RESEARCHING AND REPORTING

The verdict in the Meredith Kercher murder trial threw up a number of questions, including how the Americans have reacted to the decision.

But from a journalist point of view, what struck me in the immediate aftermath of the verdict, was the lack of understanding of Italian law. If a reporter has had any time at all to look at this story, and it has been around for 2 years of course, then they should understand the process of appeal. In Italy, I understand that an appeal is automatic after a guilty verdict. Yet there were still reporters exclaiming things like "they've announced an appeal", when that was always going to happen.

It's another example of the modern newsroom seemingly having no time to properly research and report a story, because of the need to get ALL the stories.

In radio newsrooms, inparticular commercial radio, there are no longer the resources available to look into stories properly. This leads to lazy bulletins full of generic and poorly researched news items, and therefore not engaging the listener.

It's another area where cost cutting has caused quality to dip in radio.