Neil Arun didn’t want to miss a rare but risky opportunity to embed with an Iraqi police unit, hunting members of al Qaeda. But his employers -- responsible for Neil’s security -- weren’t happy. This film by Richard Pendry nvestigates how a frontline journalist balances risk and reward.
Every student in the Centre for Journalism has heard of Peter Ritchie Calder. I describe his reporting from the bomb damaged streets of London's East End in my History of Journalism lectures. Calder was a superb reporter who found the courage to speak truth to power when many others would not. I find his work for the Daily Herald, collected in The Lesson of London (Searchlight Books, 1941), thoroughly inspiring. You have to admire a man who took copious and accurate shorthand notes while high-explosive was falling all around. Calder also wrote beautifully, and kept writing - and influencing policy for the better - when the government made it plain that it would prefer him to stop. As the 70th anniversary of The Blitz approaches, The Independent offered me space to write about his work. You can read the column here. There is more detail in my lecture and seminar notes.
