Articles printed in The Eye are written by a staff of contributors and edited by the multi-award successful former BBC information and present affairs reporter, Phil Parry.
After 23 years with the BBC, and 39 years as a journalist (when he was educated to make use of clear and easy language, avoiding jargon), it’s now clear to our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, {that a} information of key info and dates is central, after a Russian state tv presenter sought to justify annexing a part of Ukraine through the battle there, however was out by 100 YEARS!
As a financial institution vacation learn he right here explains why historical past has all the time performed a serious half in his life.
Earlier he described how he was assisted in breaking into the South Wales Echo (SWE) workplace automotive when he was a cub reporter, recalled his early profession as a journalist, the significance of expertise within the job, and making clear that the ‘calls’ to emergency companies in addition to court docket instances are central to any media operation.
He has additionally explored how poorly paid most journalism is when trainee reporters needed to dwell in squalid flats, the important function of bills, and about considered one of his most essential tales on the now-scrapped 53 year-old BBC Wales TV Present Affairs collection, Week In Week Out (WIWO), which gained an award even after it was axed, lengthy after his profession actually took off.
Phil has defined too how essential it’s truly to talk to individuals, the advantage of pace in addition to accuracy, how sure materials was faraway from TV Present Affairs programmes when secret cameras had for use, and a few of these he has interviewed.
He has disclosed as properly why investigative journalism is required now greater than ever though others have totally different opinions, how the coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdown performed havoc with media schedules, and the significance of the vastly decrease common age of some political leaders in contrast with when he began reporting.
You have to be positive of your info.
That is as true for journalists as it’s for anybody else, however is especially so for tv presenters – nonetheless sadly it’s apparent that some AREN’T!
The Russian tv host Olesya Loseva tried to reiterate Moscow’s line that Crimea was not Ukrainian with a historical past lesson – however obtained the date mistaken by 100 YEARS!.
Showing on state tv, she referenced feedback made by Chinese language ambassador to France Lu Shaye, who sparked uproar when he questioned the sovereignty of Ukraine and different ex-Soviet states, however made an appalling blunder.
It was picked up by Francis Scarr of BBC Monitoring, who stated it was “An absolute basic from Russian state TV…”.
Ms Loseva stated individuals ought to remind themselves that Crimea has been a part of Russia since 1883, however the Russian empire truly annexed Crimea in 1783…
This horrible mistake, which was broadcast to thousands and thousands, underlines the essential fact that YOU MUST GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT, and be assured in your information of sure elements of historical past if you’ll depend on them.
Evidently Ms Loseva wasn’t taught historical past accurately (or in any respect), however instructing it properly is vastly essential.
The sphere has turn into a battle floor resembling the English civil battle (or ‘revolution’) of the 1640s. On one aspect some say the historical past of Wales being colonised by the English needs to be taught in all colleges, whereas within the opposing military others proclaim this can be a gross distortion, and that there have lengthy been shut financial and social ties with England.
Earlier than the abuse begins on social media let me say from the outset that I’m in NEITHER camp!
In a 2013 speech the then UK Training Secretary Michael Gove declared that historical past may be an “ideological battleground” for “contending armies”.
“There could, for all I do know, be rival Whig and Marxist colleges preventing a battle of interpretation in chemistry or meals know-how, however their partisans don’t are inclined to command a lot column area within the broadsheets”, he stated.
Extra lately there was huge strain to show in higher element, the UK’s involvement within the slave commerce and the way it has fed into virtually all sectors of the commercial revolution. Campaigners need the curriculum “decolonised” and the historical past of slavery, in addition to that of black Britons made obligatory in colleges.
Partly in response to such calls for, Coverage Change, a think-tank that was near the UK Authorities, launched a “Historical past Issues” undertaking to “deal with the rewriting of historical past because it occurs”. However others are equally eager on disseminating one other sort of historical past.
Mr Gove’s first try at rewriting the historical past curriculum to present “a linked sense of the narrative of our islands” was extensively criticised as slim and triumphalist. Referring to a comic book tackle British historical past, the historian Simon Schama, damned the proposals as “‘1066 and All That’, however with out the jokes”.
At my faculty in Monmouth, the instructing of historical past was extremely conventional with no reference in any way to Wales (and I declare an curiosity right here as a result of my father, Robert, was head of historical past). Robert learn historical past at Cambridge College, and my uncle (Robert’s brother) was a historical past professor at Harvard College. At one level he was additionally Principal (or Vice Chancellor) of what turned Swansea College so I’ve a particular curiosity in occasions there.
The historical past I studied at college was all in regards to the UK Authorities ministries of the late nineteenth century, and the way Britain vied with France in increase its empire.
Monmouth College is a second division unbiased or ‘non-public’ (non-state) faculty and definitely not in the identical league as Eton or Westminster. The motto is “Serve And Obey”, and as pupils we got here to know that motto properly, as a result of if we stepped out of line we had been frequently crushed. But the college is in Wales and may, I recommend, have had details about WELSH HISTORY!
At Monmouth College I frequently competed with a classmate for that 12 months’s historical past prize, and my curiosity within the topic continued thereafter. I studied Politics and Trendy Historical past at Manchester College, and the background to an occasion has all the time fascinated me.
Historical past is up there for an investigative journalist, together with information of the libel legal guidelines and previous expertise. Historical past has all the time performed a distinguished function. As a way to assemble a narrative it’s important not merely to know that an occasion occurred, however the historical past of WHY it occurred.
In information journalism after I graduated, a information of historical past was much less essential. As a trainee reporter on the South Wales Echo you merely recorded what had occurred. It was a lot the identical on the Cardiff freelance company I then joined, Cambrian Information Company, and on day by day TV information at HTV’s (because it then was) Wales at Six, and BBC Cymru Wales’ (BBC CW) Wales In the present day (WT).
In Present Affairs journalism, although, all of it modified, and researching the historical past of a topic once more turned important. It was a big characteristic of the work we did on BBC CW’s Week In, Week Out (WIWO) programme, in addition to on the Panorama episodes I introduced.
Sadly it appears that is not seen as key as a result of WIWO was scrapped after 53 years.
For one episode within the collection, we obtained essential historic proof which helped result in the discharge from jail of three younger South Wales males who had been wrongly jailed for homicide. It was referred to as A Evening To Bear in mind, and we examined the historic context to what had occurred.
The Cardiff Newsagent Three (as they turned recognized) had been at that time (1997) the longest miscarriage of justice case (because it turned out) in Wales. We felt one thing was not proper so we seemed into its historical past.
The lads, Ellis Sherwood, Darren Corridor and Michael O’Brien, had been out one night time and had been arrested by the police later for the homicide of a Cardiff newsagent referred to as Phillip Saunders.
They’d no dependable alibi for his or her right whereabouts, and sadly one of many three, Mr Corridor, ‘confessed’ to the homicide and in addition claimed in court docket that the opposite two had been concerned as properly. He had alleged that after the newsagent was attacked, the three children had run from the scene of the crime and divided up the stolen cash in a close-by church yard. However after we studied the historical past of the case we realised it might by no means have occurred.
After many months, we discovered a solicitor for them, and a sceptical barrister who investigated it with us.
I interviewed Mr Corridor in jail, permission for which is never granted now, and requested him straight: “Are you a assassin?”. “No I’m not, and neither are the opposite two”, got here the reply.
I talked to, and recorded, over the phone, Mr O’Brien who stated a horrible injustice had been carried out, each to them and the family members of the murdered newsagent. We filmed Mr O’Brien’s household within the Ely space of Cardiff, whose lives, evidently, had been devastated.
We tracked down all of the prosecution ‘witnesses’ who had been, to a lesser or higher extent, unreliable. We found that Mr Corridor throughout or after considered one of his interviews, he alleged, had been manacled to a radiator. Critically, we discovered Mr Corridor’s medical historical past in data that proved his model of the occasions couldn’t have taken place. His legs had been unhealthy and he couldn’t have joined the others in operating away from the scene of the homicide to divide up the spoils, as he had advised the police. The entire conviction of the three males was flawed.
In pursuing this, a information of ‘historical past’ was completely pivotal.
It ought to have been pivotal too for Ms Loseva, however plainly wasn’t as a result of when she turned to it she was out by 100 years!
Phil’s reminiscences of his extraordinary 39-year award-winning profession in journalism when historical past was so essential, as he was gripped by the uncommon disabling situation Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been launched in a serious ebook ‘A Good Story’ (which incorporates historic instances similar to ‘The Newsagent Three’). Order the ebook now.
Regrettably publication of one other ebook, nonetheless, was refused, as a result of it was to have included names.
Tomorrow – how alarming information that the Welsh Authorities (WG) might have bought Wales’ largest airport at a multi-million pound loss to the taxpayer, and {that a} high-profile journey professional has now joined the refrain of disapproval from critics in regards to the facility, underline that The Eye have lengthy been alone in highlighting issues there.
Subsequent week – Phil examines the big controversy over the pressure utilized by French police to place down country-wide protests in opposition to pension reforms, and the way this highlights the threats of violence he has confronted.
