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Regional secretary with the National Education Union
Covid-19 shows how vital reliable, trustworthy news is
NUJ leader MICHELLE STANISTREET explains the union’s priorities amid difficult times – including fairness for freelances, making the tech giants pay their way and tackling bullying of journalists

WHEN the pandemic hit last spring, and unprecedented restrictions soon followed, it became clear that the immediate impact on the news industry was going to be stark. 

The NUJ successfully ensured that newsgatherers were classed as key workers, able to move around as necessary for their work, and we worked with the industry and government to solve problems and negotiate a boost of advertising revenue for newspapers.

Our officials and reps were inundated with industrial work, dealing with furloughs and lay-offs — as ever, certain employers were keen to use the crisis as an excuse for redundancies. 

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