A former daily reporter who helped expose one of the biggest healthcare scandals in NHS history says journalists need to take on “greater personal responsibility” for maintaining industry standards.

Shaun Lintern, who now works for the Health Service Journal but was formerly a journalist at Wolverhampton’s Express & Star, has also called for “wider industry leadership” from editors and owners.

In a piece published on the National Union of Journalists’ website, he also bemoaned the decline of specialist reporters within the regional press and further investment to allow them to “flourish” again.

Shaun began his career at Leek Post & Times before moving to the Sentinel, Stoke.

Healso served as deputy editor of Your Leek Paper during his time in the regional press.

He wrote: “We all need to live up to the ideals of our role and make it worthy of such a lofty title as the ‘fourth estate’.

“Whatever the problems journalists face whether it be bullying editors, short-staffed newsrooms or scandalous low-pay it is no excuse for us to abandon our own integrity.

“Journalists have to take responsibility for what they produce; machine gunning FOI requests to all your local councils and labelling it an exclusive investigation is not the stuff of Watergate.

“Neither is ringing a press office and asking only ‘for a comment’ rather than asking an actual question.

“Preferring to cut, copy and paste a press release rather than taking the time to read the report it is actually based on isn’t journalism either.

“This isn’t easy, I’ve worked as a solo journalist in an office with editors demanding copy and it can be incredibly hard to maintain your own standards.

“But when it mattered I got out of the office, I knocked on doors, I met my contacts and I followed up their tips.

“I spend an awful lot of my time writing about the culture change required in the NHS after the Stafford Hospital disaster and I see real parallels with journalism.

“We need greater personal responsibility but also wider industry leadership from our editors and owners.”

The piece was taken from a speech given by Shaun at last week’s ?????

The full extent of Shaun’s piece is available at https://www.nuj.org.uk/news/why-local-journalists-matter-shaun-lintern/