Category Archives: Crime and Justice

Lessons from Italy’s Mafia Republic

Posted on June 5, 2013 by samiraahmed

Every weekend when I was 10 years old, I had to write an English composition for homework. It was 1978 and drawing on the daily news on my TV screen for source material I wrote one  imagining I was the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Crime and Justice, History, journalism, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 23 Comments

But it’s news… Some questions about Woolwich coverage

Posted on May 23, 2013 by samiraahmed

 I’ll be discussing questions about BBC TV’s news coverage of the horrific Woolwich street murder of a young soldier on Newswatch with the head of the BBC Newsroom, Mary Hockaday on Friday May 24th. This blog post lays out some … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and Justice, journalism, Media, TV, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 47 Comments

Troublesome slags: What Rochdale reveals about our attitudes to teenage girls

Posted on September 27, 2012 by samiraahmed

Heywood, Rochdale (Photo by Peter Byrne/PA) A provisional multi agency report into the scale of sexual abuse of young girls in Rochdale published today admitted there were issues about the legitimate sexual “consent” of 13 year old girls that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Crime and Justice, journalism, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

No Children of Ours: Rochdale and conveyor belt grooming

Posted on May 10, 2012 by samiraahmed

15 years ago the renowned filmmaker Peter Kosminsky made No Child of Mine, a controversial drama about a teenage girl in care who’d ended up being passed around by men for sex. The phenomenon was called “conveyor belt grooming”. The … Continue reading →

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Mea culpa: But only after making the money

Posted on May 9, 2012 by samiraahmed

Sir Mervyn King’s recent admisson that he should have been “shouting from the rooftops” about the dangers of the banking system before the 2008 crash seems to add to my theory, written for The Big Issue about the number of … Continue reading →

Posted in Business/Economics, Crime and Justice, Culture, journalism, Media, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Women and the Arab Spring

Posted on March 10, 2012 by samiraahmed

Here are some good links on the speakers at the Women Of The World (WOW) Arab Spring panel discussion 3pm Saturday March 10th it the Purcell Room in London’s Southbank Centre. I’m chairing.  Whether you are coming or not, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and Justice, Film, journalism, Media, Politics, Uncategorized, War | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Robocop policing: A warning about future riots

Posted on February 5, 2012 by samiraahmed

The  former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Brian Paddick gave me an interview for The World This Weekend on Radio 4 in which he issued a warning about a fundamental breakdown in the police’s social contract with the … Continue reading →

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The Libyan exile’s tale.

Posted on August 27, 2011 by samiraahmed

How must the events unfolding in Libya look to exiles? Today I met Jalal Shammam, a Libyan exile who was protesting outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984 when someone inside opened fire. In an interview for the PM … Continue reading →

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How To Loot It — Who’s defining the riots?

Posted on August 13, 2011 by samiraahmed

UPDATE: Monday August 15th How interesting that the Prime Minister has today come out with a nation healing speech which concludes with a reference to bankers’ bonuses, MPs’ expenses and an insistence that “There is no them and us. Only … Continue reading →

Posted in Business/Economics, Crime and Justice, Culture, journalism, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Exclusives, damned exclusives (and some lies).

Posted on July 7, 2011 by samiraahmed

UPDATED: FRIDAY JULY 15TH 2 senior NI/NewsCorp executives have quit within hours today: Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton. NI’s Legal chief Tom Crone left earlier this week after more than 20 years. And Rupert Murdoch apologised in person to the … Continue reading →

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