International investigation earns City alumna Emmy award By Tilda Coleman found many cases where families claimed their children had been taken against their wishes, or disappeared. She discovered the difficulty was finding evidence to support their claims. Researching the story was never Cavell’s full time job, but for years she worked on it whenever she had time. Making the documentary taught her the value of persistence. She found documented evidence that families had objected before their children left the country. Cavell said: “In one case it was a complaint made to the police about missing children and in another it was court records and a letter from the US embassy to the judge in the case about the mother’s objection to the adoption.”
She said: “Over the years there were other reports that came out about the same subject but I believe it was worth taking a longterm view with a story this important. “Without credible supporting evidence, this story about fraud and exploitation would have been reduced to one about whether or not someone was telling the truth.” Her work has increased awareness about the issue in Uganda and countries like it which allow international adoption. Cavell said that many of the people whose children were taken “were targeted precisely because they were vulnerable and it was important to keep that in mind”. She had to make sure that interviewing
Image: Marc Bryan-Brown
A lengthy investigation into international adoption fraud has won a City graduate an Emmy award. Anna Cavell’s documentary Adoption Inc: The Baby Business won the 2019 Emmy for ‘Outstanding Investigation in a news magazine’. The film, which was published by Al Jazeera, investigates the story of Ugandan families who claim their children are adopted by Americans against their wishes. Cavell first heard stories that Ugandan families were losing their children in 2011. She could not investigate at the time, but she said: “It stayed with me, and, like all the best stories, it almost seemed like it couldn’t be true.” When she did begin to look into the matter, she
them did not lead to false hope that their children would be returned. Once a child has left Uganda, the Ugandan government has no jurisdiction to intervene even if the paperwork is proven to be false. Cavell said: “I hope the message from the film is that we should be very cautious about assuming we understand foreign cultures, and aware of the harm that our money can do, even when we believe we’re helping.”
University lecturers strike over ongoing pension dispute By Ramsha Vistro Image: Hamza Azhar Salam
NEWS
City journalism lecturers participated in 14 strike days from February 20 to March 13.The University and College Union (UCU) members voted for industrial action spread over four weeks. The action was in response to proposed changes to City’s pension scheme, the Universities Superannuation Scheme
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(USS), which requires members’ pension contributions to increase. Industrial action affected 74 universities across the country. In addition, there was also ‘action short of a strike’. This involved some UCU colleagues working to contract and not covering for absent colleagues or rescheduling cancelled
lectures and activities. George Negas, a lecturer on the Broadcast MA course, said: “Striking is always a last resort as I deeply care for my students, as I’m sure all my colleagues do too. But, we feel there are now too many serious problems with the industry we care, love and work in, that we have to take a stand.” Despite earlier industrial
action in November 2019 and negotiation attempts, UCU remains in dispute with the Higher Education employers’ organisation. Many students were supportive of the strikes. Inori Roy, MA Investigative Journalism, said: “The UCU is fighting for a more stable future for not only their members, but for everyone in the world of higher education.” However, other students felt the University did not put enough provisions in place for lost teaching. Hamza Azhar, MA Interactive Journalism, said: “The strikes affected my studies. There were no makeup classes for the missed lectures - there was like a sudden halt to our learning.”