Campaigning journalist Don Hale will talk to journalism hopefuls about investigative reporting and the regional press industry at an event in Lincoln tonight.

Don, currently associate editor at the North Wales Newspapers Group, will open a new series of lectures by journalists at the University of Lincoln, presented by the Lincoln School of Journalism.

During his time as editor of the Matlock Mercury Don campaigned to secure the release of Stephen Downing, who spent 27 years in jail for a murder he always claimed not to have committed.

Since then he has won many awards including an OBE.

He will begin his talk in the Cargill Lecture Theatre in the main academic building at Brayford Pool at 6pm on October 3.

All lectures in the series are open to both students and the general public. Admission is free.

Professor Richard Keeble said: “We hope our students and members of the public will enjoy the extraordinary range of eminent speakers invited for this semester.

“It’s a real perk of studying at the University of Lincoln.”

Other speakers in the weekly series will include journalist-turned-politician Martin Bell, Dorothy Byrne, head of Channel 4 News, and The Sun’s finance editor Ian King.