Covering an Inquest - Lunchtime Seminar

The Dart Centre Europe is running a lunchtime seminar with investigative journalists Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi and Clare Sambrook from Shine a Light and Lucy McKay, a journalist and policy & communications officer at INQUEST. Lucy, Rebecca and Clare will talk about how we might improve inquest reporting and investigations around state-related deaths (while taking care of our colleagues, collaborators and ourselves). 

Lucy and her colleagues at INQUEST serve and support bereaved families through the inquest process, and work to end deaths caused by unsafe systems of detention, a lack of care, the use of force, institutional failure. For journalists reporting on stories including Hillsborough, Grenfell, deaths in custody in England & Wales, INQUEST is a vital resource.

Clare and Rebecca have investigated the “accidental” death of Rashan Charles, a young black Londoner, since the morning after his death in July 2017 when they were first to challenge the official narrative. The Metropolitan police claimed Rashan was taken ill and an officer came to his aid. In fact Rashan was in perfect health until an officer threw him to the ground and subjected him to prolonged restraint. This work continues.

The two hour long session will be a unique opportunity for journalists and experts to learn from each other, share skills and knowledge to improve our reporting on and investigation of contentious state-related deaths, including inquest reporting. 

The session aims to raise awareness of this field, share skills, knowledge and insights, promote collaboration among journalists and non-journalists in an underreported story area that has huge implications for human rights, public safety and holding power to account. 

We will touch upon themes that make this field of journalism emotionally challenging such as working solo, covering inquests away from home, racial trauma, repeat viewings of distressing video material and pathology reports and working closely with bereaved families.

If you are interested in this topic you can contact our Program Manager Jeanny Gering at [email protected]