“Splash” journo now an ambassador
A Midlands-based community reporter is one of a new 21-strong team of ambassadors appointed by the National Council for the Training of Journalists with a brief to promote its values of “quality, trust and diversity in journalism.”
The newly-assembled group, which includes Yasmin Sarwar (pictured), will attend events such as careers fairs and speak publicly for the training body. The ambassadors, from different areas across the UK, represent different branches of the industry ranging from print, digital and broadcast to podcasts, social media and communications.
Yasmin, who studied journalism at the University of Derby, is a community news reporter at Reach plc working across Stoke-on-Trent Live and Staffordshire Live as part of the Community News Project. She was previously a freelance content creator at the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust and a digital communications officer at the communications and PR consultancy Make It Happen.
Prior to that, Yasmin was a social media and PR assistant at Staffordshire County Council. She started out by honing her skills volunteering as a broadcast journalist at Cross Rhythms Radio, where she would create video and audio packages for its social media channels.
Earlier this year, just one week after being taken on full-time at Reach publication The Sentinel, Yasmin provided the front page splash – by helping to end a three-hour police rooftop stand-off! She interviewed homeless Mason McLatchie, who only agreed to climb down on the condition that a reporter would talk to him.
Mr McLatchie, who had threatened to harm himself before trained negotiators called the Sentinel to make the newspaper aware of his demand, told Yasmin: “I don’t want people to think I’m a crazy person who lost his head and climbed up a building. I’m scared of heights but this has had to be done.
“I’ve had to climb up here to get you [The Sentinel] here so that you can write an article and people might finally listen to what homeless people have to say. I’ve been homeless a long time and I’ve seen a lot of suffering. I have good friends who live on the streets and I see what it does to the homeless community – especially girls and women. Enough is enough, the men can brave it but it’s much harder for the girls.”
Kim Fletcher, who is to step down as NCTJ chairman in the autumn after 20 years in office, said the charity was “really privileged” to bring the group of 21 journalists together and he urged them: “Join us in getting the word out, talking about journalism and talking about what we’re trying to do on the diversity front.”
Kim, who will now assume the honorary role of emeritus chairman, is editor of the quarterly British Journalism Review. He is former editor of the Independent on Sunday and editorial director of the Telegraph Group.
