“Events dear boy, events”

Possibly about to become the most over-used phrase in my essays, Harold Macmillan’s words have become relevant to my last term at Leeds.

The newspaper has been going strongly, with some fantastic pieces (see the post below for proof!), including a piece on energy use, student housing and library fines. I had very little to do with those though!

Three pieces I’ve written in the last 10 weeks have caused debate, complaints and possible lawsuits.

The first one was on the student occupation of Botany house. The main controversy was over the headline “Extremist’s “stir up tensions on campus.” I’ll defend this headline with my life, as it was never meant to cause offence. In twenty-first century vocabulary, extremist is linked with Islamic terrorists. It was never meant like that. They were referred to as extremists as taking a university building is a fairly extreme form of protest – especially given that last year LUU’s most exciting protests were cake sales! The fact that we did not print a quote which would have portrayed them as extremists shows that we were balanced and not out to do a simple hack job (One protester admitted to being for the destruction of the British state). For me, this was the best piece that I’ve written this year, and I loved the fact that in that week, I had the time to interview the protesters, look round the house, and do the first of Leeds Student’s now infamous page 4 and 5 spread.

The second piece to cause controversy has been the most dangerous to me personally, although I realised that if it came to anything serious, I would be clear of charges. The piece “Racism row engulfs Union” was about allegations of racism by an LUU member against LS: TV. LS: TV were understandably keen to try to limit the damage of the story – this included taking legal action against myself and the newspaper! I would like to explain a bit here about why I was clear, and LS: TV had themselves to blame. Firstly, they were aware of what was going to happen, and when I tried to talk to the station manager about the incident, his line was “It’s all in the statement.” I tried to explain the serious matter of the allegations to him, but he refused point-blank. This gave him a right to reply, something he later claimed he never had. I also spoke to the interviewer of the piece, which meant that I had spoken to a fairly key member of the team making the piece.

The key claim of racism was made through a script which had been written, claiming that the member of LUU was “the person with the Palestinian flag behind her desk.” LS: TV claimed that this was never written – there are multiple copies of the script everywhere. LS: TV wanted to sue us for defamation. I will argue that what I published was researched journalism which was in the public interest – at no point did the newspaper take a stance, we reported it as it was. Fair, unbiased journalism.

Although one can argue that the article was tabloided up – that had nothing to do with me. The final decisions were those of the editor, and I stand by those too. Both sides need to come together on this, and be reasonable. This appears to be happening, as tension has cooled. In future, I think greater communication from both sides is required, and that the next manager of LS: TV needs to be less hasty in making assumptions, as well as calming themselves when sending serious emails.

Finally, the final complaints came from the “Sex attack on campus” article. This was my first real crime story, and took a lot of legal work from Laurie, to whom I am grateful. One complaint argues that we link the victim to the cottaging that take place – at no point do we do this. Whilst we need to treat this with compassion, I am not too worried about its ramifications. This was an interesting story to write, and got me my front page of the term.

Only three issues left now, and then the team moves on. I will miss Virginia and Claire – they have been great fellow editors. Hopefully Matty and I will continue as News editors – he has been a revelation this year, and we write well together. I don’t believe I will be made associate next year – I would love to be one, and believe I would be good in the role, but I will embrace the News editorship with both hands once again to be the most complained about writer on the team!

On a personal level, the term has been a good one. Exams went well – much better than expected (a 69, 68 and 66), and I got my first ever first on an essay (76). Modules this semester are very enjoyable – I just hope I can continue to get good grades.

I started with “Events dear boy, events.” I’ll end with that too, as that is the only answer I will give to an event in my personal life that makes me very happy.

To all my readers (all 4 of them!), have a good Easter.