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To: The Chair and Board of Nine Entertainment Co.

Don’t torch journalism

Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance

After a five day strike, journalists at Nine Publishing have accepted a vastly improved offer from management. Public support for quality journalism by signing the Don’t Torch Journalism petition was crucial to this win by members of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance.


Union members at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Times and WAtoday are taking industrial action. As community members we stand with them and demand management agrees to staff’s demands for:

  • We call on Nine Entertainment Company to act in the best interests of readers and our right to quality journalism.
  • We urge the senior executive team at Nine, including managing director Mike Sneesby, to forgo all executive bonuses and for those savings to be used to deliver real wage increases.
  • We trust the work of your journalists and want to ensure there is transparency about the use of Artificial Intelligence.
  • We know that to build readership you must commit to newsrooms that are representative of the communities they serve.
  • We call on Nine to act in the best interests of readers and to mitigate the job cuts to the newsrooms so they are able to continue to inform the public.
  • In an industry rife with insecurity, we call on Nine to negotiate a fair deal for freelance contributors with key conditions including annual increases that keep up with the cost of living.

As members of the public, we are deeply concerned about the future of these mastheads and call on management to urgently meet the journalists’ demands and provide sustainable and secure jobs.

Why is this important?

Journalists at Nine Publishing (The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Times and WAtoday) are being asked to do more for less.

They are taking a stand for newsrooms that reflect the diversity of the communities they are reporting for, for ethical and transparent use of Artificial Intelligence, for a fair deal for freelance contributors, and for better wages.

As members of the public, we must support workers taking action for better pay and conditions, but also in the face of the rapidly changing landscape for our right to factual journalism.

Category

Partner

Updates

2024-08-01 11:37:28 +1000

Petition is successful with 2,226 signatures

2024-07-27 09:50:26 +1000

1,000 signatures reached

2024-07-26 09:15:18 +1000

500 signatures reached

2024-07-25 19:35:13 +1000

100 signatures reached

2024-07-25 19:20:35 +1000

50 signatures reached

2024-07-25 19:13:05 +1000

25 signatures reached

2024-07-25 19:07:13 +1000

10 signatures reached