Why this brave man should no longer be allowed to report from the front line
War reporting requires physical stamina above all else. So why is the partially paralysed Frank Gardner allowed on the front line? Frank Gardner, the BBC’s security correspondent, stood in a military...
View ArticleDownturn Alley
Bad behaviour is nothing new or unexpected in newspapers or broadcasting. Much of press history consists of conflict between the people who want to conceal secrets and the journalists who want to...
View ArticleA men-only meritocracy
I’ve always regarded news as the military wing of the TV business. It has many of the macho professional characteristics which you definitely don’t find in the “luvvie” end of the industry. Reporters...
View ArticleAnchors away, my boys
The BBC, under severe budget pressures, is seeking to prove that less is better. So it has presented a cost-cutting programme under the acronym DQF: Delivering Quality First. George Orwell, who knew a...
View ArticleCrusaders or pigs in raincoats?
For several years I have lived in the same London street as a high profile platinum-album-selling British musician. In the spirit of the super-injunction age, let’s call this person XYZ. Not long ago,...
View ArticleTragicomedy of errors
Like an interminable tragicomedy, the phone-hacking story rumbles on with much of the audience dozing in their seats. Every now and then a scene arouses their interest, but the twists and turns of the...
View ArticleConsensus at last?
As the Leveson Inquiry took a fortnight’s breather, there were some signs that the problems it intends to address are being taken seriously by elements of the media. Although the focus of coverage has...
View ArticleWould Stead hack? Of course
Would the grandparents of investigative journalism have dared to hack phones in order to obtain the stories that made them famous? In 1885, “the grandfather”, William Thomas Stead, exposed the trade in...
View ArticleCovering Assange: We have taken our eyes off the prize
Christian Christensen The media focus on Assange’s personality has overshadowed the importance of WikiLeaks, says an American professor in Sweden “I think most people who know him go through this...
View ArticleLeveson: Godfathers on the run from the law
Given true words and jests and all that, it was perhaps unwise of the Daily Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher to tweet that the editors’ visit to Downing Street to discuss the Leveson report with the...
View ArticleA question of taste
Who can forget what birthdays were like when we were little? Those weeks of anticipation, that sense of a world about to change, the almost unbearable excitement of the night before… And then, usually...
View ArticleNo time to sulk
There are many reasons for rejecting the alternative proposal for press regulation put up in April by the newspaper industry. None of them is good. It’s not enough to dismiss it because the papers have...
View ArticleA threat to us all
It’s a shame, if not a surprise, that the latest ostensible threat to a free pressshould be brought to light by The Guardian. No surprise, because the paperremains dedicated in support of democratic...
View ArticleBuilding on the legacy
Is it really 24 years since Geoffrey Goodman wrote the leader for the first edition of this magazine? “The business is now subject to a contagious outbreak of squalid, banal, lazy and cowardly...
View ArticleConstant revolution
In these straitened times journalists look for comfort where they can, so let’s take encouragement from the news that advertising revenue at Mail Online is currently rising faster than advertising...
View ArticleGive it a chance
It is not often government ministers find themselves popular with the press: Sajid Javid, the culture secretary, should enjoy the feeling while he can. His predecessor, Maria Miller, resigned over an...
View ArticleComputer memory
The man who created the “right to be forgotten” not only jogged the memories of those who knew his past, but also brought his history to the attention of a wider, ignorant audience. Until he tried to...
View ArticleThe price of courage
It is no surprise that James Foley and Steven Sotloff, the two American journalists murdered by the violent Islamist faction Isil, were freelancers. Many of the reporters and photographers covering the...
View ArticleParty animals
There’s been much discussion about the coming election being dominated – even decided – by social media. To judge by the first few weeks, the biggest impact will actually be made by our old friends,...
View ArticleSpoilt papers
When so many other election forecasts proved misguided, who can begrudge us for looking back to our leader page of three months ago, when we prophesied that the right-wing press would turn on the...
View Article
/fit-in/580x348/filters:format(webp)/english-betterindia/media/media_files/2026/09/17/balaghat-4-2026-09-17-19-01-31.png)
