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By Richard Parsons, Director of Training
IMAGINE the trauma of trying to live a normal existence on a sink estate, where you and your family are the target of non-stop abuse, threats and harassment. Your crime is that you are, in the offenders’ eyes, ‘different’.
In this case, you are a Muslim newly arrived on a council estate that harbours serious social issues.
You’re in fear of being mugged, you’re warned your throat will be cut, you have a football kicked at your head – and you know you have to put up with this for eight terrifying weeks.
Tamanna Rahman, former News Associates trainee at our Manchester centre, had the reassurance last week (June 22) that two of the main offenders were safely in prison, for two years and 21 months respectively, for racially aggravated harassment or putting people in fear of violence.
Tamanna’s ordeal came last summer. She and fellow reporter Amil Khan posed as a couple newly-arrived on the Southmead estate in Bristol for a BBC Panorama documentary, broadcast in October.
Lots of interviewees that I see say they aspire to a career in investigative journalism. I wonder if this has changed their minds.
It took incredible bravery on Tamanna’s part to complete her assignment. As she wrote in her BBC blog: “On the second day, I had a rock thrown towards me as I returned from a shopping trip. I was called ‘Paki’ and told to take a shower. This from people who knew nothing about me.”
Tamanna studied part-time with News Associates in 2008-2009, achieving some excellent results. She is well set now for a demanding but rewarding career after becoming, briefly, a national figure.
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