gair rhydd MONDAY 30th SEPTEMBER 2002
Cardiff prof attacks Soham media coverage Mark Cobley reports CARDIFF University lecturer has spoken out against the media over their coverage of the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham. Speaking in The Western Mail over the summer, Professor Ian Hargreaves, a former editor of the Independent and now Director of the Centre for Journalism Studies at Cardiff, said that it was possible that the media coverage had endangered the successful completion of a fair trial. Professor Hargreaves told gair rhydd, “Journalists operate under strict legal rules when reporting court cases and matters which are on the brink of resulting in criminal charges. “In recent years, newspapers have been taking increasing risks, partly because news is so competitive these days, but also, perhaps because the news media feel that they are very powerful, answerable to their readers but less so to politicians and other figures of authority.” He went on, “Here is a case [Holly and Jessica] where there
News 5
Halls price shock for UWCM students Dominic O’Neill reports
are two people, one accused of murder, the other accused of STUDENTS AT the misleading the police. University of Wales College “The world may not care of Medicine have moved very much whether these two into their halls only to be people are treated fairly and faced with an unexpected threatened with death in their rent hike. They now have to pay an cells, given the horrific nature extra £50 a month for rooms of the murders, but everyone is in the halls of residence, and entitled to a fair trial in a it is the second price increase democracy. since last year. “The press has a big Student nurse Keira Sweet responsibility to ensure that expected to pay only £105 anyone accused in this case is per month for her room in fairly tried so that, if guilty they Brecknock House when she can be punished, and if accepted her place in acquitted they can resume their summer 2001. UWCM Halls, where student But after arriving back lives.” from a gap year this month, even worse for nurses who He continued, she was told she would have started in March 2002, as they “Sensationalism isn’t necessarily to reset her direct debits to are used to paying only £125 a bad thing. It can help draw £175 per month. per month in rent. people into complex stories “Some people are finding “At first we thought it was it really hard because of this,” and and express things in plain really cheap,” she said. “It’s not any more, but she said. language. What matters is “We can’t get a part time there is nothing we can do fidelity to the facts.” Asked whether in his about it. The prices seem to job because we have to work shifts at the hospital anyway.” be going up and up. opinion a completely fair trial Another student nurse, “They could have notified in the case of Holly and Jessica us earlier of the price Hannah Woods, 19, agreed had now been made increase.” with Keira, complaining that impossible, Professor The 20 year-old says it is the price increases have not Hargreaves replied, “It’s impossible to answer that question without knowing the full nature of the evidence and case against the accused. I Rhiannon Davies reports campus demonstrations and are hope not.” STUDENTS AT the claimed to be the biggest at the University of East Anglia university since anti-apartheid are protesting at the protests in the 1980s. More than 1,000 of UEA’s prospect of having to work 12,000 students have signed a during freshers’ week. Freshers have arrived at the petition to free freshers’ week university to find that they are from lectures. Fresher Lucy Izzard arrived at expected to attend lectures in their first week - usually a time of the university on Sunday and had drinking, partying and meeting to attend her first history and sociology lecture on Monday. new people. “It’s not fair,” she said. “I The plans have triggered large
gair rhydd ...World Roundup... GERMANY: Chancellor Gerhard Schroder celebrated victory on Monday September 23, in the closest-fought election in German history. His Social Democratic Party actually won slightly less votes, with 38.4%, than his rival, Edmund Stoiber of the Christian Democratic Union, who pulled in 38.8% of the vote. However, Schroder’s coalition partners the Greens did far better than expected with 8.6% of the vote, securing a victory for the governing Red-Green coalition.
brought any improvements to the standard of accommodation. She said, “We have to share one shower between 12, and we only have one tiny kitchen between us, with a tiny fridge. “When I look at what my friends get in Talybont, it’s a bit of a joke.” Figures recently released by the Royal College of Nursing in Wales show that
the average student nurse has to pay £640 per month in living expenses with a bursary of just £453 per month. A spokesperson for the organisation said financial problems mean many of the students may never become registered nurses. “The gap between bursaries and the cost of living in cities like Cardiff has to be bridged,” she said.
haven’t even set my computer up and I’m asked to submit a presentation this Friday.” Ned Glasier, Communications officer at UEA students’ union, said, “We believe that freshers need a little time to settle down and make friends. “We are furious the university is going to put extra pressure on students who may already be feeling lonely or homesick.”
Officials at the University say they are surprised at the reaction of students about the issue. A spokesperson for the UEA said, “The research we’ve conducted suggests that first years welcomed the opportunity to get started as soon as possible. “If you are lonely and homesick, it’s good to be able to crack on with work. People aren’t having lectures from 9am to 5pm.”
Protest over Fresher’s Work
Angry scenes: Was the media to blame?
SCHRODER WINS BY A WHISKER
nurses have suffered an unexpected rise in their rent
Many have attributed the victory to Schroder’s uncompromising stance firmly against a war on Iraq. CDU/CSU leader Edmund Stoiber, after finally conceding defeat, had a bitter parting shot for the government. “I predict this government will rule for only a very short time,” he said. Chancellor Schroder acknowleged that the road ahead would not be easy, with Germany facing high unemployment and the necessity of difficult reforms. Addressing a victory rally, he said, “There may be hard times ahead, but we’ll get there together.”
gair rhydd takes a fortnightly look at the places and people making the headlines in Wales, Britain, Europe and the World GOOD NEWS FOR PLANET AS OZONE HOLE SHRINKS AUSTRALIA: The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is shrinking, and will close within 50 years, scientists claimed earlier this month. Researchers at the Cape Grim base in Tasmania have detected falls in the level of
Schroder: winner
ozone-depleting chlorine gas in the atmosphere. They put this down to the global ban on the use of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which has been in force since the Montreal Protocol of 1987. Only recently the European Union came under fire in the UK press for enforcing a directive aimed at clearing up the mountains of old fridges that contain the CFCs. However, it appears that such initiatives are having the desired effect. Dr Paul Fraser, the chief scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, said, “This is big news. We think
the trend is definite now. It’s very significant.”
POLITICIAN WANTS PISTOL DUEL PERU: Vice-President David Waisman has been challenged to a duel as a ‘matter of honour’ by an independent congressman, Eittel Ramos.
President Toledo and wife
The challenge occured after President Alexander Toledo’s wife, Elaine Karp commented that “two-bit parties” were trying to undermine her husband. Mr Ramos criticised her for making the remarks, but then Waisman stepped into the fray and attacked him. Soon after, Mr. Ramos invited Mr. Waisman to come to a Lima beach to settle the matter once and for all. Mr Ramos said, “The VicePresident called my attitude cowardly because I said what I said about a woman.” Mr Waisman was quoted as saying that his moral beliefs prevented him from trying to end another person’s life, and so he was declining the offer to duel.