I used to be a member of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) many years ago. Occasionally since I started writing I’ve wondered whether or not I should rejoin the NUJ both for my own protection and to support and stand in solidarity with British journalists.

However I’ve not done so for a few reasons. One of them is costs. It’s expensive to be a member of the NUJ. Also I’m not sure I could be entirely supportive of a Union that was on the Left when I was a member and which has travelled even further to the Left since I was a member. I’m also not sure, due to the nature of my writing that the NUJ would have me back.

But now I’ve got a fourth reason for not wanting to go back to the NUJ. That reason is that the NUJ is no longer a supporter of the concept of a free press.

According to a post that I saw on Harry’s Place but which originally came from X, a journalist has resigned from the NUJ because the NUJ has decided that reporters in British newspapers should have gone easy on the fraudulent professor Jason Arday. The NUJ appears to believe that reporters should not have investigated the Arday Affair because of ‘racism’ ‘ableism’ and because the investigation would have gone against DEI policies and beliefs.

Here’s the post.

Yes that’s where we are ladies and gentlemen. We are in a position where the nation’s lead union for journalists states that they no longer believe in a free press. How completely cooked is a union when it can’t stand up for basic principles or for journalists who follow these principles? At least the NUJ has given me the best reason I can think of for not wanting to be associated with them.