NEWS
China Spies on Skype Users
Friday, October 17, 2008

A group of Canadian researchers has discovered that a Chinese version of the communications software Skype is being used to filter and record text chats that include politically charged words, such as "democracy", "Tibet" and "Communist Party". The finding by Citizen Lab, a University of Toronto research group that focuses on politics and the Internet, has provoked outcry among free expression and privacy advocates.
Ex-BBC political correspondent blogs for the CPBF
Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Former BBC political correspondent, Nicholas Jones, has found a new role, as a blogger for the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, to which the NUJ is affiliated. Jones has formally launched his blog with a lengthy piece on internet regulation.
US Coast Guard unsure if bloggers are journalists
Thursday, September 25, 2008

This spring, the Coast Guard allegedly faked a key test of its flagship National Security Cutter, according to sources close to the program. The maritime service denies this. But six months later, the Coast Guard essentially has rejected two blogs' Freedom of Information Act requests for documentation related to the test. (The Coast Guard asked for $18,000 in fees to honor the request, and denied applications for the standard fee waiver for journalists.) On Monday, Coastie Commandant Thad Allen explained why: The service doesn't necessarily consider blogs legitimate media, and so didn't feel they were owed the same considerations under FOIA. Allen made these points during a Pentagon-sponsored conference call with bloggers, to announce a new "social media engagement" strategy.
Turkey: Internet sites protest censorship
Thursday, August 28, 2008

Website owners and users in Turkey got so fed up with Internet censorship that they censored themselves in protest in August. IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) reported that 412 sites and blogs protested against online censorship and court-ordered bans. darkening their pages to alert authorities and the public to their plight.
Network links
Friday, September 28, 2007

There's now an NUJ group on LinkedIn. And NUJ's Facebook group is the biggest union group on Facebook - the union has just had it first Facebook only recruitment, Sushanta Das Gupta, editor of
http://www.e-bangladesh.org/.
Branch Websites
Thursday, February 1, 2007

Union stalwart, Barry White, secretary of the Press and PR branch and former NEC member of long standing, has contacted us with a proposal to encourage union branches to make more use of the web.
All Change
Thursday, February 1, 2007

Some changes within the NUJ have resulted in changes for NMIC: Our full-time official, Jenny Lennox, who achieved so much in so little time working out of the Manchester office, is going on to greater things (becoming the assistant regional organiser for the North of England) while New Media types should greet Lawrence Shaw, formerly the person who looked after the North of England regional office in Manchester.
New Media Council Vacancies
Wednesday, August 22, 2007

If you want to get more involved with the running and promotion of the New Media sector of the NUJ, here's your chance.
More on Mailing Lists
Thursday, March 8, 2007

We continue to press for union bodies to move their mailing lists away from Yahoo! On 13 June, 2006, the company’s Regional Vice President stated - in a reply to NMIC - that the company intended to be a leader in the dialogue about the conflict between its stated beliefs and local laws that forced them to go against those beliefs. Given the opportunity to become a leader at the Internet Governance Forum in Athens at the end of October last year, Yahoo! failed to play any meaningful role. The story rumbles on and there will be some discussion at this year's ADM on our position.
Isolated Workers
Wednesday, August 22, 2007

A campaign to get more isolated workers into the union will be launched during the NUJ's annual recruitment week in June. Three industrial councils are involved in planning the campaign: New Media, PR and Information, and Freelance.
[Update: the campaign has been postponed until the autumn - more details when they become available.]