A regional newspaper was the first to break a story about children taking part in a ticketed cage fighting event that made headlines across the country.
The Lancashire Evening Post reported on Wednesday that children as young as eight has been filmed cage fighting at a social club in Preston in front of an audience of 250 adults.
The story, which reports that one child can be seen crying during the fight, has caused national outrage with people branding it ‘barbaric’ and ‘disturbing.’
The Johnston Press title uncovered the story after being tipped off by a contact who had been in the audience.
An official video of the event had been put on YouTube.
The paper’s story by Ben Robinson reports that qualified medical staff had been brought into the ring to assess the youngsters, who were not wearing head gear or padding.
Editor Simon Reynolds said the story had been uncovered through ‘good old fashioned journalism’.
Said Simon: “My understanding is that nothing illegal has taken place. We did the story on Wednesday and there was no suggestion of legality, it’s an ethical issue.
“I’m not surprised it went so big, as soon as I saw the video it was clear it was a controversial piece of footage. It wasn’t just as issue of kids fighting – a lot of them do martial arts – it was seeing them in the context of a club with adults cheering them on and ring girls.”
He added that they initially stuck to the Editors Code of Practice in not identifying the children as they did not have the parents’ permission.
They later got permission from the parents when they did a follow-up story.
Despite the story making national headlines, event organiser Steven Nightingale claimed it was an ‘extremely good event’ and the social club’s owner defended the spectacle.
He told the newspaper that a packed social club was not the wrong environment for the bout, claiming it would help their progress.
The article states: “In cage fighting events, contestants are allowed to punch, kick, wrestle, knee and elbow each other into submission. Some moves are banned including gouging, elbows in the spine and putting fingers in the opponent’s mouth and pulling.”
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“Editor Simon Reynolds said the story had been uncovered through ‘good old fashioned journalism’.”
Hmm. Not sure about that, since you admit it came from a tip-off from the audience and all the evidence had been on YouTube for a week.
Great story, no doubt, but I’d say it was laid out on a plate for you.
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A great story indeed – and well presented by the LEP.
But posting a video on YouTube is hardly the way to keep an event out of the public eye is it?
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@Paul
What’s wrong with you? Get out of the wrong side of bed?
Give a little bit of credit where credit is due. This has become a massive issue only after LEP journalist brought the story to public attention.
@redundant hack
It took a LEP journalist to unearth it, though.
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