Monday 26 November 2007

Guest Speaker-Paul Lashmar

Paul Lashmar is a Journalist who has covered many of the major stories of the last 30 years. He is now freelance, working for many organisations and also as a TV Producer, film and programme consultant, author and journalism trainer.

Now an Investigative Journalist, Paul started a Broad Media course in 1978, he was a researcher for the Observer, but said he didn't enter the journalistic role in a modern way.
As a 23 year old graduate, Paul joined The Observer newspaper in June 1978. Since then he has become an investigative journalist. Paul also has broadcast experience and for three years he was apart of Granada's: 'World in Action'. Also producing a number of programmes for BBC’s Timewatch and Channel 4’s Dispatches series. Paul has become the author of three books.
He and a friend, David Lee started working together as a team. David was assigned to work with Paul and did so for eight years. They were awarded for their fantastic reports. Lashmar said "we were always getting our hands dirty with major news stories, then these were backed up by an editor".
After the eight years of working together, they both went onto working for television companies in London. Lashmar went to Brazil to have an interview with a criminal in a Brazilian prison. The man was committed with killing 70 people. It was a documentary about people in Brazil who killed small children because they were a nusence to the community. This involved slaughtering them.

Lashmar specialises in areas that include terrorism, intelligence, organised crime, offshore crime, business fraud and the Cold War. As well as being a freelance journalist, Paul is a part-time journalist lecturer at two universities, which are Southampton University and University College Falmouth.
Lashmar mentioned he usually only works on two documentarys a year, this may be on the radio or for a television production.
He also mentioned that after 30 years of dealing with deadlines he is still finding himself doing that.
Paul turned free-lance when he and his family moved to Dorset, he is a consultant on crime programmes.