STRIKE ACTION AT THE YORKSHIRE POST

That this House supports the journalists who are taking strike action in defence of jobs and quality journalism at the Yorkshire Post after the owners, Johnston Press, announced three compulsory redundancies and called for 15 more volunteers to leave the company; notes that Johnston Press's profit margins have been amongst the highest in the sector, often bringing in more than 30 per cent. returns, making hundreds of millions of pounds profit, and that former chief executive Tim Bowdler's 2007 remuneration was over £1 million including a performance-related bonus of £516,000; regrets that rather than investing in high quality local journalism, Johnston Press's management chose to return money to shareholders and take out massive debts to fund the acquisition of more titles and that the company now faces debts of around £465 million; believes that Johnston Press's actions have undermined working conditions of local journalists and local journalism which is essential to our communities; and urges Johnston Press to reconsider its position and enter into a positive dialogue with the National Union of Journalists in order to solve the problems that local journalism is now facing.