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The economic recession in Europe rampages the newsroom

Over 5,500 journalists lost their job in Spain in 2010 and according to official figures, up to 25 percent of Spanish journalists became unemployed since the start of the recession. The situation is not much better in the UK, where the number of unemployed journalists rose by over 140 percent between April 2008 and April 2009,. And in Denmark, unemployment among journalists peaked to 15 percent, compared to 6 percent on the national level.

Clearly, the economic recession has left its mark on all sectors, but these numbers seem to indicate that that reporters tend to be more exposed to unemployment compared to other workers.

What is it that makes journalists more vulnerable to the recent crisis?

Twenty-five European journalists specialising in economic and social affairs from various European media outlets attended a seminar in early March in Brussels on New Skills & Jobs organised by the European Commission and the European Journalism Centre.

The event provided an opportunity to gather their views and experiences on the work conditions facing journalists in different EU countries. What are the changes in the European labour market that most affect journalists? What are the social and professional consequences of these changes?

Before attempting to answer these questions, it is important to take a look at the general employment situation in Europe.

A presentation entitled The Future of European Labour Markets and organised by the Commission’s dealt with the inherent difficulties of the European labour markets and the policies proposed by DG EMPL to address them.

According to DG EMPL Commissioner László Andor, the European Commission estimates that the number of unemployed people in the EU today stands at 23 million, a hike of 7 million since the first quarter of 2008, before the crisis. After 12 months of stagnation, the unemployment rate is slowly declining, but the current economic recovery has not led to job creation yet.

Maria Jespen, Director of the Research Department of the European Trade Union Institute, explained that the problems which are linked today with the crisis, already started taking shape some 20 years ago. They include: low job creation rate, youth unemployment (20 percent), a third of workers at risk of poverty, persistent inequalities affecting mainly women and minorities, and increasing income inequality in most countries.

Flexicurity

The European Commission’ response to unemployment in the EU has been to promote the implementation of Flexicurity - a Danish employment model - in all member states. The idea is straightforward enough: provide security to employees and flexibility to employers, granting the latter a boosted capacity to adapt to the changing economic mood, while giving the former a safety net against the uncertainties of the labour and finance market.

The hitch however, as Professor Juan José Dolado of Carlos III University pointed out, is that in practice, the implementation of Flexicurity in many European countries is uneven, with some employees benefiting from the security it offers, while others are being subjected to the harsh social consequences of the flexibility it allows. Usually, the first group consists of workers with permanent contracts, while the second concerns temporary-contract workers.

Journalists in many European countries recognise the same patterns within their profession. According to Pablo Rodríguez Suanzes, editor of the Spanish daily El Mundo, “Journalists fall under the same temporary versus permanent-contract divide. Young employees, in their 20s and early 30s, work with temporary contracts, while those in their 30-60s work with permanent contracts,” he said. “The distinction between the two groups is clear when it comes to salaries, with permanent workers starting on a EUR 35,000 yearly salary in El País, for instance, while those on a temporary contract, in the same newspaper, will be earning about EUR 15,000 a year”.

The situation is comparable in Greece, commented Nikolaos Chrysoloras, who works for the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.

“Journalists are the best example of segregation between first tier and second tier employees. Even your health care benefits depend on the kind of contract you have. It is all a question of whether or not you are a member of a journalists’ union. If you are not a member, you have a much lower salary. You enjoy no employment protection whatsoever and your employer won’t invest in your training. On the other hand, if you are a union member, which is the case for only 7 percent of the Greek journalists, you enjoy minimum salaries which are high by Greek standards. And it is expensive for your employer to lay you off, even if you are doing a bad job”. 

When planning a company’s future strategy, employers are aware of the fact that while temporary workers are easily disposed of, permanent workers need to be reckoned with. For Rodríguez Suanzes, this leads newspapers to adopt a new employment trend, whereby “step by step, the old guys [with permanent contracts] are being fired, and replaced by younger workers, with temporary contracts”. For these employers, flexibility amounts solely to enlarging the number of journalists with limited employment security.

Professor Tito Boeri, of Bocconi University, claims that this system, based on two classes of employees, is not only a problem of social injustice but also a cause of instability in the labour markets.  It leads to “quick reduction in unemployment ‘in the good years’, and a high rate of job destruction in times of recession, with temporary workers paying the full price”. 

This is the main reason the Commission is trying to promote the idea of a single, open-ended employment contract for all employees. According to this proposition, the duration of employment will no longer be mentioned in the contract, and thus would no longer lead to inequality in employment conditions. However, this particular proposition is viewed almost as a taboo across a large part of Europe. Most Member States refuse to even discuss it.

Continuing unemployment woes

When the European markets entered the recession, most sectors experienced a set-back, and the journalistic profession was particularly hard hit. According to Rodríguez Suanzes, “in the last three years, journalists have suffered a lot, all media combined – television, newspapers, radio. The advertising revenue dropped by 50 percent for the regional newspapers and by 40 percent for the nationals dailies. Without citing specific figures, we can safely say that among journalists, unemployment has been higher than in most other sectors”. 

Meanwhile in Denmark, which came up with the Flexicurity model to begin with and where unemployment is just over 6 percent,  the future appears to be hardly more promising for journalists.

According to René Deichgraeber, of the Danish Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, Flexicurity has dominated the Danish market for decades. “Does it work? Well, nowadays, Denmark is struggling too, with declining growth and higher unemployment”. As for journalists, working conditions appear tougher compared to other sectors. Although the Flexicurity model is applied in the media sector, like in all other sectors, unemployment among journalists is 2.5 times higher in comparison with the rest of the labour market – around 15 percent. Most journalists work as freelancers and few are hired by the largest newspapers or broadcasting networks. As a result, many journalists leave the media world and try to create new jobs for themselves, for instance by converting themselves as communication experts.

Interview with René Deichgraeber, Danish Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten on ‘Work conditions of Danish journalists’.

It is difficult to draw a general picture of European trends in journalists’ employment conditions, as the situation greatly diverges from one country to another, not only due to differing economic situations, but also because of the great disparities between countries when it comes to the perception of journalism, the country’s social structure, as well as the existence and power of trade unions.

In a recent study, supported by the EJC, about 62 percent of journalists report having a stable working environment. Still, if the trends taken by most European labour markets are anything to go by, journalists risk seeing their profession increasingly plagued by precariousness and inequality.

It is not necessarily a whole revision of journalists’ status that is needed, but simple active labour market policies meeting the needs and ensuring the rights of all workers.  According to Jespen, they would involve creating job opportunities for the youth, allowing workers to improve the quality of their jobs, providing public services to support employment (such as social care and transport) and providing equal rights for all workers. In the long term, education is the key.

Tags: commission, crisis, european, journalist, newsroom, seminar, unemployment,

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