The Bath Chronicle is giving student Jemma Gunning a taste of life in the newsroom – after a previous brush with the press turned sour.

Journalism hopeful Jemma had been studying for a BTEC in media production at the City of Bath College and decided to celebrate the end of her course with a holiday in Greece.

But what was meant to be a fun trip turned into a disaster when the 18-year-old was arrested for going topless in a Faliraki nightclub competition.

The incident left tabloid newspapers hot on her heels and Jemma graced many national newspaper pages.

But despite her brush with the press she is still determined to forge ahead with a career as a journalist – and has joined the Bath Chronicle on a three-day placement in a bid to help her fulfil her dream.

She said: “I’m just looking for a job. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as I enjoy it.

“It would be nice if it was in the media and I know I’m going to have to start at the bottom – just like everybody else has to.

“But I would never, ever want to work for one of the red tops after the way they treated me.”

After being arrested in August, Jemma was sentenced to eight months behind bars – unless she could pay a 2,500 euro (£1,750) fine.

She said: “I was arrested on Monday night and I thought I was going to have to stay there for eight months.

“In court there were a lot of journalists listening to my case and I agreed to give The Sun an exclusive because they said they would pay my fine.

“But when we went to pay the fine the clerk wanted to go home and said we only had 15 minutes – but that wasn’t enough time for them to get the money together.

“I had to go back to the police station for another night.”

Jemma spent two nights in the cells, and after being bailed out by her mum and step-dad she had to face an intense media frenzy when she arrived home.

She said: “There were photographers and paparazzi following me around as I was walking from the court to the police station where the cells were but I didn’t think for one moment that the attention would also be there when I got home.

“I do feel like I have had a bad press and there were a lot of lies. I was very upset and I felt I was portrayed in a way that I am not.”

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