XCITY / NEWS
CITY REMEMBERS 'GENTLEMAN' ROGER JEAL Tributes have been paid by staff and students to former Reuters journalist and City visiting lecturer Roger Jeal, who died of cancer at the age of 72 in September last year. Mr Jeal worked at Reuters for 40 years, reporting from France, Germany, Holland, and Hong Kong. In 1976, he was responsible for the telex that announced the death of former President of the People’s Republic of China Mao Zedong to the Western world. From 2011-2018, Mr Jeal was a visiting lecturer on the Financial MA, and taught on the Finance and Business specialism at City. He was made a freeman of the City of London in 2016. Dobriyana Tropankeva (Finance, 2012), a former student of Jeal’s at City who has since written for Reuters and Bloomberg said: “Every graduate needs that one brilliant reference that will land them their dream job. “Roger Jeal, always kind and ever willing to help his students, has written not one but two letters of recommendation for me.” Ms Tropankeva said Mr
Jeal gave her an academic recommendation that helped her land a job at Thomson Reuters in New York after leaving City. She continued: “He knew that what’s taught in class is only half of the job of a teacher and a mentor. The bigger part was to support his graduates in their first steps in the world of journalism.” City staff also shared fond memories of Mr Jeal’s time at the university. Martin Chivers, who worked closely with Jeal as a senior course officer, recalled how Mr Jeal was “one of the loveliest people to work with” and “a great colleague”. He said: “Roger was always kind and interested, and you always felt he had the student’s best interests at heart. That really came through in the way he taught and the way he supervised. “He inspired his students to be great journalists. He was in his 60s and 70s but still had such passion for journalism.” Tom Felle, a former senior lecturer at City echoed these sentiments. He said: “Roger was a favourite with students on the MA Financial Journalism programme because of his encyclopedic knowledge of the
Mr Jeal worked abroad during his long career and was a keen traveller
world of business and finance, and a life of lived experience and wonderful anecdotes. “Roger didn’t just know how to teach about the global economy, he lived it and reported it for a full career at Reuters across the globe, including postings across Europe and in Hong Kong; rising to the rank of bureau chief and later with the Reuters Foundation as a trainer.” He continued: “What was unique about Roger was his ability to explain complex concepts about derivatives or pork barrel futures, or why airlines hedge fuel, in simple terms. Like any consummate journalist, he knew his audience. “He loved teaching and was a wonderful colleague." Paul Bolding, Mr Jeal’s friend and former colleague of both Reuters and City, remembered
him as a patient and passionate teacher. He said: “At Reuters, Roger was one of those people you would always go to for advice. He never showed any sign of anger as most of us do. Just a very friendly, amiable, and friendly man. “He was always able to give people the time to encourage and assist. I think we can all learn from that kind of attitude.” Paul Lashmar, former head of journalism at City, said: “Roger Jeal was a much valued member of the Department of Journalism at City for a decade. “He was what we old Fleet Street hands used to characterise as a gentleman, always dapper, polite, and considerate but knowing his own worth. “He was taken early. He is missed.” MICHAEL RUDLING
PARENTS' WAR TIME LOVE STORY INSPIRES ALUMNA'S BOOK
16
A memoir following the love story of her parents living in Singapore during and after the Second World War is the subject of a new book by a former International Journalism student. Lotus-Eating Days, Caroline Repton’s first non-fiction book, was published in February 2022, the year that the 80th anniversary of the Fall of Singapore is commemorated. After her parents, Theresa Repton (née Pang Kim Lui) and Geoffrey Christopher Tyrwhitt
Repton, passed, Ms Repton pieced together their lives in Singapore after the end of the Second World War, looking through letters left by her father and audio recordings of her mother. Ms Repton, a former subeditor at Thomson Financial News, started writing the book in 2017. She said her journalism training helped her find and tell her parents’ stories whilst keeping herself out of the narrative and writing snappy chapter titles.
After finding the term “lotuseating” in one of her father's letters, Ms Repton decided to use it as the title for her book. The term, originally from the Odyssey, is associated with hallucination and hedonistic pleasure. “It has been a real emotional journey,” Ms Repton said. “I felt that I was closer to my parents every day while writing it.” The book is available from The Book Guild. LAURYN BERRY
Image credit: The Book Guild
XCITY /
rURES
TABOO:
Content warning: disccusions of sexual assault and violence against women
Katherine Sidnell meets the women lifting the lid on journalism's silent epidemic
I
t was almost like a festival," Leona O'Neill recalls. "lt's really weird to explain unless you've experienced Northern Ireland riots." Purple and yellow fireworks lit the usually peaceful streets of Creggan, their thw1der muffling ongoing chaos. Amid violent clashes with police , O'Neill spotted what she thought was a discarded pile of clothes next to the police Land Rover al1ead of her. But as the sky changed to ominous neon red, the woman beside her let out an inaudible scream. Faces contorted in the fading red light, as journalist Lyra McKee, 29, lay dying at her colleague's feet. O'Neill slows as she speaks about the memory, which is still incredibly raw three years on. "The thing that I found difficult to get past was Lyra's face. For months afterwards, every time I closed my eyes - I saw that face."
adversity. In doing this, Breaking highlights the silent mental health crisis happening in the UK's newsrooms, in the hopes that other journalists can relate to these stories, and seek help far sooner than she did.
LEONA O'NEILL, DERRY
McKee's death in 2019 made headlines around the world, the first on-duty journalist to be killed in Northern lreland in nearly 20 years. Still in shock from what she'd witnessed mere hours before, O'Neill only found solace in one thing: her work. ln her
A conspiracy blogger even fundraised for weapons to use specifically against eill. And then there were the O' conspiracy theorists. This group had a large, aggressive online presence and claimed that McKee's death was an illuminati cover-up because O' eill had interviewed Nancy Pelosi prior to the riot. In reality, O'Neill lived in a constant state of hypervigilance - fearing for her and her family's lives. O' eill's trauma then began to manifest as vivid night terrors - the horror of which are still evident in her voice. "I would wake up in the middle of the night [and] think she was lying at the bottom of the bed," she says. O'Neill was lucky. Unlike most freelancers, she was able to afford sessions with a specialised trauma therapist. "I'd literally just pay £40, just so I could go into his office and cry," O'Neill remembers. "l just couldn't talk about what 1 saw. It was really difficult for someone who is such a passionate communicator to have that voice kind of taken away from me." Eventually, writing became her therapy, and as O' eill gained strength, she began to share her story with others. "The more I talked to people in journalism, the more people said: 'I've had awn experience like that', or 'this story completely broke me."' she explains. "Suddenly, l felt less alone. And that was only from talking to maybe 15 or 16 people." ➔
"The thing that I found difficult to get past was Lyra's face. For months afterwards, every time I closed my eyes - I saw that face"
Knowing what she knows now about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), O'Neill can recognise how she suffered in silence. However, in a profession that prides itselfon objectivity, journalists rarely acknowledge the emotional burden of reporting. O'Neill is attempting to change that. Despite being natural storytellers, many journalists struggle to articulate their experiences oftraumatic reporting. O'Nei11 's new book, Breaking. collates these accow1!s to tell a wider story of perseverance through
raw, sleep-deprived state, she spent the next five days freelancing for the Belfast Telegraph and Al Jazeera, even reporting on McKee's fW1eral. When J ask her why, she says: "l wanted to show people that l was still this hard nosed reporter. That nothing fazed me. Not even seeing somebody be murdered." Ironically, it was this "resilience" that O'Neill was praised for by The National Union of Journalists (NUJ), after being targeted in a relentless hate campaign by paramilitaries who branded her a 'tout'.
99
XCITY / FEATURES
MEET THE SOHO GIRL
Lauryn Berry meets the brain behind My Soho Times and a champion of hyperlocal media
O
n any day you might find Kai Lutterodt wandering down Berwick Street in her auntie Marian’s vintage oversized coat. She could be sampling a new plant-based patty at Honest Burgers Soho, organising a glamorous anniversary event at 28-50 by night, or interviewing Soho’s longest running tailor from Borovick Fabrics. All these stories contained in one square mile of W1 are what make up My Soho Times magazine, Lutterodt’s brainchild. Lutterodt (aka The Soho Girl) has created more than a free local print magazine: she’s making the weird and wonderful world of Soho more accessible as she showcases the local businesses that survived lockdown and shines a light on Soho’s most extravagant characters. As a young Black female journalist, she’s had to overcome prejudice from older white men to make her dream become a reality. My Soho Times may only be two years old, but it’s got big plans, with a 15,000 print run, a podcast in the works and a scheme to get more people into creative industries. Q: WHY DID YOU START MY SOHO TIMES? A: “I originally wanted to be a travel journalist. Then I got back from a trip one day and I thought, ‘What a shame that I live in this amazing part of London, and I’m not doing anything with it’. Lockdown offered the opportunity to really focus on my community, especially since travel came to a halt.” Q: HOW DID YOU PREPARE TO RUN A MAGAZINE? A: “I was quite naive and a bit ignorant about the business side of publishing. But I think that naivety is also what drove me to just go ahead and do it. There was a lot of trial and error over the last two years, but I’ve also done a business course with Hatch, an enterprise that supports women of colour. It was really nice to meet other entrepreneurial women, there’s a sense of connection and support.”
middle class white men. They like you, you represent Soho, a cool trend. But in the boardroom, I’m not who they want to be dealing with and so that’s the reason why I strive to do what I do because things won’t change unless people like us start creating our own and we are then therefore the decision makers. We hold some power, even if it’s minute – just a little magazine that we run.” Q: WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO FOCUS ON SOHO AND MAKE A HYPERLOCAL MAGAZINE? A: “I think hyperlocal is so powerful because, essentially, you are the experts on your local area. You know what’s happening, you’re informing, you’re engaging, you’re connecting, you’re communicating.” Q: WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO MAKE THE MAGAZINE FREE? A: “I want people to just pick it up and take it. There’s so much bureaucracy and exclusivity in Soho – who’s a member of this, who’s a member of that club. I just want this to be a neutral magazine.” Q: WHEN SO MANY BELIEVE PRINT IS DYING, WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO CREATE A PRINT MAGAZINE? A: “I believe in print. I think there’s beauty in holding something tangible – the magazine will always be a catalyst for the other aspects of the brand that we’re building. People love Soho and they love keepsakes. It’s not just something that you want to chuck in the bin, or recycle in a hurry. It’s A5, it’s handbagfriendly, it’s got gloss embossing on the on the front. So that is why I encourage
Kai Lutterodt. Image credit: Paul Todd
businesses to invest in it, because their audience is ou there, they’ll take it.” Q: YOU’VE TEAMED UP WITH THE GOVERNMENT’S KICKSTARTER TO GIVE JOB OPPORTUNITIES TO UNEMPLOYED YOUNG PEOPLE. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO YOU? A: “I’m not missing the chance to give someone this opportunity. I remember being in my early twenties and unemployed and going to the job centre and there were never any of these creative opportunities in the media. They always pushed me towards administrative jobs even though that’s not what I wanted to do.” Q: WHAT DOES THE MAGAZINE MEAN TO YOU PERSONALLY? A: “I’m just a Soho girl. I live, work, and play in this area. I’m not some corporate who wants to be seen as if they’re with the community. I am part of the community, and this is my ode to Soho.” x My Soho Times anniversary party. Image credit: Peter Tyrrell
Q: WHAT CHALLENGES HAVE YOU FACED WHILE RUNNING MY SOHO TIMES? A: “There are a lot of obstacles that I face being a woman, being a Black woman, being under 40. Decision makers are mostly
119