibilities, (b) (i) under which members are expected “to treat other members of the union and union staff, with consideration and respect and not to take action which threaten their livelihood or working conditions”.

We also contend that he has been and continues to be `guilty of conduct which is detrimental to the interests of the union or of the profession of journalism…’.

Mr McIntyre has not made any attempt to substantiate his claims, either by contact with Ms Morris, the news desk, or the editor of The Irish News.

He has urged others to disseminate his false claims. Indeed his articles have been posted on extreme loyalist websites and social media with links to the UVF, including the PUP website, Ulster News, `Loyalist Banter’ Facebook, and `Loyalist Peaceful Protest Updater’ Facebook.

The article published by him on the Pensive Quill which appeared under the by-line of Paul Campbell implicitly linked Ms Morris with dissident republicans.

Working as a security correspondent in Northern Ireland where rival sectarian groups are still very much in existence, this clearly puts her safety and that of her family in danger from loyalist.

Mr McIntyre has been wilfully dismissive about the genuine threats to her life which she has received and have been documented and verified by the PSNI. He made no attempt to establish the veracity of his claims before publishing allegations that they did not exist.

In addition, he has continuously attacked Ms Morris’s character and her professional reputation.

This member has stepped up his campaign from publishing an article about Ms Morris to writing a series of vitriolic pieces about her.

The Irish News Chapel contends that in terms of ‘consideration and respect’, he has shown none of those qualities towards fellow member and working journalist Ms Morris.

Further, by instigating a climate of criticism of her professionalism and working practices through his libellous claims, this member has threatened her livelihood and working conditions.

Like all journalists she relies on her reputation and it is one which she has scrupulously protected during her working life. As you will see from the nature and wording used in Mr McIntyre’s posts, the member’s clear aim is to render her unemployable.

In addition, the scurrilous claims about her working practices open her up to the very real fear of death threats which have already forced her to take time off work - adversely affecting her career and potentially the ability to provide for her family.

We include a number of examples of the defamatory and/or abusive comments which Mr McIntyre has written or published about Ms Morris.

·        From `What Price Justice’ (sic), August 4:

“While she, like many others, will find it difficult to believe what flows from her pen, I will hardly complain to the Ethics Council about it or lift the phone to a libel lawyer in a bid to silence her. I will, however, write what I like and call things as I see them.

“Or does she just lie to everyone, whenever and wherever it suits her at any given moment?”

“Can anyone believe anything Allison Morris writes anymore?”

Mr McIntyre is accusing Ms Morris of repeatedly peddling falsehoods - comments seriously damaging to a journalist’s reputation and hence her livelihood.

It is also detrimental to the profession of journalism to starkly state `I will, however, write what I like and call things as I see them.’

No call or other contact was ever made to Ms Morris to check the veracity of any articles before publication. The chapel contend that this shows that the member clearly has no interest in whether what he writes is fair or accurate – the cornerstone of good journalistic practice promoted by the NUJ.

In fact it is clear that he wilfully ignores the basics of journalism such as checking facts and abiding by libel laws.

The abusive and libellous remarks about Ms Morris’s working practices continue in a series of articles.


·       From `The Weird World of an Irish News Journalist’ [by `Paul Campbell’], August 7

Our contention is that `Paul Campbell’ is merely a pseudonym for Mr McIntyre himself, a practice which he explicitly condemned in his previous publication `The Blanket’.

One of those named in the article has confirmed to two separate people within the Irish News that he only spoke to Mr McIntyre about this matter and has never heard of `Paul Campbell’.

We can supply witness statements confirming the conversations if the union wishes.

We believe that this practice of publishing this malicious article under a false name is in itself both contrary to members responsibilities – all our working chapel members must stand squarely behind what we publish under our by-lines, ensuring we are held to the basic standards of fairness and accuracy.
This practice is clearly detrimental to the interests of the union and the profession of journalism.

However, the content itself, which Mr McIntyre has again published, is damaging and defamatory.

“Irish News journalist Allison Morris is some chancer. While having a brass neck is no bad thing for a journalist, Allison’s professional practices would make even the most unscrupulous tabloid hack blush.

“The Irish News’ journalist hardly covered herself in glory when she interviewed Dolours Price at a time when Price was undergoing psychiatric care at a Dublin hospital. Allison refused the family’s request to end the interview because of Dolours’ medical condition.

“The family then spoke to Irish News management. When the newspaper reached an agreement with them   –  understandably excercising caution in how it treated the story and only printing parts of it  –  Allison took the tapes/story to her friend and former Andersonstown News colleague, Ciaran Barnes of the Sunday Life, who published an unrestrained account.

“As both a journalist and a human being, this was hardly an example of ethical behaviour. Allison’s actions ended up setting in motion the whole Boston College saga which has seriously damaged source protection and oral history.

“But the Irish News journalist learned no lesson from it all and has continued in her own inimitable bulldozing style.

“After her journalistic practices previously drew criticism on The Pensive Quill, Allison went to the NUJ with a seemingly wholly made up claim that the criticism had placed her life in danger from dissident republicans.

“She produced no proof of this whatsoever. Indeed, the claim was so baseless that it was laughable. While Allison was claiming grave threats to her life, anyone taking an even cursory glance at the Irish News could see she was in no danger.

“She was interviewing both grassroots and senior dissident republicans and she was on the ground covering dissident republican riots and protests. No-one was refusing to talk to her, let alone threatening her life. Allison’s actions led the NUJ to initially suspend Anthony McIntyre.”

We contend its entire content and tone fails to treat Ms Morris with consideration and respect and clearly threatens her livelihood and working conditions.


Ms Morris did receive verbal abuse and threats from republicans while out covering stories.

She has also lost contacts as a consequence of his false claims – people were refusing to talk to her, contrary to his speculative claim - which obviously has an impact on her livelihood.

The allegations about her interview with republican icon Dolours Price can only be designed to drive a wedge between Ms Morris and her republican contacts.

Mr McIntyre at no stage contacted Ms Morris or the Irish News to establish the facts of the matter.

These are that Dolours Price contacted the Irish News newsdesk to request an interview with the paper, which the newsdesk sent Ms Morris, as the main security reporter, to carry out.

We can supply witness statements to verify this.

Neither Ms Morris not the Irish News has ever received a complaint from the late Dolours Price or her family about the article, nor was any claim submitted to the Press Complaints Commission.

Ms Price subsequently participated in interviews with other outlets about this subject, which we contend illustrates her willingness to talk about the matter. Mr McIntyre has not singled out journalists from CBS, The Sunday Telegraph, or The Daily Mail for such scurrilous allegations.

However, he repeatedly displays a lack of consideration and respect towards Ms Morris and threatens her livelihood and working conditions by trying to damage her reputation.

Mr McIntyre is famous as an opponent of the Good Friday Agreement and as such his blog is read by dissident republicans, among others.

He is also well aware that loyalists both read and contribute to his blog and has links with a loyalist blog as detailed above.

We wish to point out that Ms Morris did not claim that her life had been under threat from dissident republicans. She has made it known – and has been verified by police and accepted by the NUJ - that she had been under death threat from loyalists.

This was not a “baseless” or a “wholly made up claim”. The Irish News Chapel, which has supported her during this difficult time, do not find the threat to the life of one of our colleagues “laughable”.

We contend that as a former republican prisoner and opponent of the Good Friday Agreement, Mr McIntyre is also well aware that publishing an article which described Ms Morris as `The PSNI’s favourite journalist’ put her life in danger from paramilitary elements, both loyalist and republican.

It is injurious to her safety and reputation as a reporter on security stories in northern Ireland to imply that she will betray sources to the police especially when such sources may have well-documented violent tendencies.

·       From `I have a right to be angry’, August 9 (written by Mr McIntyre’s wife and published by him with a standfirst we can only conclude was written by the Pensive Quill’s editor, the member himself):

Carrie Twomey explains how it is for a mother of two young children to bear the brunt of what she regards as a malicious agenda designed to mask unethical journalistic practice.

“I am angry as fuck that the subpoenas are a direct result of the pathetic and petty ambitions of Allison Morris who thought she could compete with the likes of journalist Ed Moloney and attempted to scoop what she thought was a story of his by giving her interview tapes to Ciaran Barnes and setting the whole Boston College nightmare in motion.”

A selection of choice phrases from this piece, which display absolutely no `consideration and respect’ to Ms Morris, include:

THAT COMPLETE WANKER ALLISON MORRIS

the bullshit of Allison Morris

Allison Morris's bullshit

“I am angry that the incompetent idiots at the bastion of journalistic wankerdom - the Ethics Council of the NUJ - hadn't a brain cell to rub against anything to spark the sense to toss her harassing complaint at the start.”

We contend that the NUJ membership responsibilities preclude publishing material describing any one, never mind another member, in such terms.

We wish to stress at this stage that Ms Morris has never engaged with the member or his wife, but has continued to do her job in a professional manner and conduct herself as befits an NUJ member.

The chapel complaint relates to Ms Morris alone, she cannot bear responsibility for the conduct of others and does not because she does not act as a publisher in any way.

Further, it is clearly `detrimental to the interests of the union’ for Mr McIntyre to describe the Ethics Council of the NUJ in such terms.

The tirade continued from Carrie Twomey:

“I am angry that in the middle of the fight of our lives, a landmark fight for source protection, confidentiality and free speech, this ... woman... who boasts about what a great example of journalistic integrity she is, launched a complaint to discredit Anthony, and to add to the stress we're under in order to break him.”


The chapel supports Ms Morris as our member is merely trying to protect herself from continued libels and abuse and preserve her reputation.

She is not and has not been following `a malicious agenda’ or engaging in `unethical journalistic practice’. These are baseless accusations and it should again be noted that neither Ms Morris nor the chapel has written anything about Mr McIntyre or Carrie Twomey to prompt such personal abuse.

To make such claims about a journalist is clearly intended to do damage to her reputation and threaten her livelihood and working conditions by making people reluctant to talk to her or threaten violence towards her.

The abuse published by Mr McIntyre continues:

the malicious, lying viper she is

I am DONE with sucking it up. FUCK HER and the horse she rode in on!

Again, there is clearly no consideration and respect in publishing such remarks about another member.

The vitriol increased from Mr McIntyre and Carrie Twomey days later:

From `Are you being gagged?’, August 12:

“Today while in a second hand bookshop I was contacted by a solicitor in Belfast to inform me that Morris was looking my home address. Unlike Morris, he has an ethics based approach to his profession and just does not hand clients’ addresses out willy nilly to any chancer that comes along seeking them.”

The chapel contends that the line about `an ethics based approach’ is another blatant attack on Ms Morris’s integrity, as is calling her a `chancer’.

“Whichever threatening letter arrives first, as it duly shall, you can see it posted on this blog or on another if the censors manage to close this one down. The freedom to write will not only be defended but vigorously asserted whatever the odds. Allison Morris will become a byword for censorship. And if prison is the going rate to achieve that it will be a price well worth paying. In this case silence is not a commodity that money can buy.”

Again, to claim that `Allison Morris will become a byword for censorship’ is another attack on her journalistic integrity, which threatens her livelihood. She has a right to complain about libellous remarks directed at her.


·       In a comment about this, from Carrie Twomey at 4:43 PM, August 13, 2013 Reply
From Carrie Twomey

“All either Barnes or Morris, or indeed anyone who has a problem or concern with The Pensive Quill, need do is contact Anthony to discuss it – as was shown when Kevin Cooper initially contacted him over a year ago about Allison’s concerns. Even the Appeals Tribunal grasped this – no attempt at conciliation whatsoever was made before going for the nuclear option. Now it appears the only objective for them all along was to secure headlines to discredit Anthony in the middle of the Boston College fight rather than because of any real sense of grievance.

“We never respond well to legal threats, whether it is from Editors such as Noel Doran, who first threatened Anthony with legal action on behalf of Allison over a year ago, or should it be whatever libel lawyer chooses to act on her behalf now (I wonder if the Irish News is footing her bill?). I do not think many people would respond favourably to legal threats, especially if that is the first entreaty made, which in Allison’s case, apart from the informal NUJ approach which saw her request granted, has been the only form of entreaty made – legal threats or being hauled before Ethics Councils. Of all things!

“Compounded with the bullshit she has spread to further her legal threats and sanctions, and the utter disdain displayed by choosing a football match over attendance at the hearing of her own complaint, is it any wonder her position is viewed with utter amazement - the sheer brass neck of it all? Just who exactly does she think she is?

“After dragging Anthony through that farce of the NUJ complaint, securing the headlines in the middle of the BC case, not bothering to show up in London, and now seeminly siccing her lawyers on us, any sympathy I may have had for her feelings being hurt is long spent. Seriously, fuck her. She’s no interest in resolving anything. Unless there’s some other agenda fueling her actions, she just wants to escape condemnation for being the asshole she is. Well, that ain’t gonna happen as long as she continues to act like an asshole.”


Regarding the suggestion that “All either Barnes or Morris, or indeed anyone who has a problem or concern with The Pensive Quill, need do is contact Anthony to discuss it – as was shown when Kevin Cooper initially contacted him over a year ago about Allison’s concerns.”

The Irish News contacted Mr McIntyre to express its concerns about the earlier libel on Ms Morris.

Mr McIntyre was extremely reluctant to remove the offending article and took quite some time to do so – even after the original host site had removed it. It was the Irish News Chapel who contacted the branch which triggered the involvement of Mr Cooper and Mr McIntyre has indicated in correspondence that the removal of the offending article was being done with extremely bad grace.

In an email sent to Irish News editor Noel Doran on May 29, 2012, which Mr McIntyre has published on his own website’s `wiki dump’, he wrote:

“Given his financial situation, Mark is in no position to engage in a protacted legal battle. He has removed the piece from his website due to the threat of legal action from your representatives, and he has requested that we also remove his article. As such, we have obliged Mark by removing his article from the blog, and we trust that should resolve your concerns.

“However, we do so in reliance upon your undertaking not to wax triumphal by publishing the removal of the article from our site in the pages of the Irish News, or causing that fact to be published anywhere else. If that happens, we will be compelled to defend robustly our original publication, which would only serve to defeat the object of your threat of legal proceedings.”

It is factually inaccurate to claim that “no attempt at conciliation whatsoever was made before going for the nuclear option”.


We are happy to provide witness statements confirming that both parties were left together for an hour-long discussion between Allison and Mr McIntyre on the day of the hearing in Belfast, during which she repeatedly asked him to publicise on his website Ed Moloney’s affidavit re his March 2010 interview of Dolours Price, an interview conducted around the same time as Allison had interviewed Dolours Price. Mr McIntyre absolutely refused to publicise this affidavit.

We believe this is because it would fatally undermine the claimed justification of Mr McIntyre’s vociferous condemnation of Ms Morris for interviewing Dolours Price in the full knowledge that his friend and colleague Mr Moloney also interviewed her shortly afterwards.

In short, it would expose his hypocrisy and the sand on which his entire campaign of harassment has been built.

We have supplied said affidavit for your information.


ED MOLONEY’S AFFIDAVIT:

Case 1:11-mc-91078-RGS Document 5-5 Filed 06/07/11 Page 11 of 16
 
- 12 -35. In or around March 2010, I re-interviewed Dolours Price, giving her, orally, thesame assurances of confidentiality that had applied to her earlier interviews with AnthonyMcIntyre, and telling her that the interviews would be stored at Boston College under the sameterms of confidentiality that had applied to those earlier interviews. I always understood thatadditional material could be added to interviewees’ files and that they would also be covered bythe original confidentiality agreements. I then passed these interview materials to Robert O’Neillat the Burns Library, with instructions to lodge them in her file. He accepted the materials.Signed under the pains and penalties of perjury.Dated: June 2, 2011 /s/ Ed MoloneyEd Moloney
Case 1:11-mc-91078-RGS Document 5-5 Filed 06/07/11 Page 12 of 16


The chapel contends that it is both ludicrous and offensive to suggest that “the only objective for them all along was to secure headlines to discredit Anthony in the middle of the Boston College fight rather than because of any real sense of grievance.”

We again point out that Ms Morris has not written anything about the other member, Mr McIntyre. As has been detailed to this point, her sense of grievance about his behaviour is very real and endorsed by her chapel colleagues who unanimously backed a motion supporting her and instigating this complaint.

His attempts to portray her as the aggressor in this dispute fly in the face of the facts and are intended to lower her reputation as a journalist, which would threaten her livelihood and working conditions.

Mr McIntyre continues to push his claims about how Allison treated the Dolours Price story.

From `True to their Words’ comments, August 14:
By AM [clearly Anthony McIntyre]

“And some reporters extract information, when apparently told by family members the interviewee is unwell and incapable of giving an interview. Yet they go and print parts of that interview. But seem to hold back parts for fear of being sued? "Who Knows?". Then the interview apparently ends up in another newspaper 3 days later.”


It has been made clear to Mr McIntyre that his version of events is incorrect and he has no proof for his claims, yet he continues to denigrate Allison’s working practices and those of The Irish News, which has more than 80 per cent union membership.

·        Mr McIntyre’s articles which are detrimental to the profession of journalism have continued to be published since the submission of our complaint to the Branch:

From `Invertebrate Journalism’, August 30:

“The kiss-up kick-down ethic seems to have considerable purchase within that particular chapel of the NUJ.

“I no more have to respect Allison Morris than she has to respect me. Unlike the supine NUJ chapel at the Irish News, I don’t happen to think that is some sort of journalistic crime for which a member of the union should be sanctioned. Then again my views on ethics and those of the people at the Irish News would seem to be radically different and now seem to clash frequently enough. While I have a consistent ‘put up with’ attitude to its views they seem to take a ‘shut up’ response to mine. Not a very rewarding experience trying to shut me up.”

Contrary to Mr McIntyre’s stated position, the NUJ rulebook states that `members are expected to treat other members of the union and union staff, with consideration and respect…’

Again in that article this member denigrates The Irish News chapel:

“Not only has the Irish News chapel prostrated itself before the Ethics Council it has also exhibited bovine conformity to what it thinks the editor/bishop wants, leading me to suspect that the virus of co-option has been cause for rejoicing rather than resisting. Just as under a regime of old style corporatism, the chapel has been co-opted into the church of the management.”

He then includes a graphic with the text: `Management? All the way. Supine every day. The Irish News. NUJ Chapel.

Then he writes:

“Is the invertebrate NUJ chapel at the paper so devoid of autonomous standing that it can think of nothing more progressive than tugging the forelock to management? Is it incapable of conceiving of anything more radical than slavishly exercising its self induced powerlessness against the journalist protecting sources and not against those who endanger them?”

AM then comments re this article on September 2:

“when you talk of comradeship in the NUJ, the chapel at the Irish News immediately thinks ‘comrade editor.’ It is a characteristic best encapsulated in the UDM attitude of yes, yes, yes Ian MacGregor, no, no, no Arthur Scargill.”

From `Reporting to London’, September 2, Mr McIntyre conjures up a conspiracy theory:

“Perhaps it is just my imagination but am I wrong to sniff the scent of collusion between the actions of the NUJ chapel at the Irish News who tattled to Dear Sarah, and the ‘former director of publicity for Sinn Fein’ who also went a-squealing to her? Both letters were written on the same day; the former publicity director's in the morning followed by the chapel's a few hours later. Both were eager to point out to Sarah how I had said ghastly things about either her or the Ethics Council. And both praised the same council for having taken action against me. Coordination, collaboration, or coincidence?”

The Irish News Chapel can confirm that, as he suspected, this is just his imagination. He is welcome to question Danny Morrison about any contact with The Irish News chapel over this matter. We have not contacted him on this matter and have no plans to do so.

He continues to make things up about what the Irish News Chapel is doing and to show no respect to fellow members of the NUJ:

“In true journalistic fashion the underhand attempts at imposing censorship from the obsequious NUJ chapel at the Irish News will be shared with our readers.”

* The Irish News chapel was following NUJ procedures in contacting the Branch Secretary.
As FOC, Mr Archer was chosen to be the chapel’s designated representative as required in the rules. He enjoys the full support and confidence of Ms Morris and all members who have endorsed this action.
Mr Doran is not a member of the chapel and has had no part in the chapel’s complaint.

AM says:
6:58 AM, September 11, 2013 Reply

Don't expect the chapel there to know too much about anything. Its aspiration to intellectual greatness is learning to say 'yes Noel' in 12 different languages.

We wish to draw the NUJ’s attention to this message on Mr McIntyre’s own site:

• Libelous comments will not be published. Do not abuse the Anonymous facility or your posts will no longer be published

The chapel contends that this message, along with Mr McIntyre’s long membership of the NUJ, including a stint on the Ethics Council, shows that the member is fully aware of his responsibilities and is not merely mistakenly writing and publishing what can perhaps best be described as bile. Indeed he is doing this in full awareness of what is expected from those who enjoy the privileges that come with membership of the NUJ.

In conclusion, much of the content in his series of articles about Allison Morris and The Irish News is in breach of the NUJ’s membership responsibilities and detrimental to the interests of the union and the profession of journalism.




Irish News NUJ Chapel Rule 24 Complaint



Tell The Irish News Hands Off The Internet

We have reason to believe that efforts are being made to close The Pensive Quill website down.

We host no illegal content, we are breaching no law in the United States (where the site is hosted), and, as has been well documented, there is absolutely no legitimate reason for such a pursuit. Any effort to close The Pensive Quill website is politically and/or personally motivated, by those seeking to hide their unethical behaviour. These actions are pursued by the Irish News and its reporter and associates.

We are therefore seeking to create mirror sites, and additionally, we invite third parties to mirror our site in its entirety. We invite those third parties, outside of the UK and Ireland, who can offer support, to contact us directly.

Any effort to prevent the disclosure of the Irish News’ willful and ill-advised pursuit of The Pensive Quill in order to cover-up the unethical behaviour of its reporter cannot, and will not, be allowed to succeed.

These legal tactics and letters are issued like confetti in order to police the web and the media behind the scenes; the sad fact is many outlets and individuals are intimidated into silence and comply, which enables the success of censorship. The wider public is not aware of this as the fear of being sued and dragged through court keeps people silent.

We are not going silently into the night over this, and in exposing what the Irish News and its reporter are doing here, we hope that it lifts the lid on the prevalent scare tactics employed and frees up discussion on their use across Ireland north and south.

We also intend by taking a stand against this to demonstrate that refusing to comply with the demands of censors weakens the power of the bully. Much like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, we intend on pulling the curtain back to demonstrate the Wizard has no more power than what is freely given to him. We refuse to give any censor power over us.

We will not be intimidated into silence.

Thank you

THE PENSIVE QUILL



Action Request

Please stand up against the Irish News' attempt to police the internet and suppress freedom of speech. Reproduce these articles across the web:

NUJ Wiki Dump

NUJ Vindicates Boston College Researcher

What Price Justice

The Weird World of an Irish News Journalist

I Have a Right to be Angry

Are you being Gagged?

True to Their Words

Invertebrate Journalism

Reporting to London

Not Censored by the Irish News

2nd NUJ Complaint Filed: As Sure As Day Follows Night

Do-It-Yourself Irish News Critic Kit

Irish News NUJ Chapel Rule 24 Complaint

Anthony McIntyre Response to Irish News NUJ Chapel Complaint on Behalf of Allison Morris





Background

We believe the origins of the first subpoena of the Boston College Belfast Project Oral History Archives were set in motion by Irish News reporter Allison Morris, who conducted an interview with former IRA volunteer Dolours Price. Dolours was heavily medicated and being treated for a variety of ills at the time. Her family objected to the interview and requested it not be published. The Irish News restricted what they published. However, 3 days after the Irish News story ran, a friend and colleague of Morris’ at the Sunday Life tabloid, Ciaran Barnes, ran a front page spread containing everything the Irish News left out.

In Ciaran Barnes’ report, he implied that he had heard Dolours Price’s Boston College tapes. US Attorney Carmen Ortiz's office subsequently submitted both Morris and Barnes’ stories as evidence to justify the first subpoena. Barnes never had access to the Boston College tapes and we believe it was Morris’ interview he based his report on. The PSNI did not seek Morris’ notes or records until after it was pointed out in court documents that they had never approached her or Barnes, 16 months after the original publication of her interview. She and the Irish News told the PSNI they retained no material; the PSNI accepted this and did not pursue the matter further.

Barnes and Morris brought a Code of Conduct complaint against Anthony McIntyre in their union, the National Union of Journalists. The NUJ’s Ethics Council railroaded the complaint against McIntyre and suspended him for 6 months. He appealed this and the NUJ Appeals Tribunal tossed everything out, completely vindicating him.

Neither Morris nor Barnes attended the appeal hearing, suggesting that the objective all along was to discredit him in the middle of the source protection/1st and 4th Amendment battle to protect the confidentiality of the oral history archives against government incursion, adding stress and pressure in an attempt to break him.

Immediately following the Ethics Council verdict being over-turned, Morris attempted to re-try her complaint on a legal blog, and was caught in an astounding lieThe Pensive Quill documented this and other questionable behavior around the Irish News and its reporter Allison Morris. The Irish News’ Editor Noel Doran began to contact The Pensive Quill in an obvious attempt to lay groundwork for a legal case. A solicitor’s letter from Johnsons then arrived demanding that The Pensive Quill remove all its material about Allison Morris.



With thanks to The Expendable Project for the wording used in the clarion call for action - their request for mirror sites was used as a template.



Stand Up Against The Irish News Censorship of The Pensive Quill