A central investigations team linking a regional publisher’s national and local titles has launched a campaign to get tougher sentences for dangerous drivers.
Johnston Press has announced the launch of its Drive for Justice campaign with a report revealing the truth behind Britain’s deadly road crimes and the scandal of lenient sentencing in the UK.
The report has been produced by the company’s new investigations team, which features journalists from across its portfolio.
The team is being led by multi-award-winning investigative reporter Aasma Day, of the Lancashire Evening Post, with the campaign featuring in national daily the i as well as several of the company’s largest regional dailies.
Others involved are Chris Burn, from Sheffield daily The Star, Cahal Milmo, from the i, Ruby Kitchen, from the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post, Ben Fishwick, from Portsmouth daily The News, Philip Bradfield, from the Belfast News Letter, and group editorial design director Tim Robinson.
Said Aasma: “The team feels it is crucial to ensure reports like Drive for Justice are absolutely front of mind – that though our papers and websites we’re raising awareness of the issues that really matter in our communities.
“These are local stories of national interest and our ambition is to pool our resources and talents to enable us to deliver quality and exclusive content on important issues that all of our readers really care about.”
The investigation has revealed that despite hundreds of convictions for causing death by dangerous driving, no-one in the UK has ever received the maximum sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment.
It reveals that drivers who kill have been sentenced to an average of just four years in prison with dozens escaping jail altogether.
Among the aims of the campaign, JP wants the government to re-work sentencing guidelines to give the worst offenders tougher sentences, have all culpable deaths treated as manslaughter and see more and longer driving bans handed out to those who kill or seriously injure others on the roads.
Similar campaigns are also currently being run by Newsquest dailies the Bradford Telegraph & Argus and The Press, York.
Jeremy Clifford, Editor-in-Chief at Johnston Press, said: “Investigative journalism – and holding those in authority to account – is at the very core of our business and of the communities we serve. We’ve seen the impact and benefits that campaigns supported by local titles can deliver and the lives that can change.
“By sharing high quality, powerful special reports, data journalism pieces and investigations across our portfolio – which now includes the i paper – we can deliver compelling investigations and demand real results that can ultimately change the law and people’s lives.”
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That’s all very well….but they should take a look at the car crash (train wreck more like) that are their local weekly papers. Once proud quality papers coming apart at the seams because of cuts and deliberate under-resourcing.
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Can this group not think of anything for themselves or something a bit more original than this? Looks like a lot of resources being diverted into this possibly at the expense of news.
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A group concentrates on investigative hard news – and some people still aren’t happy. Ridiculous.
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@drednot I am one of the reporters who contributed to this project. Perhaps this issue isn’t ‘news’ to you, but it certainly is to the many bereaved families across the country we have spoken to in the past few weeks. They have lost loved ones, including children, often in circumstances that involved the drivers who hit them speeding, being over the drink-drive limit and leaving then leaving the person they have hit for dead. The bereaved families have then gone through a court process where they have seen the person responsible for their relative’s death either given what they consider to be a lenient sentence or in some cases walk free from court. I believe this is a worthwhile project and the type of thing papers should be striving to do. Happy to hear your suggestions for the next topic though?
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Yes, too cynical, people. This is a matter of public concern and good on them for doing some digging.
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It is a matter of public concern… but 5 minutes of googling finds at least six papers (not in JP) already have very similar campaigns/stories on this subject.
Including the Telegraph and Argus and York Press in Yorkshire so it’s going to be fun for the Yorkshire Post and YEP to look like they are miles behind on this
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I’m with Desker. This is a good subject, an emotive subject, but, hardly an investigation that brings true exclusives into the world.
However, this is a step in the right direction. I’m not sure it’s local enough, but I hope it yields positive results.
I’m sad about the parlous state of UK journalism, but not so much to be churlish at attempts to improve it.
Good luck to those involved, but let’s get more digging.
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Apologies Chris. It wasn’t my intention to give the impression that it isn’t an important subject. It certainly is. My thinking is, as stated above, is that is already covered. My use of ‘original’ was a poor choice.
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Point is, it may not be ‘news’ in the sense it’s original, but who cares? You’ve only got to look around you every day to see that the number of idiots on the road who have no regard for anyone is growing rapidly. It’s a problem that’s not going away. Two nights ago, I drove past a road crash where police officers were covering the body of a man with a blanket. This sort of message should be rammed down the public’s throat regularly. I only hope it does some good. Good work, chaps.
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I would rejoice that JP are involved in campaigning journalism, but for the fact that they’ve made hundreds of journalists redundant over the past two or three years.
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