Alex Harries's diary

Radio 1's Newsbeat have responded on the BBC's Editors' blog over their coverage - and Radio 1's handling - of the banning and subsequent un-banning of the word "Faggot" from Fairytale Of New York, and how Newsbeat's coverage may have triggered the public backlash against the "overzealously PC" attitude of the radio station.

The interesting aspect for us at the students' union is how Newsbeat works within Radio 1, as well as the BBC's non-profit objectives which aren't entirely dissimilar to the union's.

Newsbeat operates as a news team within Radio 1 - vaguely similar, perhaps, to the way Pugwash News operates within UPSU. Newsbeat's coverage of Radio 1's censorship has been objective and arguably fair - entirely as any quality journalism should be - but the issue here is that, in effect, one part of Radio 1 has caused a backlash against another part of the same organisation for its handling of a potentially sensitive matter.

Within the editorial teams responsible for the Pugwash, Pugwash News and UPSU News output, discussions have often centred around the "what if" scenario of whether and how the Union's media should publicise a story which levels criticism against the Union. Questions have ranged from the broader "can we criticise the Union?", "should we criticise the Union?", and "if we do, how would we go about it?", to some occasionally hilarious potential (and entirely theoretical) scenarios which I obviously can't relate here without libelling myself...

Rod McKenzie, editor of Radio 1's Newsbeat, writes on the BBC Editors' blog: '[this issue] raises some interesting dilemmas for us though: without Radio 1's 10 million plus audience Newsbeat wouldn't exist. But what happens when the station itself IS the news? Does this cramp our journalistic vigour or make us feel we shouldn't take on "the mother ship”? I don't think it does - nor should it ever do so. If we argue that our job is to report the news without fair or favour for other organisations, why should Radio 1 be exempt from that rule? I think pulling our punches would be failing our listeners - Radio 1's listeners. That's just my view.'

Apologies for the lazy journalism - quoting such a large chunk of Mr McKenzie's words - but that paragraph pretty much summarises the way student media should act towards its parent institutions, at least at Portsmouth, but in the wider context of student journalism as well. Our editorial teams should never feel that can't report on something they feel is in the interest of their readers simply because their story might level criticism at the Union or the University.

The counter to this argument, of course, is that this freedom can only work as long as the student journalists maintain a professional approach. Anyone with common sense might wonder whether, on hearing about a story which might criticise them, the Union might feel compelled to "pull" - cancel - the article, preventing it from being published.

This is where we come to the grey area which I think is somewhat unique to student media: the Union should never be allowed to prevent the publication in its media of an objective, balanced and fair article which levels criticism at the Union, but it would be remiss of the Union to play little or no active role in ensuring the content produced in its student media was legally and morally acceptable.

This balancing act is a relatively new consideration for student media in Portsmouth as, until the start of this year,...

(Off-topic? You betcha...) Radio 1 are offering a few lucky folks the chance to escape the drudgery of day-to-day life and go on a kinda working holiday thing with them for a day or two to report back on what happens.

Choices include Newquay (surfer fun - cooool), Reading/Leeds (rockers - sweaty!), Global Gathering (hell yeah!), Wales (why?), Mallorca (aren't there about 30 different ways of spelling that?), and Ibiza (Oh. Hell. Yeah!).

So hands up who's not going to choose Ibiza? Now, put your hands down if you don't have a passport. Uh huh. Thought so - everybody's going to want to go to Ibiza, and who could blame 'em?!

Naturally, purely out of a spirit of noseyness, I've sent in a very random application. Since I reckon my odds of winning are hovering somewhere around the same odds as winning the lottery without buying a ticket, I reckon plan B's going to have to happen (that's the one where I go to Ibiza at the start of next season with a box of records, not the one involving three tonnes of sand, a bucket and spade, a lilo, and Portsmouth high street...).

I guess I really ought to get on with some work ... ;o)

(Small print thingy: neither UPSU.net, Portsmouth SU or myself are endorsing this competition, or Radio 1, or the BBC, or anything at all whatsoever, but that's not to say I don't think it's a rather cool competition though, so why not give it a go? Can't speak for my bosses or anyone else who works here of course...)

(The tooth is out. I'll refrain from posting the picture of the remains since there's little point apart from the "ewww" factor which you could probably find easily enough elsewhere on the 'net...!)

It's Friday night. It's 6pm. Somewhere in the Balearics, Pete Tong is going out to the world live on air, playing - almost certainly - to an adoring crowd of sun-kissed Ibiza clubbers gearing up for possibly their biggest Friday night out of the year. It reminds me of something I wrote last summer, and I reckon it's almost time for me to pop my Ibiza cherry - anyone want to tag along? (I'll need someone to carry my records... ;o) ).

Meanwhile, back in reality (or at least, "Portsmouth-without-the-students"), I'm sitting in the Union preparing to babysit a sound system for The Listening Company (you may not know the name, but you've probably dealt with them on the 'phone at some point in your life, whether you like it or not...!) while six hundred-or-so Italian summer language school kids get fed and watered by our catering bods, upstairs in Lux.

Although I can't say I enjoy the music - apparently it's going to be a fairly rocky night - I do enjoy the babysitting work I do with UPSU Ents. Usually I work the Friday night babysit in Lux and CO2, which for the last year or so has also seen me on the decks for a brief spell most nights (my apologies to anyone unfortunate enough to have had to listen to me playing on abusing the soundsystem on a Friday night - who'dathunk I've been bedroom DJing since I was fifteen, a good 7 years ago. And yup, I'm really that old mature .... no, I definitely meant old).

Sadly, for me at least, I don't know whether I'll be able to play in the Union at all next year, as the line-up on most nights is being "tweaked" (as happens every year). I don't know if anything is changing or not, but the bosses will naturally be taking an ever closer look at how things are run on the nights to make sure things are at their best, and naturally having a relatively unknown person behind the decks like myself might not exactly thrill them to bits. I don't know; this is just speculation.

In any case, the whole point of this post is simply that October can't get here soon enough - Pompey's pretty dull during the summer, so short of me managing to escape the country and get out to Ibiza, or hooking up with some house music lovers, or even moving into Fabric London, I'm probably just going to have to become a workaholic to pass the time until the fun begins again (along with, of course, the small matter of my much-delayed final year of my degree needing attention then as well - argh, work!).

Ah... Boss has just informed me that TLC want a karaoke machine running tonight. So much for a quiet one...(!)

P.s. big thanks to a friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, for the text last night - while I was doing some laundry - letting me know she and her friends had just blagged VIP guest list at Ibiza's Amnesia. I spent the rest of the night drafting plans for an escape tunnel from my house to the White Isle...

An upda...