Stephen Gordon Turner (27 July 1935 – 12 May 2016) was a British journalist and trade union leader. Born in

Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

, Turner became a journalist with the ''

Ilford Recorder Archant Limited is a newspaper and magazine publishing company headquartered in Norwich, England. The group publishes four daily newspapers, around 50 weekly newspapers, and 80 consumer and contract magazines. Archant employs around 1,250 empl ...

'' and the '' Romford Times'', then left to run his own freelance journalism agency. This was a success, and he frequently contributed to ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' and ''

The World at One ''The World at One'', or ''WATO'' ("what-oh") for short, is BBC Radio 4's long-running lunchtime news and current affairs programme, produced by BBC News, which is currently broadcast from 13:00 to 13:45 from Monday to Friday. The programme de ...

''. After a few years, he became a subeditor for the '' Daily Mail'', then moved to the same post at the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...

'', before becoming editor of its readers' letters page. In addition, he worked for the '' Sunday Mirror'', where he subedited the column written by

Woodrow Wyatt Woodrow may refer to: People *Woodrow (name) Woodrow is an English given name which was originally an English surname which may originally derive from a toponym meaning "row of houses by a wood" in Old English. Other sources suggest the nam ...

. Turner also became active in the

National Union of Journalists The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is a trade union for journalists in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was founded in 1907 and has 38,000 members. It is a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). Structure There is ...

(NUJ), and by 1990 was

Father of the Chapel A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company who represents and defends the interests of their fellow employees as a labor union member and official. Rank-and-file members of the union hold ...

at the ''Mirror''. That year, he was elected as general secretary of the NUJ, but he was sacked the following year, on the charge that he had defied the union's own policy on the merger of print unions. In protest, Turner resigned from the union and formed the rival

British Association of Journalists British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, which attracted much of the staff from the ''Mirror''. He remained secretary of the new union until 2013, then served as its president until his death in 2016. In December 2011, Turner gave evidence at the Leveson Inquiry. He spoke of the deep-seated culture of bullying and corporate greed that existed in the national press. He requested Lord Justice Leveson to enable journalists to give evidence to the Inquiry secretly and be guaranteed anonymity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Steve 1935 births 2016 deaths English journalists General Secretaries of the National Union of Journalists British trade union leaders People from Romford