J-Lab Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University

Our guest on this episode is Paul Morgan-Bentley, head of investigations at The Times newspaper, who has just scooped Investigation of the Year at the Press Awards for undercover reporting that exposed the force-fitting of British Gas meters in the homes of vulnerable people.
In our conversation, Paul explains how he reported this story, why he thinks undercover reporting is so important and offers advice for early career journalists on door-knocking…and converting work experience into proper jobs.
J-Lab is a podcast by the Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University.

Our guest on the latest episode of the J-Lab podcast is Martina Lees, a senior writer for the Sunday Times. Next month sees the sixth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower disaster, when fire destroyed a 23-storey tower block in West London, killing 72 people. Martina has spent much of the last few years seeking answers to why the disaster really happened, and who was to blame.

She recently won a British Journalism Award for holding to account those responsible for the biggest public housing scandal in 50 years, and for campaigning to free millions of people from having to pay for dangerous cladding to be replaced.

In our conversation, Martina explains why she became a journalist, what interested her in reporting this particular story, how she turned her reporting into an impactful campaign and how to ask the questions that no-one else is asking.

J-Lab is a podcast by the Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University.

Our J-Lab guest this episode is Hannah Barnes, investigations producer for the BBC’s Newsnight programme.

Hannah’s reports with science correspondent Deborah Cohen and her subsequent book about the rise and fall of the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) for children at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in north London are the result of intensive reporting, carried out across several years and based on more than 100 hours of interviews with Gids’ clinicians, former patients, and other experts.

Gids was established to provide talking therapies to young people who were questioning their gender identity. But 15 years after the service was founded, staff began expressing concerns about the rapid rise in patient referrals to endocrinologists who would prescribe hormone blockers designed to delay puberty. Many young people with complex case histories of autism, eating disorders or histories of family abuse were being referred to the service, then given puberty blockers.

Clinicians interviewed by Hannah for her Time to Think book compared it to East German doping scandals in the 1970s or failings at the Mid Staffs hospital in the 2000s. The clinic will shut later this year, to be replaced by a number of regional centres that will aim to offer more holistic treatment.

This has been a difficult subject for Hannah to report - some trans people see criticism of Gids as attempts to stop children transitioning at all; some gender-critical campaigners treat its closure as vindication of wider arguments.
Hannah’s book makes the point that this isn’t a culture war story. It's a medical scandal. And yet while her scrupulous and meticulously researched journalism – with 70 pages of notes and references – has been widely praised in reviews from the Guardian to the Telegraph, more than 20 publishers passed on the chance to publish her book. Her eventual publisher, Swift Press, struggled to find people who would even copy-edit the book or design its cover.

In this conversation, Hannah outlines her analytical, source-based methods, and offers advice on how to retain a questioning approach during reporting, while always treating contributors and interviewees with decency and respect.

J-Lab is a podcast by the Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University.

Around 4,300 cases a week are heard in the family courts in England and Wales and the number of applications for children to be taken into council care has is around 13,000 each year. And yet remarkably little is known by most people about what goes on in family courts.

In this latest episode, our guest is Louise Tickle, a multi-award winning freelance journalist who has reported extensively on domestic abuse, child protection and the family courts - and how the lack of scrutiny and transparency in these courts means many women and families are being tragically failed by the justice system.

Last year, Louise’s investigations for Channel 4’s Dispatches programme exposed cases of families traumatised by their encounters with family courts and judges hiding poor decisions behind secrecy rules.

Earlier this year, Louise’s reporting for BBC Panorama shared the troubling stories of families who felt failed by local authorities and social workers when their children were taken into care.

And her recent podcasts for Tortoise Media have exposed how a former government minister abused the secrecy of the family courts in an attempt to hide the truth that he had abused and raped his wife.

In our conversation, Louise explains how she developed a journalistic interest in these areas, the pros and cons of conducting her investigations as a freelance, how she’s grown in confidence in challenging reporting restrictions and why she believes journalists have a unique and critical role in holding courts to account.

J-Lab is a podcast by the Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University.

New laws banning independent coverage of the invasion of Ukraine have forced many news outlets to leave Russia.
Meduza claims to be Russia’s biggest independent media outlet even though its editors have been based, in exile, in neighbouring Latvia for most of the last 10 years.
In recent years Meduza’s reporting has ranged from exposing the presence of Russian mercenaries in Venezuela to uncovering the machinations of the Kremin’s propaganda apparatus. Now it finds itself reporting the war in Ukraine, but just last week it had to evacuate more than 20 of its reporters from Russia
In this episode, we speak with Meduza editor-in-chief and co-founder Ivan Kolpakov who explains what life has been like for Russian journalists under Vladimir Putin, a leader who uses the power of TV to spread propaganda and convince the Russian people of his narrative. Ivan describes how it's possible to operate in exile, and why he believes it will take a long time for independent journalism to help Russian people see through the disinformation and lies.
To support the work of Meduza, visit https://save.meduza.io/eu

Our guest this time is Joshi Herrmann, who began the pandemic intending to write a book in the Czech Republic… but instead launched a venture in Manchester that shows there might after all be a viable future for good quality, local news reporting.

In just 18 months, Joshi Herrmann has signed up 16,000 free subscribers (and more than 1,000 paid) to The Mill, his weekly email newsletter. And thanks to funding from Substack, he has launched two more titles: The Tribune in Sheffield and The Post in Liverpool.

In this episode, you'll hear Joshi explain the business model behind The Mill, describe how its journalism differs from traditional local newspaper reporting, and unpick why he made the switch from working as a national and international journalist.

J-Lab is a podcast brought to you by the Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University.