Driving force
NUJ PRESIDENTS, like police officers, are getting younger. James Doherty, the Glasgow PR elected as the leading member for the next year, is a driven 33-year-old. He talked to ANN COLTART
HE’S AN ambitious, dynamic Glaswegian, and proud of it. James Doherty has just undertaken psychometric testing that showed up his boldness, creativity and ability to push matters forward. “No great surprises,” he says. “I know I’m driven and I want to put that into commitment to the NUJ for the next year and a half.”
The media manager of Culture and Sport Glasgow, part of the City Council, is never likely to be a slouch, but James Doherty is particularly energetic. As a freelance writer he was doing scripts for the Channel 4 soap Brookside when he was 21; later he wrote for Family Affairs and the BBC Scottish soap River City; he has also written two film scripts.
So he took a big pay cut when he moved into journalism, first on a local paper in Glasgow, then as an award-winning feature writer with the Big Issue in Scotland, and finally on The Scotsman — where he insisted on working in the Glasgow office.
He covered national and international news. “Great experiences, meeting people’s different lives every day,” he said, “then being sent to Gaza and the West Bank, which was shocking. Shaking Nelson Mandela’s hand, which was a real joy.” But there were new pastures to explore. He moved into public relations, with Glasgow City Council three years ago and was appointed media manager with Culture and Sport Glasgow last year.
James Doherty has bounded through the union’s structures with equal rapidity. He first became involved only in 2000, on the East End Independent in Glasgow. Almost at once he went to his first ADM, at Ennis in Ireland. “I replaced a Glasgow delegate who had to drop out,” he said. “I remember on the flight over making jokes about union dinosaurs and people calling everyone Comrade.”
During those intense few days that affect many newcomers to the union’s big annual get-together, James had his “road to Damascus” occurrence. “All those things I really held dear politically — that experience fitted like a glove,” he said.
His working-class family was not overtly political, but he was long aware of being “part of the refugees from Thatcher, of institutionalised poverty”. In his inaugural speech at the end of last month’s ADM he described himself as “a child of the Thatcher era but not one of Thatcher’s children.”
Although he is too young himself to remember the 1980s attacks on trade unions, he has learned some history and is angry at denigration of the union. “The NUJ is unique and punches above its weight,” he said. “I love this union and the way it is fighting for our industry as well as our members. The Stand Up for Journalism campaign is not just for one day. We should be proud to be journalists, defending the best of our society and having the public on our side.”
Following his Damascene immersion at Ennis, James became involved in the NUJ Glasgow branch and was elected to the Equality Council. Having gone through difficulties coming out as a gay teenager, he was particularly interested in discrimination against gays and lesbians, in society and in the media. “But I learned a lot about inequalities across the board,” he said, “and began to be fascinated by the internal NUJ politics.” The young activist was elected to the Scottish Executive Council, which he eventually chaired, and then to the NEC, becoming chair of Glasgow branch and of the Equality Council on the way.
James Doherty is well aware of the huge changes in the industry, which operate against union membership at a time when it is needed most. “Journalists are part of society and we should be holding our democracy to account,” he said. “What we’re seeing is media owned and run by shareholders and accountants, attacks on public service broadcasting, young people taken on as cheap labour, with little or no training, expected to be expert at complex issues and working under increased pressure.”
With developing technologies introducing “citizens’ journalism”, bloggers, drives for bigger private profits, low pay and redundancies, James is not naive about the tougher times ahead. “We can’t stand still,” he says. “We should be driving the technological revolution — us members and our hard-working staff, who sometimes don’t get the appreciation they deserve for the way they help hold us all together.”