Thursday, July 19, 2007

Third day done and I'm here to report on how it's been.

By no means as exciting as yesterday by any means, but I did get to cover a court case which was huge- in terms of press coverage, Hallam Fm were there and Look North. It was a murder case, about a taxi driver who was shot in his taxi as he worked, back in March. I remember it being a really big case here and everyone raving on my course about how much they wanted to cover that. Hah, typical journos.

It ate up most of the day- I went once again with the crime correspondent Claire and we were in the court room at Sheffield Magistrates from 10am right through until about 2. By which time, I wanted a well deserved lunch break before my return to the news room. The case itself- because it was so complex and the three guys being charged for the murder had 'conspired', meant that everything was adjourned until next week, when they could come to a better understanding of it all. It was interesting...I'd never been to a murder case before, but it was horrible at the same time. The defence picked a lot of holes in the case and were miles better than the prosecution- who seemed to be making a lot of mistakes, much to the three defendants' chagrin. Haha. I tried to write it up come the afternoon...but I just didn't see it as an amazing case when we can hardly report any of what we were told, thanks to the Magistrates Court Act 1981 and the reporting restrictions which prevent reporters from writing about the evidence in the case, while proceedings are active.

So the afternoon was spent finding out a little news story about a brass band from Dronfield who were going to Switzerland for a tour over the weekend and next week. I had that to write up as a NIB, but I did have to make a couple of phone calls just to make sure everything was accurate. Harder than it seems really...but, you get used to it. It's all about confidence and not being afraid to pick up the receiver and ask questions :]

I left at 5...having become bored of everything in the offices...and came here. I have some good news however. The phone line at the house is now working- woopee! They've lifted the restriction, which is great news. Oh and we also have a new router-modem, which Belkin sent out to us and we received yesterday. We tried to set the thing up...and it semi-works...I mean it worked for the first five minutes perfectly. But then we tried to set a password/make it more secure so no one else could access our network and it didn't seem to like that and from then on in we had problems with it. Meh...we're going to try and fix all of that tonight, as we don't want any ongoing problems. It's not what we need right now!!

...and whilst I had my phone switched off at court today...a lady who I inquired about a temp job with last week, called me up and told me that whilst there was not a position at MDA Works Services that would benefit my requirements since they want someone to stay on longer than September, there is a job going as a receptionist somewhere else and that she would pass on my details for me and let me know about it. Which I'm very grateful for, as the hours and pay she described sound good- and if they only want someone until September- perfect!! I'll apply now. Hehe. So that's my main good news.

I hope everyone is having a good summer whilst I'm slaving away :p

I just have faith in the knowledge that this placement will hopefully benefit me in many ways, career wise.

More to follow, tomorrow.

xo

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