Booze nation

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 4:42 PM | add or read comments (1)

The shocking story of Wales' booze culture is set to dominate tomorrow's front page - with some truly disturbing revelations about the number of very young children who are addicted to drink.
I certainly can't take the moral high ground on the issue of booze - but I have to ask what the heck is going on in the homes of children as young as 12 who get so drunk they need to go to A&E and have counselling to face up to their addiction?
Send a message and tell me what you think.

Staffing updates - Andy Gilpin has been appointed as acting deputy editor, starting on December 10. If the name is familiar that's because Andy is already with the Daily Post and is our superstar sports editor. He's a proud Welshman who knows what makes North Wales tick. He has a fine eye for design and nose for a great story and I am delighted to welcome him to the top team. Also, I'll shortly be appointing a new digital journalist to help us develop our websites.

Our Achievement Wales awards are just a week away. I look forward to seeing all the contestants at our awards dinner at Bangor University on December 30. And if you need to shed a few pounds afterwards, then join me on Llandudno Prom at 11am Sunday for the Santa fun run for Hope House/Ty Gobaith. Don't forget to sign up and get your Santa suit first!

Last weekend a national paper proclaimed in about 300 point bold capitals that Madeleine McCann was indeed ALIVE. Today another newspaper said with similar conviction: SHE'S DEAD. It's bloody heartbreaking, agonising. There's been lots of talk about mum and dad - but how on earth are the grandparents and the rest of that little girl's extended family coping? It must be a living hell.

Finally, I had a message to my blog slagging me off over the way journalists doorstep grieving families. The author said he/she was sure I would censor it. To whoever sent that message - I would be happy to add your comment to the public section but at least do the decent thing and give your real name, Mr Bloggs.

Oh baby! And farewell to Gregg.

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 12:01 PM | add or read comments (0)

Sackcloth and ashes for us this week. The poor print quality in some copies of the Daily Post yesterday really spoiled the enjoyment of some readers on an important day, as we published the picture galleries for this year's Baby of the Year competition.
We have discussed the problem with the press hall chiefs, the problem has been identified and a solution proposed. Sadly it all feels a bit "closing the stable door after the horse has bolted" but at least we know how to avoid the problem in future.
In the meantime, my sincere apologies. On a more positive note, crystal clear images of all the baby pages and pictures can be seen at www.dailypost.co.uk. So keep on voting for your favourite tots!

You will have seen much coverage in the paper and on the website about the planned closure of 29 Gwynedd schools. The response from readers has been massive and this will certainly be an issue that figures highly on the news agenda in the coming weeks and months.

I'm feeling slightly delicate after a few farewell drinks last night for my deputy Gregg Fray, who is moving out to the United Arab Emirates to take a senior role on a new newspaper being launched in Abu Dhabi. The very best of luck to Gregg and wife Hannah as they embark on an exciting new venture.
Just imagine, though, being all that far away from Conwy mussels and Edwards sausages!

Remembering Lesley Moleseed

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 10:27 PM | add or read comments (2)

One of the first stories I remember was the murder of 11-year-old Lesley Moleseed in 1975. It wasn't so much the details that stuck in my head - it was Lesley's picture in the papers and on the telly. I was about ten at the time so she probably looked like the kids in my class.

I forgot about it until the photo re-emerged in the news when Stefan Kiszko, the victim of the most terrible miscarriage of justice and quite dreadful police work, was finally released after wrongly serving 16 years for Lesley's murder.

Now Ronald Castree has been locked up for killing Lesley on a lonely moor in West Yorkshire.
He was nailed by some vastly superior police work and DNA testing.

Castree had stopped off on his way to hospital to see his wife and newborn son when he sexually assaulted Lesley and stabbed her to death.

Then he sat back and watched poor bloody Stefan pay the terrible price of his ghastly crime.

How's that for a test of forgiveness, Christian or otherwise?

Anyway, we've got a page of coverage on this story on one of our national pages tomorrow.

The splash is about new airport style checks at pubs and clubs in North Wales to catch people carrying knives. We've also got an amusing picture of Prince Charles. FInd out more tomorrow.

Two tales of a lack of humanity

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 3:34 PM | add or read comments (1)

Pages one and three of tomorrow's Daily Post will feature two stories that should make anyone with a sense of decency feel angry and ashamed at some of our fellow citizens' lack of humanity.
One story tells of an unknown and monstrous yob who attached a terrapin to a firework rocket and set it off.
The other tells of a well known public servant who, in selecting images of road crash victims for a press conference, refers to some as "not gruesome enough" but praises images of a motorcycle crash victim as "outstandingly good".
The biker in question is of course, Mark Gibney, who was decapitated in the accident. It was the images of his remains that were shown at a press briefing and which caused a subsequent storm of protest, chiefly because the public servant (who is of course our chief constable Richard Brunstrom) hadn’t bothered to refer the matter in advance to Mr Gibney’s distraught family.
If you want a little insight into the way our chief constable works, then read this extract from an email he sent to his press chief Bethan Parry-Jones the night before the press conference.
“...we seem to have lost the plot somewhat. Too many repetitive pictures, not enough content and not enough numbers. We have the UK press here tomorrow – we are going to have to be much sharper than this – and time is now short.
"The presentation is supposed to run something like this: This is not a game. Real death & injury. We must have better slides than the suicide. Not enough. Not gruesome enough. Motorcyclist is outstandingly good."

As a newspaper editor I regularly have to make moral judgements about the use of photographs. Inevitably, our work takes us to the scene of road accidents. The photographers do their jobs and capture the images of what they see. Some of these images are gruesome, many of them far too gruesome to publicise.
In this I am governed by certain codes of conduct. I am also governed, I hope, by a sense of humanity.
I always ask myself these questions:
What would the family think about these images being displayed – would it unduly upset them?
Would this picture unduly offend my readers in general?
The question of what Mr Gibney’s family might think never seemed to have crossed Richard Brunstrom’s mind. And as for the wider public, his motto seems to be: “The more gruesome, the better.”
You will have heard the North Wales force offering various pathetic defences. This was not an issue of publication, they claim, because the pictures were only shown to a selected audience.
Hogwash. The audience included journalists – what do you think they were there to do?
The cops have even tried to blame the whole issue on one of the journalists who asked if the Gibney family had been consulted and then contacted the family when he learned that their feelings had not been taken into account. All that journalist was trying to establish was the answer to one of the questions I ask every time we receive pictures of crash scenes. He just displayed common humanity – and considerable journalistic ability.
What Richard Brunstrom should have done was to contact the Gibneys beforehand and seek their support for the police’s efforts to publicise the dangers of roads, vehicles and speed.
It has happened in the past that we have consulted a family over the use of a picture. The judicious use of crash scene images can illustrate the dangers on our roads but without the support of the affected family, it’s a complete no-no.
Whatever his qualities as a policeman, Richard Brunstrom is no journalist. Best leave that to the experts, Richard, and get on with the job of finding the scumbag who thinks it's a good idea to strap a live animal to a firework.