Opinion

By Rebecca Benson A few weeks ago I had never heard of Logan Paul. Sadly, I can’t say the same now. The apparently well-known YouTube vlogger, gained notoriety a few weeks ago, when he posted the now infamous vlog that showed a dead man, hanging from a tree by the neck. Anyone who has even slightly followed the news over the last few weeks will be aware of this story. Logan and his friends had been filming a vlog series in...

The decision of the Crown Prosecution Service not to prosecute the officer concerned in the death of Rashan Charles predictably provoked a storm of protest from activists and an impassioned exchange of views on social medial. Much of the criticism emanated from Lee Jasper but arguably the most disturbing assertion came from Leroy Logan MBE, a retired black senior officer, who argued that the officer should, in any event, have been prosecuted. This in turn provoked an angry response from...

It's nothing short of mass manipulation in action, right before our eyes. Can somebody please tell me why UKIP should be literally all over the news, on every political TV and radio show, and splashed on every newspaper?!? They’re a fringe minority party with no representation in the commons; they no longer have a single seat in parliament. Ergo, they should be about as politically relevant as the Monster Raving Loony Party. What about party membership? After all, its surging...

The rise of Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 General Election was remarkable for a number of reasons. It was remarkable because it galvanised a previously inactive portion of the electorate. It was remarkable because it shook up the political norm. But mostly it was remarkable because the media, who purportedly have their ear to the ground, missed one of the biggest political scoops of a generation. Much has changed in the media industry over the past decade, with the rise...

Jeremy Corbyn is under "huge pressure" to shift Labour Party policy on Brexit, the Observer has revealed today after a poll carried out by the publication found a substantial majority of existing and potential Labour voters want him to back permanent membership of the EU’s single market and customs union. According to the results four times as many Labour supporters favour that option as oppose it, and more than twice as many in this group want Corbyn to support a second...

In a week when the Guardian left the FT and Telegraph as the only publications flying the flag for broadsheet the message from the media industry in 2018 is clear; size really does matter. The media market is undoubtedly shrinking, with a demand for content that fits in your pocket and can be consumed on-the-go on the rise. Thanks to Netflix, iPlayer, Spotify and Amazon Prime video we are all being trained in the art of "stackable", watch or listen...

When looking for ways to bring about equality and improve the lives of minorities we must be bold enough to call time on a bad idea and come up with a new solution. This, it could be argued, is true in the case of bisexuals and tethering their equality to the LGBT movement.  LGBT groups have long represented the interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people but campaigning for four minorities that deal with completely different issues could actually...

After five long months, my friend, fellow broadcaster and activist, Hisham Al-Omeisy was finally released by his Houthi captors on Sunday 14 January 2018. Nothing can explain the emotion this image of Hisham, now a free man, with his sons evokes in those of us who have campaigned for his freedom every day since his kidnap (or as the Yemeni authorities would say  ‘detainment’) on 14 August 2017. I had discovered Hisham whilst co-hosting a news and current affairs show on...

By Robert Seiler Influential Bulgarian businessman Petar Hristov, who had assisted with the dismantling of a kidnapping ring and who was closely tied to senior members of Bulgaria’s ruling GERB party, was shot in broad daylight on the 8th of January in an upmarket area of Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. This fatal shooting, coming six days after Bulgarian President Rumen Radev vetoed anti-graft legislation and seven days after Bulgaria assumed the rotating EU presidency, puts the spotlight back on Bulgaria’s unresolved problems with corruption and a difficult investment...