Our Man In Stockholm

When writing or broadcasting, journalists have a responsibility to tell you how they got to know what they know - and if they don't explain it properly, you have no way of knowing if you can believe them or not. 

Apart form a sharp mind and some tough questions, the most important thing for any journalist is the contents of the bag slung over their shoulder - choose well and you can tell any story, anywhere in the world, for hours at a time without running out of power. Choose badly, and you can end up talking to yourself while history is made in front of you.  Christian Payne (aka @Documentally) is a...

Dion Fanning was one of Ireland's most well-known sports journalists when he suddenly stepped away from the Sunday Independent and into the wild online world of Joe. In doing so he left behind much of his past, moving on from writing about sport to working with video and long-form interviews.  We talked about coming from Irish newspaper royalty, annoying Roy Keane, Pele's problem when discuss...

When a presenter on Newstalk said that women might bear some of the blame if they get raped, he was suspended and eventually reinstated - but when Dil Wickremasinghe criticised him and the station, she was sacked and her show cancelled.  Her emails to RTE suggesting she taker her "Global Village" show - a calm oasis of diversity in a sea of click-bait and bile - went unanswered.  Now a t...

A small but dedicated group attended the first-ever live OMIS podcast in Dublin, and for almost an hour they listened to journalist, broadcaster and communications consultant Margaret E Ward talk about diversity, media capture, the effects of journalism on vulnerable people and a whole lot more besides. 

Why make a one-hour radio documentary when you can make a six-and-a-half-hour podcast series spanning 13 episodes about infamous boxer Ruben "Hurricane" Carter and his wrongful conviction for murder?  I spoke to BBC sports journalist and broadcaster Steve Crossman about how the discovery of 40 hours of taped conversations with Ruben Carter finally gave the "Hurricane" the chance to tell his o...

Framing is a term we use in journalism when we decide what you could call the “terms of reference” for a story - and how you do it is of vital importance. 

Danny Robins is one of the finest comedy scriptwriters and documentary-makers I know - my fellow freelancer is also married to a Swede in what is an uncertain time both professionally and politically for us all.  I met him last week on what is most likely my final visit to the UK before Brexit, and on my return to Sweden I called him up to talk about his background in comedy, his brilliant au...

Women's sport might be getting more and more space in the media, but there is still a lot to do - I spoke to producer Elaine Buckley about her efforts to raise the profile of female athletes and what fans and journalists can do to help. 

A picture is worth ... what, exactly?  Photojournalism is powerful, immediate and perhaps more undervalued than ever before - but it is no less important.  I spoke to Dylan Martinez, Reuters Chief Photographer in the UK and Ireland, about how he got started, the life of the agency photographer and what the future holds for this vitally important form of journalism. 

What would you do if an article you wrote led to Al Qaeda threatening to kill you? Yemeni citizen Hind Aleryani left the safety and security of a job with the UN to become a journalist and activist concentrating on the rights of women and children, but after criticising religious extremists she was forced to flee to Sweden - but the "humanitarian super-power" with the self-proclaimed feminist gove...

An allegation that an Irish athlete raped a woman in a Dublin hotel has set tongues wagging, and though little is known about the case, plenty of people are sharing wild theories on social media as editors and reporters chase the details. I spoke to Noeline Blackwell, lawyer and chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, about how the media handles the cases that come before the courts, and...

Most interviews with professional athletes these days are very guarded affairs. They spend almost as much time on media training as they do in the gym - but are journalists in part to blame for them being so boring? I talked to ex-Manchester United, Rangers, Red Star Belgrade and AIK midfielder Bojan Djordjic about his work on both sides of the microphone - first as a high-profile player in big cl...

What would the coverage of the Belfast rape trial have looked like if we didn't know Paddy Jackson was involved? And was the public interest served, given that he was found not guilty? In Sweden, it's highly unlikely that Jackson's name would have been known before the trial, but I compare it to a recent court case around match-fixing in soccer to tease out some of the issues.

I spoke to American academic Whitney Phillips about how the media's attempts to do the right thing in reporting on the far right have backfired spectacularly - instead, it has ended up providing endless fuel for their fire. She outlines some of the ways in which they can be handled by journalists - not least by shifting the focus from the aggressors to their intended targets. You can read her full...

Middle Ireland recently got a jolt of what it is like when the far right stick their head above the parapet in the form of presidential candidate Peter Casey, but for journalists and women of colour like Clara Rose Thornton, they've always been there. I spoke to her about race, gender and how power is exerted over minorities by and through the media, and what can be done to change it - and the pow...

In the wake of a presidential campaign that saw a candidate go from one percent to 21 percent by attacking Travellers and welfare recipients, I spoke to actor, writer and director John Connors about being on the receiving end of racism as a political tactic.

Outside of Ireland, barrister, columnist and broadcaster Joe Brolly could walk down the street almost entirely unmolested - at least he could, until he wrote about how he wanted to see professional mixed martial arts banned. On social media at least, all hell broke loose. I was one of those who disagreed with him, so I asked him to talk to me about his journalism and the arguments he made in two a...

In this week's episode I speak to Johanna Franden about breaking into a male-dominated world, being a soccer pundit on the trail of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Barcelona and Paris, and why a second language can be vital to a freelancer...

I talk to Niall McGrath in the middle of the maelstrom that is covering a Conor McGregor fight in the UFC.

I'm in Las Vegas for UFC 229, so here's a little bonus material to keep you going. A few years ago I went to a firing range to find out why America loves guns, and I had a clear idea in my mind about what I wanted to do. It didn't turn out that way. Instead, it turned into this mini-documentary which, for the most part, is a conversation with a man called Angus. Angus is warm and friendly with a b...

What should you be getting paid for your work? What do you do if you don't get it? And is it ever wise to work for free? Ahead of a big week in Las Vegas for Conor McGregor's fight, I wrestle with some of the questions freelancers all over the world want answers to.

Eamon Dunphy is a former footballer and one of the most controversial figures in Irish life. His work as a journalist and broadcaster is sometimes derided as sensationalist and provocative, but his sharp intellect and insatiable hunger for knowledge and ideas have reshaped Irish media and caused others to raise their game considerably. I spoke to him about his four decades in the media industry, a...

You don't have to be Scottish to go to Brazil and tell them the story of one of their greatest football icons, but it helps... Andrew Downie is a journalist and author based in Sao Paolo who has written a brilliant biography about Socrates, the doctor-philosopher-footballer who shaped an era in one of the most-loved teams of all time. He also has extensive experience of reporting in conflict zones...

Judging by the international coverage, Sweden's election was a referendum on immigration - but while it was indeed a factor, much of the tunnel-vision journalism that was produced was amateurish, ill-informed and obscured the real driving forces behind how the ballots were cast.