A Thousand Bayonets

Jeremy Webb - Editor in Chief New Scientist

2010-05-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Science, the internet and breaking into the world of journalism, New Scientist's Jeremy Webb tells Winchester students how it's done.

Jeremy Webb lives the dual life of the specialist journalist. He immerses himself in the new frontiers of scientific discovery and the fast changing world of publishing, he must be an expert in both. As Editor in Chief, he presides over not only the biggest selling weekly science magazine in the world, but its hugely successful sister website too.

Webb has worked at New Scientist for 16 years and he clearly enjoys it. “On a good day, my job is to travel round the world and talk to some of the brightest and most innovative thinkers in the world, now what's not to like about that? It's just a pleasure to do all the time, I meet such exciting, bright, stimulating, creative people. And the things they discover about the universe are just mind blowing.”

It was that scientific curiosity that started Webb on his path to success, he earned a degree in physics and solid-state electronics from the University of Exeter. “Studying physics is kind of like trying to get to the basics of how the universe works,” He recalls. “I've always found it intriguing and the world is a weird place and the universe is a strange place. I love finding out just how strange it all is.”

Do you have to be a scientist before you can write about it? “You can teach people who've studied science how to write but it's much more difficult to teach a good writer about science,” Webb replies. “That's because you pick it up over a long period of time, like osmosis. If you want to be a science writer, my advice would be go and go get a science degree.”

“There is an increasing understanding that science is really important. It effects every aspect of daily living, whether it's the ceramic that goes in to the hair straighteners you use in the morning to whether or not a woman can have a child when she's 55 or even the car you drive to work. Science effects the way we think about the world, it effects the world itself, it causes problems for the world, it can also provide the solutions to those problems.”

From university, he went straight into the BBC, working in their sound department (“You needed to be a specialist with razor blades and tape...”) before making the leap back to science as a reporter for a medical magazine. At New Scientist he's worked as deputy news editor and features editor before reaching the lofty heights of the top job.

“Of course it can be stressful, you always have ideas flying around in your mind and it's very difficult to calm your brain down long enough to sort things out. I can wake up at three in the morning, worrying about something or other.”

Webb attributes the success of the New Scientist website to simply being first off the bat. “We learned an awful lot about the web and how it could benefit us long long before any other publishing companies got interested. So I think just from being there fist was important. But the other thing is that New Scientist is the biggest selling weekly science magazine in the world. Nothing else can touch us, we were first in and we've got an established position.” A consistent range of innovative and well written science articles on the site have helped cement that position.

But not everything is free, the newest content can still only be found in the magazine, Webb is unapologetic. “Now I know that web culture doesn't approve of that so much but I think there's been a big understanding around the world that it's needed, certainly we've seen the publishing industry collapse because no one's buying newspapers or magazines any longer. We want to head that off before it happens in this country.”

What would Webb say to the aspiring journalism student that wants his job? “If you're serious about becoming a writer, the first thing is to get yourself published because there is so much competition these days. When people like myself are recruiting new writers we ask first how serious is this person? It doesn't matter if they've been published in a university paper or university website or somewhere else, it doesn't matter.

“Get published anywhere, anywhere just so you can send your cuttings in to an editor just so you can say look, I'm serious about being a journalist, here is what I've done so far and you can tell from these clips that I'm really keen and eager to get myself published. And that's the most important thing of all.”

When asked what one piece of advice he would give to Winchester students, Webb paused. “There is one thing... We have the possibility of an all singing all dancing form of journalism.

“There is going to be room for a type of journalist who can also programme, by that I mean who can use HTML 5, possibly flash, certainly be able to edit video. There is clearly a growing need for this kind of people and at the moment they're very difficult to find. I would say that there is a new area of journalism that's arising from that.

“The really tooled up journalist will have all these skills under their belt. I don't want to diminish the fact that having a nose for a story is really important, being able to write and interview people. Being able to write about your story in an engaging and enticing way is really important. But all these other skills will become valuable in the future.”

So the industry is changing and New Scientist will change with it. But Webb argues that the traditional magazine is far from dead.“We know that there are a lot of people who aren't adverse to sitting at a computer and reading long articles but we also know that a lot of people sit at computers all day long and when they get home they want another way to read.

“Now whether that's going to be a magazine made of paper or a magazine on an i-pad I can't tell you. But it's this idea that you can have a design with a magazine, you can see graphs and photographs in glorious technicolour. At the moment it's difficult to do that in an easy portable form with electronic media. Is the future all online or all in magazines? I don't have a crystal ball large enough to tell you.”

Congratulations Simon Singh!

2010-04-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

Science writer Simon Singh has won his case against the British Chiropractic Association, fantastic news!

Libel laws in England and Wales are so lopsided in favour of the defamed (whether they have justifiably been defamed or not). We've become a haven for libel tourists, when the case for libel isn't strong enough to gain a victory in their own country they bring the case here. And probably win. We're dangerously close to a culture where good journalists are afraid to be critical for fear of being sued.

Let's hope this is a step in the right direction and we'll see real libel reform in this country soon.

More:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/apr/01/simon-singh-libel-victory

Even more:

http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2010/04/bca-v-singh-astonishingly-liberal.html

Let's shout about it

2010-03-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

Imagine waking up one morning to a knock on your front door. It's the police and they'd like to talk to you. Pretty soon you're sitting in a cell facing life imprisonment for a crime you know you didn't commit. The horror of knowing your friends and family, anyone you ever loved or met can see you've been convicted of a terrible crime. Your life has been taken away and the people you care about think you're a rapist or a murderer.

It's a nightmare and one that many people could be living right now. Worse, it could happen to any of us, anytime.

Our criminal justice system is fallible, we know that. When the Guilford Four, Birmingham Six and Maguire Seven were released there was such a public outcry that the government created an entirely new organisation - the Criminal Cases Review Commission - to make sure mistakes hadn't been made elsewhere too.

This news item from the CCRC's website tells a great story, a possible miscarriage has been investigated by the CCRC and referred to the court of appeal. Simon Hall will have the opportunity to present new evidence in his defence and a potential terrible miscarriage of justice might be rectified.

What it doesn't tell you is that the evidence that might prove his innocence would not have come to light if it were not for the hard work of the Bristol University Innocence Project. The CCRC could not have done this without them, and more worryingly, would not have.

So the CCRC was meant to be the solution to the problem. It was born out of the anger and fear that the high profile cases created. That anger and fear just isn't around now, miscarriages of justice aren't getting the same attention they once did. If the CCRC isn't up to the task, without the public outcry seen before how can we hope for the change we obviously still need to save innocent people?

When something happens once it's unique, startling and newsworthy. It happens again and we can't believe it, how could it possibly happen again? How could we let it? Then it happens again and again, it's a trend. The anger and amazement fades, it becomes commonplace and accepted.

We've begun to accept that this is just the way it is. The system will get it wrong and sometimes the wrong person will be imprisoned for a crime, sometimes the real criminals escape justice.

What we need is to make this a huge issue again. Raise awareness and stir things up. Let's all get radical.

Students! Remember the days when there were protest marches and riots? When students were revolutionary and it was about more than just getting a degree.

Journalists! What greater moral calling do we have than finding injustice and exposing it to the light of day?

All of us, everyone of us. We need to read about miscarriages of justice, we need to talk about miscarriages of justice. We need to be outraged every time the system gets it wrong. We need to shout about every mistake at the top of our voices, so next time they get it right.

Get angry. Make a big deal of it. It is a big deal.

Journalists should fight injustice

2010-03-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

'We must revive the link between investigative journalism and miscarriages of justice' – Dr Eamonn O' Neill

We've been working on an innocence project for nearly six months now and I'm not exaggerating in the slightest when I say it's been one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. Working on a case is addictive, I've spent untold hours pouring over witness statements and forensic evidence. Fire reports, crime scene photos, e-fits and psychological profiles. Slowly, a picture of events that took place over ten years ago is starting to come together. It's captivating.

I caught the bug at last October's INUK training event. The personal stories of miscarriages of justice we heard were infuriating and heartbreaking, the passion we saw in other members of the INUK was inspiring. Last week, myself and other students from the University of Winchester attended a similar event.

The chair and first speaker was Dr Eamonn O' Neill, a freelance investigative journalist and one hell of a role model for journalism students. He opened with a talk that made the journalists in the audience sit up that little bit straighter and swell with pride. The Innocence Network wants the skills we have to offer and thanks to the example set by Dr O' Neill, we want to give them.

He reminded us of the long tradition of journalists exposing the truth and freeing the wrongfully convicted, the late Ludovic Kennedy being a prime example. The BBC TV show Rough Justice, that resulted in 15 quashed convictions, was axed in 2007. According to Dr O' Neill this is just another symptom that there has been a decline of coverage in recent years, a dearth of journalists willing to put the time into investigating cases.

When Winchester first joined the INUK we were a little apprehensive about being the only university running cases without any law students. Now I choose not to see that weakness, instead I look at the strengths that journalists bring. Investigative journalists have incisive minds to spot what's important, they really want to get to the bottom of things. They have curiosity and persistence, a strong sense of purpose, a feeling of outrage about wrongdoing and a moral conviction to find the truth. They're prepared to be very unpopular and are determined enough to knock on the 16th door in the rain when they're tired and the first 15 doors have led them nowhere. They have courage and put tough questions to powerful people.

I think those are exactly the qualities needed to expose a miscarriage of justice.

'The system is process over truth, law before people' – Dr Michael Naughton

The founder of the INUK, Dr Michael Naughton then took the floor. He reminded us of the importance of factual innocence over legal innocence. As an innocence project we should be concerned with finding the truth, whether that means our client is innocent or guilty. We're not looking to free a prisoner on a legal technicality, rather find concrete evidence to prove that they either did or did not commit the crime they are imprisoned for. Circumstantial evidence is the enemy.

He argues that the current system is flawed and I'm inclined to agree with him.

'When there is no hope, there is always hope' - Mark Newby

Mark Newby was the keynote speaker at the conference. As a solicitor he's exposed injustice and freed the wrongfully convicted. He took the opportunity to take us through five of his cases and in the process showed how determination and an eye for detail can save lives.

He gave us a blow by blow account of how he and his team proved factual innocence. I took notes and Winchester's innocence project will be stronger for it.

It was a fantastic day and I came away with a host of ideas I can't wait to implement into our project. Growing up, many of the moral absolutes I held have been shattered by the reality of our society and justice system. It's my work with the Innocence Network UK that has convinced me some absolutes are worth clinging to. There is right and wrong, there is guilty and innocent. Sometimes it can be as simple as that.

(Photos courtesy of United Against Injustice)

Profile writing

2010-02-26T09:57:00.000-08:00

First thing's first, don't ever spell your lecturers name wrong. Especially when she's a highly successful journalist and you're just a wannabe. It does not impress.

Now that I've solidified my status as a consummate professional in your minds, let me tell you all about profile writing.

The method – Start by searching through press clippings then sketch out a life map of the person. Interview their friends and foes and verify everything. That's just good journalism anyway. The subject of the profile might not talk to you but give them the chance to comment, to deny what's being written about them, just as if it were a regular defamatory news story.

Think of it like a pen portrait
An obituary... but for a living person
Who are they?
How did they become who they are?
What does everyone say about them?
Tell an anecdote/funny story that sums the person up
Try a delayed drop introduction
Don't comment in your own voice, just write the facts
Apart from perhaps the into and outro tell their story in straight chronological order
It must be balanced

We were given an hour in the session to create our own 300 word profile, apart from being far far too long and 15 minutes past the deadline I think it turned out OK. But of course I'm now fired from my imaginary magazine job. Never miss a deadline...

Tim Burton

“I would do anything Tim [Burton] wanted me to. You know - have sex with an aardvark... I would do it.” – Johnny Depp

His films have created cult followings so strong and fans so dedicated that Spielberg and Scorsese can only look on in wonder. His work is instantly recognisable and if he asked Johnny Depp to have sex with an aardvark, he’d do it. By all accounts, Tim Burton is unique, a man with a striking vision and one of the hottest properties in Hollywood.

His is the story of the outcast thrust into the spotlight. A misfit whose loner nature and dark imaginings, the very things that set him apart as a young man, would eventually make him the beloved idol of millions.

Born August 25, 1958 in Burbank, California, Burton had an uncomfortable suburban childhood and increasingly distanced himself from his family. He left at the age of 10 to live with his grandmother and developed a taste for the darker side of film. But perhaps it was this time of isolation that helped him create a different mindset to most of his creative peers – and earn him a scholarship from Disney animation. It was his odd and gothic animation work there that would earn him his chance in the director’s chair.

Early success with Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and Beetlejuice meant his name was flying around the right circles at just the right time, when Warner Brothers were looking to shake the camp image of Batman from the sixties. A man with a dark, twisted vision was needed and Burton fitted the bill. Batman and its sequel Batman Returns were huge critical and commercial successes and Tim Burton had made the A-list.

He reached the lofty position that most directors can only dream of, picking his own projects and being given free reign to mould them with as little interference from the studios as possible. Whether working on his own tirade of bizarre creations (Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride) or transforming beloved classics into dark fairytales (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland), Burton has cemented his own style and generated such loyalty from actors that they would screw African mammals for him.

But whilst in many eyes he can do no wrong, Burton has had his fair share of critics. Misfires like Mars Attacks! and Planet of the Apes generated their fair share of flack and calls that he’d lost his touch, the latter being called a ‘curdled whimsy’ by Rolling Stone magazine.

Critical bomb or not, it’s hard to see how Burton could see Apes as a failure, it was there that he met fellow oddball and now wife Helen Bonham Carter. A woman who seems to have caught his attention and not let go, he’s cast her in nearly every film he’s made since. But before the cries of ‘whipped!’ fly out, it’s worth noting that he makes her audition for every role she gets. A sign that maybe Tim Burton’s personal life is still just as bizarre as his films.

Murdoch tames the internet. Or not.

2009-11-10T01:24:00.000-08:00

The following interview from Sky News Australia reveals a lot about Rupert Murdoch's attitudes to the internet and how he intends to conquer it. As possibly the world's most powerful media mogul he has the potential to completely rewrite the rulebook on making money online. Or he might have misjudged the public's attitude to the internet entirely.

Murdoch owns part of Sky News Australia, so the question of bias may be raised. However it could be argued that the interviewer, David Sheers, is brave to press critical questions such as whether Fox News is truly fair and balanced. Behind Murdoch is a wall of newspapers. happy coincidence or carefully choreographed statement?

Websites that are making a couple of million are not making 'serious money', Murdoch is clearly operating and thinking in terms of capital that eclipses most other organisations.

Accessing News Corp's content will be cheaper than buying a newspaper, the savings being made from printing and distribution costs. However, it's not free and consumers used to free content may resent even the smallest of fees - especially if there's still free alternatives from other news providers. It may be dependent on whether other media providers follow suite or not.

The hard copy newspaper will disappear, but not for 20 years. We know this will happen eventually but it's interesting to see that those at the top believe it too and are preparing for it.

It's a generational thing, people under 30 just don't buy newspapers. We've had this discussion with our lecturer here at Winchester university, there has been a complete shift in culture, possibly propagated by the rise of the internet.

"The BBC is a scandal", he believes they can use their £4bn+ budget to force their way into new mediums and opportunities where commercial enterprises just can't compete. Mr Murdoch appears frustrated that he BBC is able to be a global leader with new products like 'iplayer' and they don't have to deal with advertising and revenue in the way he does.

He appears to support the 'three strikes and out' method of dealing with file sharers that proves to be controversial and unpopular if imposed in the UK.

Murdoch is very critical of the current American administration, perhaps he is unable to work with them in the same way as he has been able to before.

Every world leader is afraid of the press. It's hard to argue with the point made here when we know how long our politicians spend wooing news editors in the lead up to elections. And we know the power of the press, huge damage has been done to Labour and Gordon Brown now Murdoch's UK papers have switched allegiance and support Cameron. The viscous front page attacks from the Sun about Brown's hand written letter to the mother of a dead soldier being a prime and current example

According to this interview, Murdoch regrets that the UK papers have turned against Gordon Brown but feels that it was the right decision. I believe he's seriously downplaying his own hand in the editorial process here and that it would ultimately have been his decision, his call to turn against Labour.

By charging for content that internet users have come to expect will be free, Murdoch is taking a huge gamble and one that I'm doubtful will pay off in the way he hopes. My generation doesn't buy papers, a point he concedes - we get our news for free. Why would we start paying now, even if the medium is one we're more familiar with? Content such as the embedded video from youtube at the beginning of this post is exactly the kind of material he seems to resent being freely available. But perhaps internet culture has come to far to do a u-turn now. If Rupert Murdoch is saying this is the way forward, why does it feel so much like it would be taking a step backwards?

News Editor - Learn by doing?

2009-11-02T12:08:00.000-08:00

Winol - Winchester News Online. This is a project journalism students at Winchester university are being graded on. Essentially we've been tasked with setting up our own news organisation, we have an online news and features site and weekly we'll produce a 15 minute live news program. We've just had our first dry run and blimey was it hard work. The temptation to wander around mumbling 'student', 'just learning' and mistakes will happen' is growing by the second.

I'm in the role of news editor and my tasks are to choose the right stories to pursue, manage my reporters and ensure the content is delivered on time. This week I think I failed on all accounts. So either this bizarre optimism I'm feeling is insanity creeping in or I'm confident the next run through will be many times better. Let's hope it's the latter eh?

News is a unique and unpredictable beast, no amount of sitting around planning and discussing will change local events and give us an amazing Hampshire news bulletin. We have to find the news and then report it in the most engaging and informative way possible. So the most important aspect of news journalism is also the most difficult, tracking down interesting happenings somewhere as sleepy as Winchester.

I honestly believe reporting news is much more demanding than feature writing - not to knock features or those who write them, we have a fantastic features team at Winchester that's working extremely hard and coming up with great ideas. It takes a completely different skills set to write features, one I lack completely and I admire those who do. But they do have that luxury of being able to make up ideas, try that in news and people tend to get a little narked off...

All news teams, no matter whether they work for TV, radio or print will meet frequently in a meeting chaired by the editor. They share the stories they've found and the editor decides which ones make the cut. Now being able to speak from experience - this is the make or break part of the entire news day.

If the right stories are pitched and chosen then everything after will go down like a cold beer on a hot summers afternoon. Running with weak ideas will be forced, frustrating and ultimately make for a very weak final product. The problems this week were evident: a lack of communication and preparation.

And the solutions? As the news editor I need to be available all the time, I can't go out to work on a story myself. I'll be there on the end of the phone if I'm needed and I'll keep track of my reporters, know where they are and what they're doing. But I need to trust them more rather than trying to micromanage every aspect of every story. If they pitch a story to me and I like it then I'll give them the go ahead. My team are enthusiastic and committed, everything else will come with time and practice.

We've started an online calendar of upcoming events, our news diary that we can all access and update. By looking ahead we can build up a list of news prospects that will make it easier in the Monday news meeting to find the right stories fill a bulletin. We'll also bring the meeting forward to earlier in the day, the more time we have to work on the pieces, the better they will be.

The week was as difficult as it was rewarding. It was a start and there's definitely something there that can be built upon in the coming weeks. It wasn't until I made these mistakes that I knew how to avoid them. I've tried, and missed the mark. Now I've learnt from it and now I'll do a better job because of it.

Two horrific stories and one fantastic night of learning

2009-11-01T10:01:00.000-08:00

It was an odd moment, Gerry Conlon sipped his beer and looked me in the eyes and said "I love this country. I really do." And why shouldn't he? Apart from wrongfully imprisoning him for 15 years it's great.

On Friday night in an pub just around the corner from Fleet St he happily chatted to our group of Winchester journalism students and even demonstrated a few handy, quick and easy torture techniques he 'picked up' while in police custody. On my lecturer. Which was damn funny.

Gerry was one of the Guildford four, meeting him and hearing his story firsthand was exhilarating and just one of the reasons the Innocence Network training weekend was really special. It's safe to say that I couldn't be more excited about setting up our own innocence project and putting investigative journalism skills to good use.

We arrived in central London and entered the luxury offices of Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer, all sparkling glass and stainless steel. The toilets were some of the nicest I've ever been in and you can always safely judge a place by its toilets... After grabbing a cheeky coffee we were ushered into a conference hall that puts Winchester's lecture theaters to shame.

On the first night we were spoken to by a panel of five chaired by Bruce Kent, the other four speakers were Terry McCarthy from the Parole Board, Dr Michael Naughton who founded the INUK and victims of misjustice Paul Blackburn and Gerry Conlon who told us their stories. A lot of what we heard wasn't pretty.

Paul was convicted at the age of 15 for a sexual offence, 25 years later he was acquitted. He spent a quarter of a century in prison. Because of the nature of the crime he was charged with he was a target for bullying and violence in prison. Paul told us of a terrifying night when the lights went out and the door to his cell opened, three men in balaclavas entered wielding blades and attacked him. During his incarceration he was stabbed seven times, beaten and burned. "It was like being taken and put on another planet, a violent, dangerous one" he said, "It's a difficult place to grow up in prison... It left me completely lost in life. I don't really know where I'm going from here."

He spoke of how difficult it was for him to try and prove his innocence: "How do you fight a case you know nothing about because you didn't do it... it will drive you mad in the end." It's not hard to see how a teenager could struggle to face a system they simply don't understand. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to enter a world of lawyers and judges at such a young age.

Gerry Conlon wasn't much older when he entered prison, he told us how at age 20 the police stormed his house at five in the morning, dragging him out of bed in front of his family and throwing him into a van where they burnt him with cigarettes and later broke his nose. "October is a weird month for me" he said, recalling how he had been arrested on the 22nd. Gerry describes the events vividly: "These people were corrupt and they were torturers", then he told of a gauntlet of police officers that kicked and spat on him at Addlestone police station.

Gerry unsurprisingly knows a lot about law and miscarriages of justice, he spoke fondly of the recently deceased journalist and campaigner for the wrongly convicted, Ludovic Kennedy, saying the man cared about the justice system and cared about people. Then he went on to talk about the Criminal Cases Review Commision (CCRC), started in response to Gerry and others' wrongful convictions: "They set us the CCRC and initially it worked. But then they started taking away money and they started taking away case workers."

Dr Michael Naughton also spoke about the CCRC, telling of mixed successes with the Bristol innocence project: "The last few weeks have been challenging. The Bristol project has had a case sent for appeal. So why aren't I smiling? Well, I'm just miserable" he joked. The Birmingham six and Guildford four wouldn't have been successful under current CCRC rules despite being the main reason the body was created. Dr Naughton made clear that there is a big difference between having a conviction overturned and actually proving innocence and an innocence project should be concerned with truth not just legal loopholes. I'm beginning to think the law students involved don't have any advantage over those of us studying journalism and in fact it may be the other way round entirely.

With the creation of the CCRC, Dr Naughton says the media began to believe that miscarriages of justice weren't newsworthy anymore since a government body was assigned to deal with them. But now there's a need to resurrect media interest. He said "Journalists and the right kind of journalist are very important. It's the wrong kind of journalist that contributes to wrongful convictions".

After the meeting we left the hall to discover a plentiful selection of beers and wines, perhaps to get us in the mood to talk with other students and the speakers at the event. It worked and probably not just because alcohol was there to ease the process, the talks and stories we heard fired us up and all we wanted to do was talk more about the project. And as everyone else left for their hotels and hostels we played the part of journalists admirably, heading straight for the nearest pub. Gerry, Paul, Michael and others kindly joined us.

One of my colleagues mentioned that the talks were interesting, Michael Naughton was in earshot and his passion showed through as he turned and said "Interesting? Interesting!? I think the word you're looking for is inspiring."

Rupert Murdoch vs Facebook: Round 1!

2009-10-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

Considering the success of Facebook it's unsurprising that it keeps popping up in the news, as it's such a large part of people's lives, editors know they can instantly connect with a larger audience by mentioning it. Potentially all eleven million UK Facebook users could be effected and pick up the paper to find out more.

The big tabloid story of the day is a seventeen year old girl who was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by a man she met on Facebook. The Daily Mail, Daily Mirror and the Sun all led with it, the story is a natural progression from the chat room pedophile scares that arguably became a moral panic earlier this decade.

The Sun has taken it a step further by plastering the Facebook logo on the front page and is stronger for it. The striking blue, recognisable logo stands out amongst the red tops and is sure to draw more eyes. Rupert Murdoch is notorious for taking an active role in the editorial process of his papers whenever the fancy takes him, and being the owner of Facebook's biggest rival Myspace I'm sure he took the opportunity to stick the knife in.

The connotations of placing 'Facebook' right before 'Sex Killer' are pretty clear. The only way they could have made the implication that the social networking site is directly responsible for her death stronger would be by inserting the words 'is a' in there too.

To be honest I'm surprised there hasn't been a social network witch hunt already, it's absolutely perfect moral panic material: it's popular, successful and lots of grumpy old people don't understand it. The Mary Whitehouse brigade must be napping.

When Murdoch attacks, he never does so half heartily and journalism is often his medium of choice. I think we'll see many more column inches on the subject this week.

Miscarriages of Justice, the Guildford Four and Innocence Network UK

2009-10-19T06:49:00.000-07:00

In October 1975 Paul Hill, Gerald Conlon, Patrick Armstrong and Carole Richardson were convicted of murder and other charges and given life sentences. It would be 15 years before the convictions were successfully appealed and their innocence admitted.

For our final year project, instead of a standard dissertation, journalism students in my year at Winchester university will be starting an Innocence Project. We will be taking on cases like the Guildford Four in an attempt to find new evidence that might help the accused win an appeal.

The Guildford Four were tried and convicted of two pub bombings in a time of political tension surrounding Ireland and the IRA. The conviction remained upheld despite new evidence coming forward. A witness provided an alibi for Carole Richardson that was collaborated by photographic evidence, but the prosecution developed a dubious possible sequence of events by which Richardson could have been traveled at high speed across town to still commit the bombing. Soon after, four confirmed IRA members were caught and convicted for other bombings but confessed to the Guildford bombings too. This too was dismissed as a conspiracy to release the Guildford Four. It finally took evidence that the police had doctored notes used in court to cause the judges to rethink the case.

Along with the case of the Birmingham Six it was a shocking reminder to the public that our criminal justice system is fallible. It also raised many questions about police procedure and put doubts in many minds as to the honesty and integrity of the police service in the 1970's. There were accusations that the police used beatings, intimidation and threats against family and friends to illicit confessions from the accused. These confessions were central to the prosecution's cases and in the Guildford Four trial was essentially the entire case after the other evidence was called into question.

If these convictions were wrong, how many other people could be falsely imprisoned right now?

It was because these high profile court rulings were quashed that the government created the CCRC (Criminal Cases Review Commission), an organisation with the intention of reviewing cases with possible grounds to appeal. According to the CCRC's website as of 30th September 2009 they have received 12109 applications. 398 of these made it to court and 116 were upheld. This means that under 1% of applications result in a successful appeal.

There are two possible reasons for this. Firstly, the system works. Our prosecution system is strong and we get the right people convicted of the right crimes, there are just a tiny number of cases that fall through the cracks and those people are saved from wrongful imprisonment by the appeals process. Or secondly, mistakes are being made and the process for rectifying them is flawed. Obviously the first option is infinity more appealing and probably much more likely, but without constant checking and questioning we can't be certain this is the case. The Innocence Network UK and student innocence projects are other checks we can use.

INUK was started in September 2004 by Dr Michael Naughton and was inspired by a similar project that proved successful in America. Naughton teaches criminal law at the university of Bristol and specialises in miscarriages of justice. He started the first dedicated innocence project in the UK.

The students in my year will split into small groups of three or four and be assigned cases that meet certain criteria. The person we will be working with will have received a life sentence, effectively meaning they were convicted of either murder or rape. Our job will be to test the strength of that conviction. This will be real opportunity to do some investigative journalism.

When given a life imprisonment, usually parole is only granted once the individual admits their guilt. If the chance occurs and they still maintain their innocence then that person is either a dedicated (and foolish) liar or they genuinely believe their own innocence, choosing to remain imprisoned purely on principle. It is these cases we will be especially interested in.

This promises to be an extremely exciting project and I can't wait to get started.

Simon Singh and Libel Law in the UK

2009-10-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

In our law lectures at Winchester University we are constantly being reminded that defaming someone is dangerous if you do not have a defence. If something we as journalists publish could damage someone's reputation then we have libeled them. Which is fine. Because hopefully what we wrote will have been either completely true and justifiable (i.e. we can prove it), fair comment (clearly just an expressed opinion) or have qualified privilege (quoted from a court of law or session of parliament). The United Kingdom's libel laws are particularly strict and we're being trained to spot potential pitfalls in everything we write.

It seems remarkable that science writer Simon Singh is standing up and putting his reputation on the line to challenge libel laws regarding comments he made about the British Chiropractic Association. This is a fascinating case, English law is created almost entirely by precedents, if he wins then it could cause great changes in the way libel law is enacted, albeit specifically in the field of science and research.

In 2008 he wrote an article questioning some chiropractic beliefs, such as asthma, ear infections and other childhood ailments could all be cured by back adjustments. He accused the BCA of promoting 'bogus treatments' and hey presto lawsuit. They chose to sue Singh as an individual rather than the Guardian that published the article. And Singh chose to fight. He sums up the case well himself here and Allen Green writes an excellent blog that keeps up with all the latest developments.

Singh is trying to use the defence that his statement was fair comment and despite not having much initial luck (it was initially ruled he had made a factual statement) has just been granted an appeal. His case has drawn a huge amount of attention that really can't be giving the BCA good publicity, I wonder if perhaps they have spectacularly shot themselves in the foot here.

Importantly a charity has started a campaign to reform libel law that already has many people involved, you can show your support by signing a petition here.

As my lecturer has said: almost every good piece of journalism is defaming somebody. But why take the time and expense to do investigative journalism to expose wrong doing or problems in society when you'll more than likely just be sued for doing so? Much easier to just throw another celebrity gossip story onto the front page.

Singh sums it up wonderfully: "This highlights the dreadful problem in the English libel system. Even large publishers are intimidated by the huge expense of fighting a legal battle. This means that articles that should be defended are dropped, and articles that should be written are shelved before they are even published because of potential libel action."

I wish him the very best of luck.

Obama's Nobel peace prize: Deserving or not... how better could he have handled it?

2009-10-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

The coverage and backlash against Obama being awarded the Nobel peace prize continues, in an unusual move one of the judges has come forward to defend him and states he 'didn't look happy' about receiving the award.

Comment columns around the world have leaped all over Obama and many have taken the opportunity to try and knock him down a peg or two. The decision has been called 'a mockery' that's purely a political tool, that he shouldn't have accepted it at all and even that his humble approach is an act and he's reveling in the glory.

Disregarding the argument of whether he deserved the award altogether and even ignoring the question of what his receiving the award will achieve - I don't think he could have handled it any other way.

Obama has proven himself an intelligent President and he's handled difficult situations well in the past, he recognizes that America (and the world) is sick of a certain type of aggressive government and is offering an alternative, albeit one that had to make concessions when faced with the reality of leading the most powerful and vulnerable nation on the planet. He fought an election campaign based on his own principles rather than attacking his opposition and even admits when he makes mistakes, something his predecessor would have struggled to pull off and appear honest.

He's brought that considered approach to receiving the prize. If he had said no, then no matter how graciously he did so he'd appear arrogant, we'd say 'Thinks he's too good for it does he?' And if he'd accepted it with huge fanfare there would have been even more uproar and backlash, the articles calling him undeserving now are mild in comparison to what we'd see had he appeared deserving. The only thing we dislike more than someone undeserving of an award is someone who deserves it and knows they do.

He seems to have found a good middle ground and while the award perhaps isn't doing him too many favours right now, it could have been a lot lot worse.

Berlusconi

2009-10-08T09:37:00.001-07:00

The lowly but heroic journalist tracking down the truth and revealing it to the public, shining a light into the darkest corners of society and shouting to the rest of us "Look! Look what I've found!" It's a naive, romantic idea but I love it, I think we all do.

Perhaps the most applaudable role of the journalist is that of the white blood cell, when those in authority abuse their power or make a mistake the media point it out and society as a whole can only benefit from this. Checks and balances.

I think this is why I've been so interested in the rumours and accusations that have been flying through the Italian press about Silvio Berlusconi. Regardless of whether he is guilty of any wrong doing or not, he's running a country and his laundry should be whiter than white when the press snoops through it. It can only be a good thing that he is subject to the same laws and now the same consequences as any of his citizens.

It's doubly important because Berlusconi is a media mogul himself and that's a dangerous thing. I don't personally believe someone should have the ability to set the news agenda and then profit from it. Men like Berlusconi and Rupert Murdoch have the power to influence governments, we should constantly be looking at them and asking ourselves what are their motivations? Is what they are doing right? Any change in law that makes them more accountable is a breath of fresh air.

And it's great to see that the Italian press (and specifically the publications not owned by Berlusconi) are doing well from the whole fiasco as well.

The Papers 08/10

2009-10-08T05:48:00.000-07:00

As well as the papers, I try to catch the Today show on BBC Radio 4 whenever I can. If nothing else I think I'm learning a lot about having an aggressive interview style and not letting the interviewee dictate the agenda. In particular, I enjoy James Naughtie's style.

So, the papers. The biggest stories today seem to be the Royal Mail strikes (in the Telegraph and accompanied horribly on the front page of the Guardian with an ugly moist close up of a letter box), Sharon Shoesmith's challenge of her dismissal and continuing coverage of the Tory party conference.

The tabloids have thrown in a few good unique headlines that broaden the scope of coverage. The Daily Express scaring us with claims that anti ageing creams might cause cancer and the sun has Robbie William's confession that he nearly died from drugs. A classic red top crowd pleaser, a well known and loved celebrity and a 'drugs are bad' message can't go wrong.

The coverage of the Sharon Shoesmith trial differs in the broadsheets and the tabloids. Both the Sun and the Daily Mail choosing to attack the council for initially supporting her before turning her into a scapegoat. The Times and Guardian both emphasising her revelation that she considered suicide. Regardless of whether it's true, she must really want to make herself appear the victim to make a personal confession like that.

Front page of the day goes to the Times for leading with Berlusconi and choosing a suitably morbid picture of Shoesmith in all black with a black background to go with their tag: 'Furore over baby P left me suicidal'. Now that Berlusconi has lost his Presidential immunity from prosecution it hails the start of more turmoil in Italy that will surely signal lost more headlines to come.

Conference Tweeting

2009-10-05T08:50:00.000-07:00

All political eyes are on the Tory conference right now, it's a showcase for the next government and we're watching and judging. The BBC have shown themselves to lead the way when it comes to new mediums and technology, by getting on board early with the internet and digital television they've benefited greatly by the change in our media consumption habits and probably even influenced them. iplayer is another success story that is being replicated worldwide. So it's not entirely shocking to stumble across a BBC reporter twittering live from the Tory conference, it doesn't get more current and relevant than that. Bitesize news chunks work well, after all aren't twitter pages just a list of news headlines anyway?

The Papers 05/10

2009-10-05T05:26:00.000-07:00

Reading he papers is more than just a good habit for a journalism student to be in, when there aren't any in 20 years time we can annoy our kids and grand children about the good old days when everything wasn't online. Not that I'm planning to have grand children in 20 years time.

Anyway.

As well as reading two papers a day, whenever possible I'm going to grab all the papers together and compare their leads. Based on the front pages, which would I buy today?

The Independent - A lovely beach ball like picture of a stem cell and the story of how research is being 'driven out' of the UK. The left wing connotations of it being wrong and unfair are plain to see. Oh and Monty Python too, a bit of culture always sells well.

Daily Telegraph - Looking very blue today and not just the banner at the top. Boris Johnson has his comment 'I bet a fiver it wont be President Blair' and the main story is Cameron making promises. It's clear that almost everyone has accepted he'll be the next PM now, attacking benefit frauds is a nice safe bet, about the only people less defensible in the public eye are pedophiles. And lets face it, he doesn't want his name and pedophile in the same headline.

In an odd coincidence both the Daily Express and local Daily Echo are leading with breakthroughs in cancer research, albiet one in New York and the other at Southampton University. The Echo is celebrating Southampton FC's first big win of the season, if you're a fan then clearly this is the paper to get, which national would devote this much time to a fallen club? There are great niches that local papers can fill.

The Mirror wins the pun of the day award (by default!) with 'Fright Said Fred', the story being Gary Lineker and Freddie Flintoff being caught near a Taliban attack. Throw in some pictures of said celebrities in protective army gear and it's a winner. The Mirror is still keeping its celeb focus, I still haven't quite gotten over how many weeks in a row they managed to have Jordan on the front page.

But I think the best front page today has to be the Sun. They've managed to track down the mother of the child Elton John is trying to adopt and plastered a picture of her looking very much the victim with 'I wont let Elton take my baby!'. What a thief! What a villain! And that picture of him kissing the child is just creepy! Drama sells, celebrity drama doubly so.

A Thousand Bayonets

2009-10-01T05:54:00.000-07:00

"Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets" - Napoleon Bonaparte

The Sun, The News of the World, The Times, The Sunday Times. Sorry Gordon, it's not looking good.