The Alliance has strongly urged the Australian Society of Travel Writers not to accept a bid for its annual general meeting to be hosted in Fiji next year, in view of the Fiji military regime’s strict censorship and hardline in controlling news reporting.Click read more for further information.

For many years The Age’s features' subs were directed to take a 30-minute lunch break each day. The collective agreement says breaks of less than 1hr are not to be deducted from time worked, so members may be entitled to overtime. As the company has rejected our legal advice, the next step is to begin proceedings in the Federal Magistrates Court.

The Australian’s Michael McKenna has been named Queensland Journalist of the Year for 2009. At the Alliance’s recent Queensland Media Awards McKenna also won Best Print/Online News Report, and shared the Best Sports Report honour with colleague Dan Koch. Late ABC TV chief-of-staff Albert Asbury was honoured posthumously with the Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism Award. The Alliance congratulates all winners and nominees.

Actors will not work on foreign television commercials shot in Australia from Friday unless an employment agreement is reached between Actors’ Equity and the Screen Producers’ Association of Australia (SPAA). SPAA met with Actors’ Equity for the first time last week and agreed to reconsider its decision not to negotiate a replacement. However, just days later SPAA said it was only willing to re-negotiate some conditions, meaning the rest - including all clauses relating to how much a performer should expect to be paid - would be scrapped.

News Ltd community newspaper staff employed on the union collective agreement have received a 3.5 per cent pay increase backdated to Jan 1. However, those on AWAs have been treated differently. In NSW, management claims AWA staff are not entitled to any back pay although they will receive a 3.5 per cent increase from now on. In Victoria, AWA staff at Leader got a lower pay rise than their counterparts on the collective agreement.