Dutch journalist Step Vaessen speaks to the EFJ general meeting

The European Federation of Journalists annual meeting, Den Haag, Netherlands 11/12 May 2023 “Media self-censorship undermines press freedom”, Dutch Al-Jazeera correspondent Step Vaessen told delegates to the European Federation of Journalists annual meeting. She was addressing the gathering in The …

Journalists should not be ‘at war’ Read more »

Chris Mullin outside the Old Bailey © Tim Dawson

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 …

Pub-bomb probe could jail journalist Read more »

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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 »

A crowd outside the Express building in Fleet Street awaits Amy Johnson in 1932. (Getty)

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 »