ROB MCLOUGHLIN RECALLS MANCHESTER AIR DISASTER ON ITV 

Rob McLoughlin returned to Manchester International Airport to share his memories of the disaster which killed 55 people as a plane exploded and burnt on the runway on 22nd August 1985.

Marking the 40th anniversary he appeared live on ITV’s ‘Granada Reports’ and shared his memories as one of the first reporters on the scene in 1985.

He told Mel Barham of ITV News that it was an ‘horrific day’ as he recalled the ‘silence’ as he entered the terminal that day and saw grounded passengers and anxious relatives in shock. 

He recalled that you could see the flames on the runway from the windows of the terminal and within minutes he met a senior fire officer who told him sadly that ‘it was a national disaster’ and that ‘dozens and dozens had died’.

Asked about the lessons of the disaster, Rob said that he felt ‘many would opt for smoke hoods’ if they were available today on passenger planes as recommended by the formal inquiry. That recommendation was never introduced in the U.K.

Many victims had died in their seats from smoke inhalation and relatives of the dead are still campaigning for the availability of the hoods on holiday and other civil aircraft.

In a follow on documentary to be screened on ITVX, Rob recalls an investigation conducted by him for Granada Reports weeks after the disaster which showed that the plane’s log showed symptoms of engine problems which may not have been communicated to the pilot and crew. 

A copy of the plane’s log had been obtained by ‘The Sunday Mirror’ and shared with Granada Television. It featured on the Granada Reports special and later in a John Ware ‘World in Action’ special across ITV nationally.

The pilot thought the first explosion was a tyre burst and as he steered the plane off the runway he sadly steered into a head wind which tragically fanned the flames. Rob believes that it was ‘an avoidable disaster’.

A minutes silence across the airport marked the 40th anniversary. Rob described that day in 1985 as ‘emotional’. 

The horrors of the tragedy are etched deeply into his memory.

The date of the documentary has not yet been released.

To see the interview with Rob click here.

TRIBUTE TO TV’s STUART PREBBLE

One of the UK’s most imaginative TV journalists, editors and authors has died.

Stuart Prebble rose from editor of the ground-breaking ITV investigative series ‘World in Action’ to become Chief Executive of the network before returning to production and devising the hit ‘Grumpy Old Men’ for BBC2 and the successful ‘Landmark Artists’ series for Sky.

Rob McLoughlin first worked with Stuart on ‘Granada Reports’ (ITV) in 1982 when Prebble turned the programme into a hit with 3.6m viewers and presented by Richard and Judy as well as the late Tony Wilson. It was the first time Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan appeared together : launching their hugely popular TV partnership.

Stuart and Rob worked together again on ‘World in Action’ and on a turnaround of Granada’s news and regional output ahead of the Thatcher ITV auction of franchises which Granada TV retained in the 1990s.

In a tweet on X and reported in the national press and media magazines, Rob described Stuart as an ‘original mind’ with a ‘fabulous sense of humour’ and as ‘one of Britain’s best TV journalists’.

Stuart also wrote a series of factual and fictional books.

He was 74 years old. RIP. 

Lucy Letby and Cheshire Police – Rob McLoughlin’s insight on media website Prolific North 30 August 2023

Cheshire Police have issued an in-house film on their investigation of the Lucy Letby case.

Rob McLoughlin OBE is a former investigator for ITV’s multi-BAFTA-winning current affairs series World in Action, host of Granada’s political and election programmes until 2016 and presented the original Weekend Breakfast shows on BBC R5Live with Jane Garvey. He praises Cheshire Police’s in-house film for its “remarkable insight into the intensity of an emotionally draining investigation over more than six years.”

You can read the full article on the Prolific North website by clicking this link.

CENSORSHIP FEARS AS UK AND WESTERN GOVERNMENTS EXERCISE SUBTLE AND OVERT ‘CONTROL’ OVER TV AND RADIO JOURNALISTS

British broadcasting is at risk of greater censorship or full-on conflict with powerful governments who are seeking subtle or overt control over output.

Researchers fear a ‘German style’ conflict over TV and Radio coverage and the freedoms enjoyed by journalists in the UK.

Germany was shaken in 2016 when a former TV executive claimed that his station’s news output was ‘laid down by the political class’ and the news is to ‘Ms Merkel’s liking’. Dr Wolfgang Herle’s comments were denied by ZDF but the risks may resonate in a number of other liberal democracies.

‘The German revelations centred on a major Public Service Broadcaster’ said Rob McLoughlin OBE, a former Board Director of Granada Television and World in Action investigator and co-author of a major new chapter on the media and censorship: ‘They raise questions which all who care about journalism must now consider. We have a conflict within our broadcast systems whereby such channels need government to approve funding, to regulate advertising yet at the same time they are expected to scrutinise those governments and expose their bad decision making and costly mistakes’.   

‘The relationship is tense at the best of times but when prime ministers can effectively appoint the chair of major broadcasters, there’s a risk that an expectation can develop where journalists are forced to toe the line’.

The chapter part of a major new encyclopedia on public affairs and lobbying warns Government and Media: Censorship Versus Freedom (published online 5th October 2021 and due for print publication in 2022) that TV and Radio journalists are increasingly seen as the ‘enemy’ by powerful governments and face growing curbs on their freedom to challenge and scrutinise authority. The successful Trump campaign of 2016 is the clearest example of a political ‘playbook’ against the media but other actions by governments are less overt.   

These developments are often ‘subtle’ in countries such as the United Kingdom but they could erode the role of public service broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and the flow of revelations or accurate information to the public.

The chapter is published as there are warnings that the coming decade will be among the most oppressive ever across the globe and not just from elected governments but from oppressive nations and terrorism.  

Since 1990 2,658 journalists and media workers have died worldwide. 

The shocking figures collated by The International Federation of Journalists include high profile newspaper and new media journalists such as Jamal Khashoggi of The Washington Post who died in a Saudi Consulate in Turkey in 2018 and Lyra Mckee who was murdered during a riot in Northern Ireland in 2019. 

Away from those horrific international warnings the researchers have focussed on the UK where ‘party political appointments’ to the BBC’s governing body, threats to the status of Channel 4 and an institutional imbalance between the powers of politicians and proposed changes to the Official Secrets Act reveal a fault line which could crack and give political parties more control over what is seen and heard.

The authors of the chapter on government and censorship maintain that the ‘pact’ between the powerful and broadcasters needs to be urgently reviewed as an ‘expectation’ has grown up where majority parties as well as oppressive states often expect preferential reporting from a supposedly free media.

The risks have led to allegations of revenge by the authorities against TV and radio stations in the UK, which have been denied officially. 

However, it comes as the World Press Freedom Index claims that converging crises including Covid-19 will see more and more states suppressing information by 2031. States such as Turkey, Russia, Hungary, Belarus, Iran and China are singled out but in western democracies the media became an ‘enemy’ in the Trump election campaign and hostilities towards journalists have been dangerous and horrific.

‘It is perhaps time for a serious debate over the media and levels of investigative journalism we crave against the levers which powerful political figures can exercise over a media which angers, annoys or attacks them’.

‘Standing up to bullying is a day to day issue but when the fundamentals include threats to the existence of channels or licences then the ‘pact’ between the scrutinised and the scrutineers may need reforming.

For more information and to discuss access to the authors Rob McLoughlin and Andrea Campos-Vigouroux, please contact: Kate Byford at Bird Consultancy: email – kb (at) birdconsultancy.co.uk, mobile – 07816294055.