Last
updated: December 2006
‘Banned’
newspaper receives NUJ support
Following
on from last month’s report of Lincoln’s local independent
student newspaper The Defender being banned from distributing on campus
by The University of Lincoln Student Union Co-operative (ULSUC) there
have been several developments in the student journalists’ attempts
to get the paper back on university grounds.
After announcing the ULSUC’s move the paper received
support from several bodies, one of which would see the paper back on
campus gaining a new distribution point in a university building.
After contacting The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Defender editor
(and NUJ member) Sophie Holt received a statement of support from Tim
Gopsill, editor of the NUJ magazine The Journalist.
“It’s not unusual for the leaders of students’ unions
to enjoy throwing their weight around with their student papers. It’s
good practice for those who are aiming to become politicians, as a frightening
number of them do. It’s also good practice for student journalists,
learning to deal with the pressure and obstruction they will likely
be facing in their own careers,” read Mr Gopsill’s statement.
“The NUJ stands firmly for independent journalism regardless of
who owns or controls a publication. Sometimes the worst pressure that
journalists face are from their own proprietors or editors that do their
bidding. Most student papers are published by students’ unions
which can make life difficult for the journalists at times. The Defender
is not of course - but your independence wouldn’t be worth much
if you didn’t exercise it. The students’ union leaders should
understand this and accept the independent paper - even if it contains
things they don’t like - just as they will have to in the grown-up
world they want to succeed in,” finished the statement.
In support of their students The Lincoln School of Journalism (LSJ)
allowed the paper to begin distributing in the university’s Media,
Humanities, Arts, and Computing (MHAC) building, and The Defender’s
distribution stand was placed in a new position within the building’s
entrance way.
In their November issue The Defender reported the dispute on the front-page
under the headline ‘Banned!’.
Ms Holt stated that the ULSUC’s ban continues and that the only
contact the union had made with her was a letter from their solicitor.
The letter, dated November 14 2006 confirmed the ULSUC’s claim,
as reported in The National Student, that there is no ban.
With accusations of false reporting, it also asked for an apology and
a retraction from the paper for using the term ‘banned’
in their report, and asked for a meeting between the paper and the union.
The paper responded stating that the ‘ban’ was still in
place and that they could not retract the article on those grounds.
However, The Defender has offered to define the term ‘banned’
in their follow-up article together with an explanation of the reasons
for its selection. They have offered the union their right to reply
to put their side of the story across and have agreed to a meeting.
On going to press they had heard nothing from ULSUC to arrange the proposed
meeting or accept the offer to comment on the dispute.
The National Student has been included in ULSUC’s instructions
to their solicitor for the report ‘Student Paper Banned’
in our last edition. The same requests and allegations were made to
both newspapers.
On November 20 upon delivering more papers to their distribution stand’s
new location, Defender staff found that the stand had been removed.
On asking the LSJ if they had moved the stand they said the last time
the stand had been seen was Friday November 17 and that they had not
moved it.
The LSJ are looking into the disappearance of the stand, but on going
to press its whereabouts are still unknown.
Ms Holt said, “No one seems to know where the stand is. As it
appears to have been taken without either our or the journalism faculty’s
permission if the stand is not found we will be treating this disappearance
as theft.”
