This blog isn't really in use any more (having been a terrible excuse for a modular project in the first term) but here's a couple of my pieces in the Northumberland Gazette (cheers guys!)
The Consummate Politician (Review - an evening with Michael Portillo)
http://tinyurl.com/6b2ach
NIB - Pigeon carrier demolishes Shilbottle wall
http://tinyurl.com/66ldwc
Saturday 2 August 2008
Monday 4 February 2008
Quick Update...
Good news for Kambaksh, whose life seems to have been spared on a legal technicality, following mass uproar from journalists around the world and The Independent. No sentence at the moment, and a non-backtrack which allows the government to retain face.
After all, wouldn't want to be seen doing something illegal in such a model of democracy.
It annoys me somewhat that the rest of fleet street could seemingly give less of a damn about this story. Quelle surprise when there's such meaty fodder out there as Britney's ongoing saga, and new depths to plumb. When you're using pieces about pap outrage, for God's sake, of a person's privacy having being invaded, simply in order to keep that story flowing...paparazzi who hang like pigeons around the crumb of moral living. Frankly, it beggars belief.
After all, wouldn't want to be seen doing something illegal in such a model of democracy.
It annoys me somewhat that the rest of fleet street could seemingly give less of a damn about this story. Quelle surprise when there's such meaty fodder out there as Britney's ongoing saga, and new depths to plumb. When you're using pieces about pap outrage, for God's sake, of a person's privacy having being invaded, simply in order to keep that story flowing...paparazzi who hang like pigeons around the crumb of moral living. Frankly, it beggars belief.
Thursday 31 January 2008
Afghan journalism student faces execution
This morning, faced with the less than stellar 'below 50% ' pass rate in my NCTJ class, and having just a tad inkling that I was one of the majority, I hated law.
I hated it anyway: it was clunky, it was massively inconvenient, and while there are blatant examples of newspapers taking the charlie with what they write, every now and then the law is a bit too much of a shackle around the leg of a reporter. That said, I was seriously considering not only burning my copy of McNae's but blowing up Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and putting the framed thing in prominant position on my wall.
I jest...grimly.
But then I spotted this article in the Independent... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sentenced-to-death-afghan-who-dared-to-read-about-womens-rights-775972.html
and the debate about media freedom in the UK suddenly becomes trivial in relation to such a miscarriage of justice. As a woman, the piece is doubly infuriating when you take into account the material which the sentence pertains to.
I have so much more to say on the subject, none of which is remotely coherent, so I'll simply say this:
Please, *please*, sign the Independent's petition, and put some pressure on our government to help Kambaksh.
I hated it anyway: it was clunky, it was massively inconvenient, and while there are blatant examples of newspapers taking the charlie with what they write, every now and then the law is a bit too much of a shackle around the leg of a reporter. That said, I was seriously considering not only burning my copy of McNae's but blowing up Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and putting the framed thing in prominant position on my wall.
I jest...grimly.
But then I spotted this article in the Independent... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sentenced-to-death-afghan-who-dared-to-read-about-womens-rights-775972.html
and the debate about media freedom in the UK suddenly becomes trivial in relation to such a miscarriage of justice. As a woman, the piece is doubly infuriating when you take into account the material which the sentence pertains to.
I have so much more to say on the subject, none of which is remotely coherent, so I'll simply say this:
Please, *please*, sign the Independent's petition, and put some pressure on our government to help Kambaksh.
Thursday 3 January 2008
Happy New Year?
2008 welcomes you with:
* The questionable re-election of President Mwai Kibaki and subsequent bloody civil unrest in Kenya...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7170600.stm
* Commuter chaos as Network Rail engineering work runs over (just in time for a major back-to-work headache)...
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article3127596.ece
* A hotly contested nomination primary as Iowa goes to the vote tonight...but which Democrat is going to trail in third?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7219.html
* The stomach bug Nororvirus, sweeping the UK and striking more than 100,000 people a week...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jan/03/health
plus! Two police officers stabbed in Swindon, three youths dead after New Years Eve car crash, rising fuel prices, global warming, snow flurries, freezing temperatures and Tony Blair as our Middle East peace representative.
I think I'm moving to Hawai'i.
* The questionable re-election of President Mwai Kibaki and subsequent bloody civil unrest in Kenya...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7170600.stm
* Commuter chaos as Network Rail engineering work runs over (just in time for a major back-to-work headache)...
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article3127596.ece
* A hotly contested nomination primary as Iowa goes to the vote tonight...but which Democrat is going to trail in third?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7219.html
* The stomach bug Nororvirus, sweeping the UK and striking more than 100,000 people a week...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jan/03/health
plus! Two police officers stabbed in Swindon, three youths dead after New Years Eve car crash, rising fuel prices, global warming, snow flurries, freezing temperatures and Tony Blair as our Middle East peace representative.
I think I'm moving to Hawai'i.
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