- Burned out - 26th June 2026
- Water, water NOT everywhere… - 26th June 2026
- Not on the ball… - 25th June 2026
During 23 years with the BBC, and in a 42 year journalistic career (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, became (almost) used to the level of abuse and legal threats he received, accepting that journalists like him often go against popular opinion, and this is now put centre stage by a new book emphasising media freedom and tolerance.
Some things are as true for investigative journalists like me, as much as for everybody else.
A case in point comes in the book ‘CENTRISTS OF THE WORLD UNITE! The Lost Genius of Liberalism’ by the journalist Adrian Wooldridge.
It is the line: “Far more than we remember today, liberals were often struggling against the tide rather than swimming with the current”.
If you take out the word ‘liberals’, and insert instead the word ‘journalists’ you neatly encapsulate how i believe those operating in the media should operate now.
I clearly remember Alun Michael saying (presumably about devolution in Wales): “We’re in this together”, perhaps echoing a later comment by David Cameron about the financial crisis in 2008.
I thought at the time: “Well I’m not!”.
You may or may not be in favour of devolution (and I was as it happens), but it is not the job of a journalist publicly to endorse a senior politician’s official policy.
It is our job to ‘struggle against the tide’ as Mr Wooldridge might have put it, despite it not being popular and attracting abuse as well as scary legal letters (I have even had a death threat in the past).
Let me give you an example of a message I received recently: “I am currently preparing an evidence file, with legal input, for submission to South Wales Police (this would be a civil case anyway, NOT a criminal one!)”
This person has also proclaimed menacingly: “I am writing to formally notify you of my intention to pursue legal action against you for defamation in connection with articles published about me on The Eye website, and to raise serious concerns that your conduct may also constitute harassment under the Online Safety Act 2023
“To avoid formal legal proceedings, I require the following actions to be taken within 14days of the date of this letter:
- Immediate removal of all articles about me from The Eye website.
- A written undertaking that you will not republish any material concerning me”.
In an earlier notice to The Eye it was said: “The tone and content of… articles are overtly malicious and have caused significant harm to my reputation, hindering my ability to secure employment and professional engagements. As a self-employed single parent, this defamation has severely impacted my livelihood and mental well-being. Despite previous requests for removal (There had been NONE!), these damaging articles remain accessible, perpetuating undue harm (The Eye’s lawyers have informed us that any harm or reputational damage comes from the individual’s OWN behaviour!)
(We have been advised that a ‘right of reply’ was not needed in these circumstances).
“Failure to comply with this request may constitute a violation of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), subjecting you to potential regulatory action and penalties.” (Our lawyers specialising in libel and data protection rules [GDPR] were consulted before publication, and all information is in the public domain).
Meanwhile, as a background to the legal threats, some abuse has also had to be referred to the police for investigation.
A Marc Winchester said on Twitter/X, in a tweet which has since been deleted: “I’ll whack him (me)“, and the definition of the verb ‘to whack’ in the Urban Dictionary is: “to murder someone”.
He had links to the failed company No Debt Ltd and when it was wound up the liquidator said: “At the date of liquidation the Company’s draft accounts for the year ended 30 June 2015 suggested that the former director… of the Company… Mr Winchester (owed) the Company… a collective amount totalling £317,406 … Mr Winchester was declared bankrupt on 23 May 2017”.
This Mr Winchester is a family member, although it appears he is another part of the Winchester ‘club’.
But there is a connection with Mr Winchester, too, through another crashed business which also hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons – Falcon and Pointer Ltd. The BBC reported that the licence to practice was taken away after more than 40 million nuisance calls had been made. The item said: “Falcon and Pointer Ltd used automatic dialing technology to make the calls about mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI). The Claims Management Regulator (CMR)… (said)… The firm set out to ‘plague the public and rip off consumers’…”
Attempts have been made (thankfully unsuccessful!) to close down my website, The Eye, because people didn’t like what was said there.
My Wikipedia entry has been vandalised several times, and in one instance the words ‘tool’ and ‘knob head’ were inserted. I have also been compared on Twitter/X to the comedy broadcaster Alan Partridge.
The Wikepedia entry has now been restored to its original form, after officials removed the abusive words.
The Alan Partridge comment was by a Sion Tomos Owen whose blog describes him as: “…a bilingual TV and Radio presenter, illustrator, writer and creative workshop tutor…”.
Mr Owen said in Welsh: “There’s no way that this website (The Eye) is for real?! It’s as if a Take a Break (light magazine) story has been edited by Alan Partridge” (laughing emoji).
Another remark which concerned a television ‘reporter’ who had posted pictures of herself on FB or Twitter in skimpy clothes, is sadly typical of the insults I constantly receive: “Your article on Ellie Pitt was bordering on mysogynistic bullying, a really pathetic article written by a bitter individual who was a complete failiure as a BBC correspondent and also loved bashing the Catholic Church with your disgraceful Panorama programme”.
Indeed accusations of being ‘misogynistic’ or ‘misogynist’, are a constant refrain among those who hurl offensive comments (including from a person who has now been jailed because of his pedophilia), if factual stories are published with the targets happening to be women, yet these are potentially libellous words and the description is provably wrong.
In the past I have also been accused online (incorrectly) of being a “bastard” (many times), an “anti-devolutionist wanker”, “pure scum”, a “liar” (also many times) a “little git”, and (correctly) a “nosey git”, “irritating”, or a “nuisance”. But these remarks come amid many others. Too many, in fact, to mention.
I rarely sue (although I do sometimes) unless the online message is particularly outrageous, and contains a libel (which many of them do).
Some can be rebutted in court using an “honest comment” defence (formerly known as “fair comment”), however most cannot, which means that any libel case is likely to be successful.
Perpetrators of this abuse appear to be unaware of the legal ramifications of their statements, and say the most appalling things online (which, of course, have been PUBLISHED to a third party so the RULES APPLY!).
You have to develop a protective skin knowing you are going to to be the subject of these insults, but are still determined to pursue journalistic investigations.
The truth about them can come out in strange ways – like in a book!
Details of Phil’s, astonishing decades-long journalistic career (when legal checks were always made on stories, but abuse would follow anyway), as he was gripped by the rare neurological condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in another important book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now.
‘CENTRISTS OF THE WORLD UNITE! The Lost Genius of Liberalism’ by Adrian Wooldridge is published by Allen Lane an imprint of Penguin Books.
Tomorrow – a South Wales conman jailed for serious drug offences, who tricked many ordinary people out of thousands of pounds, yet became a special constable with the police, and was exclusively exposed by The Eye, now claims on social media that he has found God.
