12.10.09
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One of Britain’s leading investigative reporters
quoted the legendary ex-editor of The Sunday Times when endorsing
Mark Watts to be elected editor of the Journalist.
Tony Collins, executive editor of Computer Weekly,
said: “The great Sir Harold Evans told Guardian journalists
on October 1, ‘Peeling the onion, peeling the onion... That’s
what’s being lost. The vital stuff of placing things on the record,
of challenging the official account.
“‘These monsters who have taken over papers in America
today have lost sight of it. We have to keep doing it. Not in a partisan way
– just let’s find out what the bloody facts are!’
“That’s Mark’s strength. And, as he says, he is not
a union hack. I for one would not want to read a journal about union politics.
I strongly recommend Mark for the job.”
Collins is best known for breaking a string of investigative stories
about failed government computer projects and the Chinook helicopter crash
on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994 that claimed 29 lives – including 25
senior police and intelligence officers.
He is among a group of leading journalists to have joined the campaign to
elect Watts – freelance reporter, broadcaster and FOIA Centre co-ordinator
– as editor of the magazine published by the national union of journalists
(NUJ). Some are identified below and others in a separate
article.
Andrew Veitch, a documentary maker for BBC World,
also referred to Britain’s most celebrated former editor, saying: “I
have known and worked with Mark Watts for many years, way back to the ‘arms
to Iraq’ scandal before the first Gulf war. He is, in my view, a superb
investigative journalist. Given the chance, Harry Evans would have hired him.”
Veitch is a former
medical correspondent on The Guardian and science correspondent for
Channel 4 News. He has been an NUJ member for “40 years plus”
and, like Watts, is a member of the union’s London freelance branch.
“The Journalist should certainly reflect the views of
members, support campaigns for decent pay and conditions, and inform and unite
the union. But it should also continue to be a standard-bearer for hard, original
journalism. I am confident that Mark, as editor, will do all these things.”
The Edinburgh-based political commentator, Ham-ish Macdonell,
who was political editor of The Scotsman for eight years until June,
said: “At a time like this, when journalism and journalists are under
threat like never before, it is vital that the Journalist reflects
what is really going on in this industry of ours.
“I have known Mark Watts, as a friend and as a journalist, for
two decades now and I can think of no one better to lead the Journalist
at this time.
“He has an excellent pedigree as an investigative reporter, is
respected within the whole news-gathering sector and, most importantly, he
will make sure that the Journalist has a distinctively independent
voice."
Martin Short, veteran feature writer, author and television
documentary producer, said: “At a time when outlets for real journalism
are facing extinction, and union members in all media are losing their jobs
or being forced to accept punitive pay cuts, the magazine needs an editor
who combines the broadest employment experience with formidable muck-raking
skills.”
Author of Crime Inc., Inside The Brotherhood and
co-author of The Fall Of Scotland Yard, Short has produced or presented
many series on organized crime, the mafia, and police corruption. He said:
“We need someone who can both dig out the often shocking stories affecting
the livelihoods of our colleagues and crystallise the huge issues affecting
the communications industries as a whole. Few NUJ members combine these skills
better than Mark Watts.
“With his commitment to developing the Journalist online
– along with his wit and good humour – he will also help cast
off the doom-and-gloom mood that could otherwise engulf us in these dark times.
Mark Watts is my editor of choice, and, I urge, yours too.”
The Hull-based photojournalist and writer, Lee Karen Stow,
said: “I believe the Journalist should serve long-standing
journalists like me by outlining the enormous issues that face us, rather
than dish out to us union politics.
“It should be independent and carry as much news as possible
about jobs or opportunities for work in the industry and serve as a showcase
for our work. It should be interested in how we, as journalists, are trying
to weave our way through these changes in order to survive. I believe Mark
Watts is capable of turning the Journalist into a magazine for us.”
Eddie Oyortey, a television producer who has made
documentaries for Channel 4 and the BBC, said: “I have worked with Mark
and he always manages to make waves with the current-affairs programmes he
has made, as well as during his time in newspapers. With him as editor, the
NUJ subs will be worth paying just for the Journalist alone.”
Manchester-based Alison Winward said: “The Journalist
can run umpteen campaigns and make countless appeals for support for union
activities, but they are only effective if journalists read the magazine to
learn about them.”
The former NUJ mother-of-chapel at Greater Manchester Weekly Newspapers
continued: “Mark Watts has laid out ideas for making the magazine not
just a good read for union activists, but also attractive to journalists in
general, those who perhaps normally would just switch off at the mention of
‘NUJ’. Get them to read the magazine simply because they find
it interesting, and who knows where that could lead.
“Mark has the experience and contacts – in the regions
and the metropolis, print and broadcast – to unearth and stand up stories
to pique the interest of general NUJ readers as well as union activists.”
Kevin Cahill, freelance investigative journalist and
author of several books, including Who Owns the World: The Hidden Facts
Behind Landownership, said: “Mark Watts stands head and shoulders
above the other candidates.”
An NUJ member for 36 years, Cahill is a former secretary of the union’s
London freelance branch. He is well-known in Britain and Ireland as one of
the best “story-getting” investigative journalists and worked
with Watts on several political investigations, including into Tory funding,
“arms to Iraq”, as well as making a series of revelations for
ITV’s World in Action and elsewhere on Jonathan Aitken, the
former cabinet minister.
Cahill continued: “He has a strong media presence on TV currently
and has an absolutely clear vision for where he wants to take the Journalist.
What he proposes for the Journalist is exactly what I want to see
the Journalist doing. It should break the news on our industry, something
that will significantly enhance the reputation of the NUJ.”
Watts said: “I am fortunate to have the support
of such inspiring journalists.”
“I am calling on all NUJ members who care about journalism to
show what kind of magazine they want. And they can only do that by voting.
There is a clear choice.”
The other seven candidates in the election are: Timothy Arnold, a freelance
with broadcasting experience; Christine Buckley, former industrial editor
of The Times; Michael Cross, a freelance who writes for The Guardian;
Frank Morgan, Daily Record sub-editor; Richard Simcox, “NUJ
Left” candidate who edits another union magazine; David Tilley, Trinity
Mirror content editor; and Steven Usher, Daily Star father-of-chapel
(FoC).
Many in the union’s leadership associated with the “NUJ
Left” alliance believe that an “activist”
should
edit the Journalist to galvanise members into taking action to improve
pay and conditions.
However, Watts says that the editor of the Journalist should
be, fundamentally, a journalist rather than an activist, and one prepared
to keep the magazine independent
of the NUJ leadership.
Some leading journalists who support the argument for a journalist
rather than an activist are backing Usher, including, according to his e-mail
circular to NUJ members last week, Francis Wheen, the writer and broadcaster,
and Richard Wray, communications editor on The Guardian.
And some others who prefer a journalist to an activist for the job
are backing Buckley, according to her campaign literature, including: Kevin
Maguire, associate editor, Daily Mirror; Paul Routledge, political
commentator, Daily Mirror; David Hencke, former Whitehall correspondent,
The Guardian; Barrie Clement, former Labour editor and deputy FoC,
The Independent; and Stephen Evans, presenter, BBC World Service.
Comment
on this article
Top journalists back
Watts election campaign
Watts campaigns for independent
Journalist
FOIA
specialist in election for Journalist editorship
Journalistic background
of Mark Watts
Comments
on Journalist election (7)
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