As some of you know I was the weekly climate columnist at The Independent for 3.5 years, up to January of this year.
Then Evgeny Lebedev, the Russian billioniare who owns it, appointed his mate, the vile climate-trashing Etonian Tory and former Daily Mail editor, Geordie Greig to be new editor of The Independent.
My column was immediately suspended, “subject to further discussions” with Greig.
I never heard another word from anybody at The Independent.
I only heard I was fired when a colleague who had left in disgust at the rightward lurch of the site, following Greig’s arrival, told me she had been told by the columns’ editor, that I was fired, but I had not been told.
I wrote the email below to the Managing Director, Christian Broughton (who had hired me and who said after my first year – that the column was a triumph) and to the Voices Editor, Victoria Richards.
I also wrote to the owner Lebedev seeking a meeting to discuss the Indy’s positioning on the climate crisis, following the arrival of Greig and had previously asked via Broughton for a meeting with Greig.
NOT ONE OF THEM had the curtesy to reply to my messages., in the six months since….
The text of my January email to Broughton/Richards is below.
Annoyingly, the NUJ had been messing around with my membership application for over 3 years.
It seemed like trying to get into Fort Knox to get an associate membership of the trade union, they had vowed to review it again just the week before I was fired, so I had no union by my side to take The Independent on over my treatment.
The positive out of all of this, is that I have more time to devote to THE most important issue facing humanity – getting the global corporate media leadership to step up to their urgent role in the climate and ecological crises unfolding all around us.
Onwards and upwards.
love n courage
Donnachadh x
“Hi Victoria/Christian
Sorry for the delay in replying to your twitter message.
To be frank, the delay was due to my not knowing how to reply and so sorry for this long message in reply.
I deleted the tweet you said was inaccurate.
But the fact remains you said my column was suspended in January “subject to conversation with Greig that week”.
I wrote back saying that I would welcome the column becoming less frequent, due to the time and cost to me of having the privilege of writing it.
I also messaged Christian asking if I could have a meeting with Greig, to discuss the Independent’s coverage of the climate crisis, in light of his utterly disastrous climate actions at the Mail.
However, neither of you responded to me. I was then told that you had told Harriet, following Greig’s arrival that I too was gone.
Imagine you being told your work was being immediately suspended, subject to a conversation with the boss and then nobody came back to you for weeks (and still have not)?
This is worse treatment than people get on the gig economy.
I got no holiday pay, no sick pay, no pension contributions, tiny payment and had to cross subsidise it from my consultancy work and lost £1,000s in consultancy work due to time required to write to the standard I believe The Independent’s reputation and the climate crisis deserves.
I was willing to do this, due to huge privilege of being able to advocate for the urgent action necessary to literally save the lives of future generations.
The instant suspension with no warning, allowed me no time to plan and take on replacement consultancy.
I truly believe Greig as the Mail’s editor, was more responsible than almost anybody, for the failure of the UK’s presidency of COP26.
A failure that ended all hope of avoiding breaking through the 1.5C threshold. A disaster for your child’s adulthood.
Despite being told by Christian, that I had full editorial freedom to write about the topics I wanted to, you and the other editors insisted on blocking my writing about what I believe to be THE most important blockage to saving humanity from climate catastrophe, the war on climate actionby the right-wing billionaire owned media.
A war that Greig led for years as editor of Rothermere/Dacre’s Mail.
I appreciate the irony that having been re-hired by Christian as a climate columnist, following my helping organise an XR protest outside the Mail’s offices, protesting against Greig’s war on climate, that over 3 years later I lose my column following Greig’s taking over of The Independent!
I made a conscious decision to swallow my integrity to continue writing the climate column, despite the ban on my writing about THe most important climate topic, due to the privilege it offered me to advocate for all the other urgent actions needed to save us.
It feels like an extraordinary karmic twist of fate, that it should be Greig of all people, who would be the editor, when my column got suspended.
Greig’s appointment by Lebedev as editor of The Independent, is a betrayal of The Independent’s founding ethos.
His editorials advocating basically a de facto one party system for the UK and the ending of the NHS are truly shocking.
I do not know how these fit in with your long held commitment and passion for what The Independent stood for?
I too enjoyed working with you and am saddened that this has come to pass.
It was a huge privilege to help initiate and write the UK’s only national weekly climate column and I am still immensely grateful to Chistian and you for giving me that opportunity.
I am proud of the work I did for you.
I still would like to have the opportunity to meet Greig to press the case for the depth of urgent action needed and to lobby him to stop The Independent promoting climate destruction, as it does with Simon Calder’s constant promotion of flying etc.
Our kids’ futures are on the line…
Anyway Victoria, I wish you and Christian well otherwise.
Take care
Donnachadh McCarthy
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