Jan 2006

Greed’s the word

Over 100 journalists at the Bristol Evening Post and Western Daily Press sent a message to their bosses at Northcliffe Newspapers on 6 December with a rousing version of Do They Know It's Christmas? - chorus "Greed's the Word". They were holding another protest on 20 December against plans to fire a fifth of the editorial staff - now confirmed as a move purely to please potential buyers of the group, which the Daily Mail and General Trust wants to sell. For updates come back here (www.londonfreelance.org/fl/0601bris.html).

18 December 2005

All journalists, trade unionists and supporters in the Bristol area are urged to assemble on Tuesday at 12.30pm - outside the Post and Press offices.

Evening Post National Union of Journalists rep Derek Brooks said: "We have had more than 100 people on recent demos and it's important we keep the pressure up on the company."

The campaign by Post and Press journalists to oppose the job cuts at the titles has been backed by city MPs.

Labour MPs Roger Berry, Kerry McCarthy, Doug Naysmith, Dan Norris and Dawn Primarolo say they believe the job cuts "will lead inevitably to lower quality newspapers, and a loss of the individual character of each paper". And they have echoed the concerns of journalists in saying the papers' "vitality and individuality, and the element of competition, will be destroyed if the same journalists write for both titles".

Northcliffe last month announced plans to cut 36 jobs at the Post and Press, with the posts expected to go early in the New Year. These come on top of the 20 jobs already lost at the Post and weekly Observer series earlier this year.

The Chapel

Bristol call background

Bristle con pain call to action

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