No one deserves to get a punch in the face just for doing their job
YOU might not have read it, seeing as it didn’t happen in Derby. But all of us at the Telegraph have and we send our solidarity and support to him. Because one of our fellow reporters on a sister title was attacked last week while simply doing his job.
Imagine that for one moment. You’re out doing your job, whatever it is, and you’re set upon by, in Joe’s case, a gang of youths angry that he had taken a photograph of them.
It transpires they followed and then cornered him in a supermarket, at first demanding he delete snaps he had legally and lawfully taken of them allegedly building an illegal bonfire.
They then punched him in the face leaving him shaken but, thankfully, not too seriously injured.
Mob mentality from nothing but a pack of animals, no doubt egging each other on, scared at the consequences of their own actions.
I was both upset and angered when I read the story in the Hull Daily Mail.
Immediately afterwards I dropped Joe an email offering our support from Derbyshire. He responded almost straight away, thanking us all and wishing us the best.
“Freedom of speech and a free press are at the very core of our democracy, and journalists must be able to go about their work without being threatened. The cowardly attacks and abuse directed at reporters for simply doing their job cannot continue.”
Who do you think said that in March of this year at the launch of the Government’s first action plan to protect reporters, such as all of us at the Derby Telegraph?
Boris Johnson, our Prime Minister.
Those in London were sparked into action after a survey by the National Union Of Journalists revealed more than half of respondents had experienced online abuse while nearly a quarter had been physically assaulted or attacked.
I receive online abuse every week from the sad trolls who hide behind daft online names, believing what they do is completely acceptable.
Outside courtrooms and court buildings, I have been approached by people hell-bent on trying, and failing, to intimidate me into not writing about their or their loved ones’ criminal activities.
Many years ago, I was even punched once while out on a job, just like poor Joe was last week, but I didn’t report it at the time as I was too shell-shocked at precisely what had just happened to me.
Joe has reported it. And
Humberside Police are trying to track down the trio of mindless thugs – for that is precisely what they are – who carried out the assault on him.
If and when they are caught and hopefully prosecuted, I would welcome seeing their pathetic faces spread across their neighbourhoods, naming and shaming them as the low life specimens they are.
As you might have already been able to tell, I am furious as I type this, smoke metaphorically rising from my laptop keyboard. A colleague, compadre, comrade, mate and fellow journalist being punched in the face for simply doing his job to, no doubt, to the best of his ability and to an incredibly high standard. When you next go to work after reading this – whatever you do for a living – just imagine that someone out there might be prepared to resort to physical violence to stop you from doing so.
I am sure there will be those who read this who 100% disagree with what I am saying and believe we, as reporters, put ourselves in these positions. We don’t. No one does. You’re wrong.
The cowardly attacks and abuse directed at reporters for simply doing their job cannot continue. Boris Johnson