Week 2 and 3 - The Justice Gap

Week Two

This week in our Skype conference, I put forward the idea of reporting on the IPCC's update on the Hillsborough investigation. The stadium disaster is one of the biggest cases of police corruption. From the get-go the police failed the fans and families, covering up the truth of their wrongdoing. I wanted to get this message across in my article and therefore question the families on the police misconduct, especially after the pre-inquest hearing brought about new allegations that police footage may have been edited.

The Editors feedback last week was to ensure we are pushing our articles on rather then recycling press releases, finding solutions to get original quotes to make the article unique to the Justice Gap. Taking this on board I contacted the Hillsborough Justice Campaign and the Hillsborough Families support group to get a response from the people who are directly affected. I set up a phone interview with a man named Steven Kelly who sadly lost his brother in the crush, he openly was happy to comment on his feelings towards the coverup. This was a new experience for me, conducting an interview whereby it wasn't on camera, and therefore I couldn't rely on the footage to pick up the quotes. I had to write down what he was saying accurately and quickly! This is where the skill of shorthand would come in handy, therefore I am continuing to practise this skill to pick up speed.

When it comes to news writing, I've learnt that you need to lead with the best quotes, similarly to how you would in a news package by leading with your best pictures. The top line, followed by the powerful hard hitting quotes need to go straight at the top, no point in hiding them lower down as readers won't get that far. The editor praised how powerful and hard hitting the quotes were, his feedback was extremely encouraging. Initially he thought the quotes had been taken from a statement or from another publication but he was pleased to know that the quotes were all from my own source. From this week on, the importance of finding my own sources is in the forefront of my mind, adding human interest to each article is crucial and far more engaging for the readers. People who are willing to comment are on the other end of the phone, we just have to pick it up and target the people affected and willing to comment.

Click the headline below to read the full article.

Police corruption ‘rubs salt in wounds’ of Hillsborough families

Week Three

This was a big week for the Justice Gap Reporters, the editor organised a day trip to London to meet with some big names in the legal profession. First of all we headed to Hardwicke Building in Lincoln Inn where we set up our equipment in the room we had been given. We met with David Jessel who was the commissioner for the CCRC between 2000-2010 and Eddie Guilfoyle, an innocent man who is fighting to clear his name after wrongfully serving 18 years in prison for the murder of his wife. The case of this miscarriage of justice can be read here. We filmed Jessel interviewing Guilfoyle which will be uploaded on the Justice Gap website. It was an extremely interesting day to hear his story first hand and to be given the opportunity to speak with David Jessel regarding Jeremy Bamber which is a case I have closely followed.

We then moved on to Chancery lane to meet Michael Mansfield who was launching his new chambers that day. It was an absolute privilege to conduct the interview with Mansfield, who is the country's leading human rights barrister. Over the last few weeks I have been reading his book Memoires of a radical lawyer and I looked into the cases he has worked on including Birmingham 6, Stephen Lawrence, Jean Charles de Menezes, Hillsborough and most recently Mark Duggan.

Although I had a million questions I wanted to ask Mansfield, the main focus that I was informed of that morning was the launch of his new chambers, this brought to my attention that as journalists we have to be adaptable to get the freshest news scope that we can find. We must also take into consideration when dealing with influential professionals, there will be questions they won't be able to answer, in this instance there were several topics he was unable to comment on, such as Hillsborough as he is currently working on this case. His previous chambers Tooks closed down due to government cut backs on legal aid, and with the new chambers opening that day we made this the primary focus to lead with, turning the story around within a day to keep it current. You can watch this part of the interview here.

I transcribed the video to include the quotes in my article which accompanied the video. Doing a lengthy interview was good practise for me, as it allowed me to consider leads into different news agendas, cutting down the footage into different topics.

It was a real pleasure to meet Mansfield, an extremely valuable experience. I look forward to sharing the other parts of the interview with you, which will go up on the Justice Gap website next week.

Michael Mansfield QC with the Crime Unit