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During 23 years with the BBC, and 40 years in journalism (when he was trained to use clear, simple language, avoiding jargon), working in a free environment without interference has always been critical for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, but now there is more evidence of the reverse happening with Russian hackers apparently targeting The Eye.
Earlier he described how he was assisted in breaking into the South Wales Echo office car when he was a cub reporter, recalled his early career as a journalist, the importance of experience in the job, and made clear that the‘calls’ to emergency services as well as court cases are central to any media operation.
He has also explored how poorly paid most journalism is when trainee reporters had to live in squalid flats, the vital role of expenses, and about one of his most important stories on the now-scrapped 53 year-old BBC Wales TV Current Affairs series, Week In Week Out (WIWO), which won an award even after it was axed, long after his career really took off.
Phil has explained too how crucial it is actually to speak to people, the virtue of speed as well as accuracy, why knowledge of ‘history’ is vital, how certain material was removed from TV Current Affairs programmes when secret cameras had to be used, and some of those he has interviewed.
He has disclosed as well why investigative journalism is needed now more than ever although others have different opinions, how the coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdowns played havoc with media schedules, and the importance of the hugely lower average age of some political leaders compared with when he started reporting.
Reporting facts openly and honestly, without interference is important.
Yet now, it seems, The Eye’s approach in doing this is attracting unwanted attention from a country where this is not the case.
Russia.
The site always used to get a couple of ‘allow requests’ from e-mail addresses with the .ru (Russia) ending, but recently this has increased massively.
Now there are four or five A DAY!
Perhaps we should be pleased that we are seemingly getting under their skin!
It is sinister though…
The memories of Phil’s astonishing decades-long award-winning career in journalism (during which foreign interference was rare) as he was gripped by the incurable disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Regrettably publication of another book, however, was refused, because it was to have included names.
From ‘Russia without love part two’ comes soon where we explain the latest crackdown on free speech in the country.
