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scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 527

Eamonn O'Neill says what many of us have been saying for some time.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009...iscarriage-justice-media-coverage

* Eamonn O'Neill
* The Guardian, Monday 25 May 2009

Sometimes I think it's easier to get arrested yourself than to get support for investigating a miscarriage of justice these days. Yet journalists were once the heroes of such stories, and editors jumped at the chance to back a project which might free the wrongfully convicted.

I remember in the mid-1980s watching Who Bombed Birmingham?, a docudrama in which Martin Shaw portrayed the legendary World in Action producer Ian McBride, whose team cracked the Birmingham Six case with gutsy detective work.

In 1989, aged just 22, I washed up at the doors of Scottish TV in Glasgow armed with a suggested story on cancer among Christmas Island nuclear test veterans. It was commissioned by Channel 4's Dispatches and within weeks made by STV, garnering critical praise and awards.

In retrospect, I can see how lucky I was to be surrounded by individuals who knew how to handle probes into justice issues and understood why they were important to the viewers and readers. David Lloyd, the commissioning editor, never stopped encouraging at every stage of a project.

In Glasgow, my boss at STV, David Scott, specialised in investigations such as the Paddy Meehan miscarriage of justice story; Blair Jenkins, head of news and current affairs, had a gift for both popular and hard-hitting projects; and the STV MD, Gus (now Lord) Macdonald, formerly of World in Action, had been a reporter from Washington DC and the jungles of Vietnam. In later years, Paul Foot at Private Eye would call me up after reading a piece and encourage me to keep going.

These journalists knew that the best investigations were worth supporting because they usually connected with the average viewer and they mattered at a basic social-justice level. Of course they flinched when lawyers' letters started flying, but ploughed on regardless.

In 1991 I started an investigation into the case of Robert Brown - convicted of a murder in Manchester in 1977 - when his elderly mother approached me via a friend who had worked with Macdonald in a Glasgow shipyard. More than a decade later I reported on Brown's release after 26 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. The first calls of congratulations were from Jenkins, Foot and Macdonald.

I hoped to set the heather on fire with many more reports exposing miscarriages of justice. I started receiving emails through my website outlining terrible tales. Other investigations in print and broadcast followed - notably for the Herald, the Guardian and BBC Scotland. But, unlike the previous generation of editors I'd known, my peers often seemed unwilling to support such projects.

Some confessed that miscarriage of justice projects were old hat to them. One editor complained that Robert Brown "looked guilty" because of his prison haircut and damaged eyesight - that was reason enough not to touch it. Without the experience of working under the previous generation, these editors feared and avoided such stories. The hassle affected their career prospects.

There are editors who support investigative work - although sometimes for the wrong reasons. They want easy results and cliched tales instead of the complex truth. Recently I investigated an alleged murder for the Daily Mail, where evidence I uncovered showed it to be a tragic suicide. The piece never ran. The editor who commissioned it privately admitted the story didn't conform to a stereotype for his readers. That decision has had real ramifications: this bogus story still surfaces annually as an unsolved murder, possibly by a (non-existent) Scottish serial killer. Great headline, not an iota of verifiable truth.

I still spend every available moment investigating miscarriage of justice cases. They keep coming every month. I admit I try to hide them in the mix of offerings I take to editors in case they think I can only play one tune. But I am now launching Scotland's first Innocence Project at Strathclyde University, where I am director of the MSc course in investigative journalism.

I also recently coached a BBC region's factual team on how to use modern technology to get at the truth in miscarriage of justice cases. Progress like this makes me think the wheel is turning again. I watch a new generation of journalists now engage with this issue - wrestling with documents, DNA reports and eyewitness testimony to produce original journalism. I hope their work is handled by editors who are as sympathetic and knowledgeable as the tough, compassionate journalists I knew. Investigations aren't as prominent as they once were, but that by no means indicates that the terrible crimes they should be uncovering have gone away.

For more on this subject, go to www.guardian.co.uk/justice-on-trial

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

Lydia · Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 82

When you consider the media furore over the "Free the coronation street one campaign" when a woman in the soap went to jail. When you consider even though it was a bit of fun the Prime Minister made comments as did the head of the opposition at the time. I don't think it is unreasonable that we ask the media to bring back a little of the integrity that used to drive the cases that they backed after investigative journalist did some hard slog finding out the truth in these cases.
_________________
We are the parents in Scotland denied justice for our children who had illegal post mortem's or had organs removed illegally at post mortem.

... And Justice For All · Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Posts: 58

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 527

http://www.allmediascotland.com/a...ting_back_in_favour_claims_oneill

Miscarriages of Justice Reporting Back in Favour, Claims O'Neill
26/05/2009

A Scottish investigative journalist is claiming a new enthusiasm to report alleged miscarriages of justice, after a period when it was considered ‘old hat’.

Writing in The Guardian yesterday, Eamonn O’Neill namechecks former colleagues at STV, David Scott, Blair Jenkins and Gus Macdonald as among those who gave him greatest encouragement when he was starting out as an investigative journalist.

His piece here ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009...iscarriage-justice-media-coverage) accompanies an article by him where he argues for the re-opening of a case which saw a Ray Gilbert jailed in 1981 for the murder of a Liverpool bookmaker.

His telling of Gilbert’s story is part of a Justice on Trial series being run by the newspaper.

O’Neill continues to investigate possible miscarriages of justice but also runs an MSc course in Investigative Journalism at the University of Strathclyde. His most notable success was in 2002 when Scot, Robert Brown, was freed from jail, after 26 years - wrongfully convicted of a murder in Manchester. O’Neill spent 11 years on the case.

He writes: “I also recently coached a BBC region's factual team on how to use modern technology to get at the truth in miscarriage of justice cases. Progress like this makes me think the wheel is turning again. I watch a new generation of journalists now engage with this issue - wrestling with documents, DNA reports and eyewitness testimony to produce original journalism. I hope their work is handled by editors who are as sympathetic and knowledgeable as the tough, compassionate journalists I knew. Investigations aren't as prominent as they once were, but that by no means indicates that the terrible crimes they should be uncovering have gone away.”

This is O’Neill’s 20th year doing investigative journalism. He is currently developing investigative projects with BBC Radio Scotland and also with [director of content] Alan Clements at STV, on projects for Channel 4's Dispatches series.

Comment: Eamonn O'Neill is to be applauded for perservering with this vital - but, scandalously under-funded - form of investigative journalism.

His persistent pitching to beancounting commissioning editors, both in the press and broadcasting, has been accompanied by a sustained commitment to training a new generation of journalists in this country who comprehend the crucial connections between journalism and justice.

I can personally vouch for the fact that Eamonn inspired a large number of students at Edinburgh Napier University when he taught a heavily subscribed module in Investigative Journalism at that institution.Those students learned about the crucial connections between journalism and justice and, hopefully, some of them will soon be applying such knowledge in the nation's newsrooms.

Rob Brown