Speech to the All Party Writers Group at the House of Commons on 2 December 2025 Some five years ago, I was invited to join the Trades Union Congress AI working group. We were a gathering of trades unionists trying …
Bright winter sun lit the forest track I was following. In the distance, through the trees, I could see Tirana, miles below. I had the mountainside to myself – or so I thought. Then close behind me an angry shout …
I have just made a contribution to the Reach strikers’ hardship fund. I would encourage everyone else who cares about pay in the media to do the same, whether or not you are a member of the NUJ. The NUJ’s …
On Friday (25 February 2022), Detective Constable Darren Sutton cut an uncomfortable figure in the witness box at the Old Bailey. Little wonder. At the behest of his employer, West Midlands Police (WMP), he was attempting to undermine a journalist’s imperative undertaking …
Opinion column originally published in Amateur Photographer 5 October 2019 Photojournalism succeeds because of its apparent veracity. That ‘the camera doesn’t lie’ is at the heart of the reportage captured through the lens. Of course we know that images can …
Review of David King Designer Activist Visual Historian, by Rick Poynor Like many1970s teenagers, a postal order dispatched to Finsbury Park, London initiated my engagement with politics. I received by return several sheets of lapel stickers, a poster and some …
I danced a jig when Sir Harry Evans (who died in September 2020) responded to my speculative email. Anticipating little chance of acknowledgement, I nonetheless agonised over how best to address a Knight. Formalities, it turned out, were needless. “I …
I observed Julian Assange’s extradition hearings in February and September 2020 on behalf of the International Federation of Journalists and the National Union of Journalists. I was also the only reporter whose daily coverage of the court case appeared in …
Saved by suicide – Assange, self harm and free speech Read more »
Julian Assange’s extradition hearing took its last evidence at the Old Bailey, London yesterday. Closing submissions will be made in writing and Judge Baraitser’s ruling will be handed down on 4 January at The Old Bailey. Until 23 May 2019 …
Unfettered reporting threatened – what Assange extradition hearings reveal Read more »
In the rat-infested basement of The Public Benefit Boot Company in Leeds City Market, Harry Proctor was sacked. His boss had caught him reading a novel. The tattered pages had already worked their magic, however. It was 1932 and Proctor, …
Reporting fictions: a novel start for journalists Read more »