investigativejournalism

The BBC can improve its journalism in a number of areas, Director General Mark Thompson said at the second Bob Friend Memorial Lecture last night.

There is a glimmer of hope this morning for budding investigative hacks depressed by declining editorial budgets and the rising tide of churnalism. Following the launch in the USA of dedicated investigations funds at ProPublica and the Huffington Post, four journalists, Stephen Grey, Phillip Knightley (author of The First Casualty), Misha Glenny (former BBC Balkans Corr) and David Leigh have set up a UK based version. Called simply the Investigations Fund it has received a first contribution from the Telegraph group. 

If you have some free moments in between work experience and revision there are several new films on release which are entertaining and also give some useful background to some of the things we have already talked about and which will come up next year. "In the Loop" is a feature film version of the Armando Ianucci series "The Thick of It." (already in the library). This is a hilarious and well judged (if extremely foul mouthed) piece about political spin, based on a scenario similar to the Iraq war and the dodgy dossier. The Alistair Campbell character is truly repulsive.