# Outreach Letter: National Union of Journalists (NUJ)

**Date:** 22 November 2025
**To:** National Union of Journalists (United Kingdom)
**From:** Palimpsest Stewardship Council
**Subject:** Protecting Journalists' Work from AI Extraction and Cultural Decontextualisation

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Dear National Union of Journalists,

We write to you with profound respect for the NUJ's century-long commitment to defending journalists' rights, press freedom, and ethical journalism. In an era of precarious employment, platform monopolies, and shrinking newsroom resources, the NUJ's advocacy for fair pay, working conditions, and professional standards remains vital.

## The Palimpsest License: Rights Protection for Narrative Journalism

The **Palimpsest License** addresses an urgent threat to journalists' livelihoods and creative rights: the mass extraction of journalistic work to train artificial intelligence systems without consent, compensation, or attribution. This affects NUJ members across all sectors—news reporters, feature writers, photographers, broadcast journalists, and freelancers.

## The AI Training Crisis for Journalists

### 1. Unconsented Extraction at Scale
Major AI companies have trained large language models on:
- Decades of news archives (The Guardian, BBC, regional press)
- Investigative reporting and long-form features
- Photojournalism and documentary footage
- Broadcast transcripts and audio journalism

This extraction typically occurs:
- Without individual journalist consent
- Without compensation beyond original publication fees
- Without ongoing attribution when AI systems generate derivative content
- Without preserving the journalistic context, sourcing, and editorial standards

### 2. Threats to Freelance Journalists
NUJ members working freelance face particular vulnerabilities:
- **Rights confusion** – Publications may claim training rights not negotiated in original contracts
- **Devalued work** – AI systems trained on journalism produce cheap substitutes
- **Attribution erasure** – Bylines and journalist credit disappear in AI-generated summaries
- **Cultural context loss** – Regional, cultural, and community journalism stripped of local meaning

### 3. Trauma Reporting and Ethical Concerns
Journalists covering:
- Conflict zones and humanitarian crises
- Criminal justice and court reporting
- Community trauma and social issues
- Sensitive cultural stories

These works require special protection. When extracted for AI training, they risk:
- Decontextualised reproduction that exploits trauma
- Loss of journalistic ethics and source protection
- Commodification of victims' stories
- Erosion of public trust in trauma reporting

### 4. Investigative Journalism Under Threat
Investigative work represents months or years of effort:
- Original research and source cultivation
- Risk to personal safety
- Complex narrative construction
- Public interest service

When AI systems train on investigations without attribution or compensation, they:
- Undermine investigative journalism business models
- Enable AI-generated "investigations" without journalistic standards
- Erase the labour and risk behind original reporting

## How Palimpsest Protects Journalists

### 1. Informed Consent for AI Training
Journalists can specify whether their work may be used to train AI systems, enabling:
- **Freelance control** – Individual journalists retain AI training rights
- **Collective bargaining** – NUJ chapters can negotiate AI training terms with publishers
- **Retrospective protection** – Archive journalism can be relicensed with AI protections

### 2. Mandatory Attribution in AI Outputs
Palimpsest requires:
- **Synthetic lineage tags** – AI-generated content must disclose its journalistic sources
- **Persistent bylines** – Journalist attribution survives AI transformation
- **Publication credit** – Original outlets receive recognition in derivatives

### 3. Cultural Context Preservation
Particularly crucial for:
- **Regional journalism** – Preserving local cultural context
- **Community reporting** – Maintaining connection to affected communities
- **Trauma narratives** – Protecting emotional lineage and ethical framing
- **Investigative work** – Preserving journalistic methodology and source context

### 4. Quantum-Proof Traceability
Future-resistant attribution ensures journalists receive credit even as technology evolves, protecting long-term professional reputation and portfolio integrity.

### 5. Commercial Use Provisions
When AI systems commercialise journalism-trained outputs:
- Revenue sharing mechanisms
- Ongoing royalties (not just one-time fees)
- Collective licensing support (enabling NUJ-wide agreements)

## Legal Framework

Palimpsest operates under:
- **Primary jurisdiction:** Netherlands (Dutch Civil Code, GDPR-adjacent data protection)
- **Enforcement:** Scottish courts (particularly relevant for UK-based NUJ members)
- **Bilingual:** Dutch (legally binding) + English (primary working language for UK journalists)

The **Palimpsest Stewardship Council** includes creator representatives and legal experts, with governance structures that could accommodate NUJ representation for journalism-specific provisions.

## Proposed Collaboration with NUJ

### 1. Model Contract Clauses
Developing NUJ-endorsed contract language for:
- Freelance agreements with AI training rights
- Staff journalist IP provisions
- Archive licensing and retrospective AI protections
- Publication vs. individual journalist AI training rights

### 2. Collective Licensing Frameworks
Exploring:
- NUJ-wide AI training agreements with publishers
- Revenue sharing from AI companies training on journalism
- Collective consent mechanisms for archive journalism
- Regional and sectoral licensing (e.g., sports journalism, cultural reporting)

### 3. Policy Advocacy
Collaborating on:
- UK government AI policy and journalism protections
- Parliamentary inquiries into AI and creative industries
- DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport) consultations
- Ofcom regulation of AI-generated news content

### 4. Educational Resources
Creating materials for NUJ members on:
- Understanding AI training and journalist rights
- Negotiating AI provisions in contracts
- Implementing Palimpsest or similar protections
- Collective action strategies

### 5. Legal Defence and Test Cases
Supporting:
- Test cases establishing journalist AI training rights
- Legal defence fund contributions
- Precedent-setting litigation against unconsented AI training
- International solidarity with journalist unions facing similar challenges

## Case Studies Relevant to NUJ Members

### Regional Journalism
**Scenario:** A regional newspaper's decades of community reporting is used to train an AI system that generates local news summaries without attribution or community context.

**Palimpsest Protection:** Requires consent, attribution, and cultural context preservation—protecting both journalist bylines and community narratives.

### Trauma Reporting
**Scenario:** A journalist's award-winning series on domestic violence survivors is extracted for AI training, which then generates "trauma narratives" without ethical frameworks or source protection.

**Palimpsest Protection:** Mandates emotional lineage preservation and ethical use provisions, preventing commodification of trauma reporting.

### Investigative Journalism
**Scenario:** A year-long investigation into corporate corruption is used to train an AI that generates "investigative reports" without journalistic methodology or source verification.

**Palimpsest Protection:** Requires disclosure of training sources and attribution, preserving connection between AI outputs and original journalistic labour.

## Invitation to Collaboration

We would be honoured to work with the National Union of Journalists to:

1. **Present Palimpsest at NUJ events** – Chapels, conferences, training sessions
2. **Develop NUJ-specific guidance** – Tailored to UK journalism context
3. **Collaborate on policy advocacy** – Joint campaigns for journalist AI protections
4. **Support collective bargaining** – Providing legal frameworks for NUJ negotiations
5. **International solidarity** – Connecting with journalist unions globally facing similar challenges

Would you be available for an initial conversation? We are flexible regarding format—video conference, written exchange, presentation at NUJ offices, or participation in relevant working groups.

## Contact Information

**Palimpsest Stewardship Council**
Email: [contact information to be provided]
Repository: https://github.com/[repository-path]
Documentation: [documentation URL]

Thank you for your consideration. The National Union of Journalists has defended press freedom and journalist rights through profound technological and economic changes. We aspire to support NUJ members navigating the AI era, ensuring their work retains proper attribution, compensation, and ethical context.

In solidarity with working journalists,

**The Palimpsest Stewardship Council**

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## Appendices Available Upon Request

- Full text of Palimpsest License v0.4 (English and Dutch)
- Model contract clauses for AI training rights
- Case studies: Trauma reporting, investigative journalism, regional news
- Collective licensing frameworks
- UK-specific legal analysis and enforcement mechanisms
