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Having completed a work experience placement at Reuters I found a desire to get into journalism, the Broadcast Journalism Degree subsequently followed and an area I particularly enjoyed was the feature writing module. I prefered the slower turnaround required compared to the rush of daily news and found that I could write about topics I was interested in and weren’t overly reported. I also prefered the longer interview formats compared to Vox Pops, which saw me speaking with an MBE, a Fijian family and a Syrian refugee, compared to the average Bristolian wandering around Cabot Circus, no offence.

Below are the three feature articles I produced during my final year of study:

1 - Four decades on from the Brixton riots, frustrations still simmer (News Feature)

Alex Wheatle recalls how the police looked to him and his fellow rioters as the streets of
Brixton calmed down at the end of ‘Bloody Saturday’ in 1981: “We had empowered
ourselves to such an extent that they were the ones now scared of us, rather than us being
scared of them.”
The prize-winning author was one of thousands of Black Britons who took to the streets of
South London’s most renowned district on April 11 40 years ago, when years of building
tensions over police brutality erupted in disturbances that left 279 police officers injured.
“For me there was no doubt in my mind, I had experienced police brutality, I was beaten up
in police cells on two occasions, so there was a lot of anger within me,” Wheatle, who in
2008 was awarded the MBE for services to literature, said.
“So, when I saw the opportunity to get my revenge and take part in an uprising, I took it
with both hands as I felt there was no other justice I could seek.”

Yet despite a public inquiry finding ‘unquestionable evidence’ of disproportionate and
indiscriminate use of stop and search powers against black people as a factor behind the
riots, very little has changed.
Cyndi Anafo, a local DJ and booking agent, was 14 years-old when the riots broke out. She
remembers being unafraid as she watched the scenes unfold on the television in her
family’s living room.
“I had a weird sense of solidarity with the rioters, our parents gave us the knowledge to let
us know that the way we [black people] were always going to be represented in this country
was negative, so I wasn’t afraid, even though the narrative was to be afraid”
While the discrimination and racism that she grew up with remain problems today, Anafo
says the community is facing a new threat: gentrification.
Broadly put, gentrification refers to wealthier people moving into a predominantly working-
class area.
“I think the reason for this continuing trend, is because not enough people in positions of
power are willing to dismantle the existing racist practices and legislations that benefit this
demographic which tend to come into areas and kill the environment, through their bland
whitewashing of these vibrant communities,” Anafo said.
This trend has been ongoing in London’s booming housing market for a while but has
triggered a wider backlash in recent years as it shifts from more suburban South London
areas into inner-city areas such as Brixton and Peckham.
A current example of this is a proposal by US property developers Hondo Enterprises to
build a 21-storey office block in the heart of Brixton. The proposal was initially approved by
the council in the borough of Lambeth but received strong opposition from the community,
causing London Mayor Sadiq Khan to pause the plans and call a public hearing.
Professor Phil Hubbard, professor of urban studies at Kings College London, says some of
the opposition reflects people’s attachment to the past.
“Yes, there is still nostalgia for the high street that used to be but we’re never going to get it
back, we can’t go back to the high street of the 50s and 60s,” Hubbard said.
“However, there needs to be a balance between that touristic gentrified stuff that tourists
would expect anywhere, but also that stuff that’s local and characterful.”
“We shouldn’t get rid of the chicken shops that give kids somewhere to hang around after
school and they can afford, and we shouldn’t get rid of the betting shop that a middle-aged
man can pop into and spend half an hour with his mates. And getting rid of those places to
try and get the others is part of the problem.”

Hondo Enterprises also tried to evict the people at retailer Nour Cash and Carry in Brixton
market, which has sold a diverse range of affordable food for 20 years. However, following
an outcry in the community, an agreement for a relocation of the store was reached.
Hubbard agrees with Anafo on the need for the government to not only amend the issues
raised by gentrification, but tackle Britain’s housing crisis as well.
“If you have rent controls, planning controls and community ownership of land,
gentrification isn’t inevitable,” he said. “But, if you leave things to the market, as the
Conservative government have been doing, in a high-demand environment like London,
then there’s always going to be people looking to maximise their investment and talk up
particular areas.”
Wheatle, who was arrested for his involvement in the riots, still has family living in the area
and is disheartened that the next generation, including his kids, will find it increasingly
difficult to establish themselves in their native Brixton due to lack of affordable housing.
“It’s just so unfair that you cannot remain in the community you were raised in, or your
parents and grandparents settled in. I think it’s such an injustice, I really do.”
When asked whether Brixton is better off now than it was 40 years ago, both Cyndi and Alex
searched for the positives.
“Of course it’s improved, but it’s an improvement for the people that they [the government]
think deserve improvements and sadly, it’s those who have lived here for a very long time
that are the ones not benefitting,” Anafo said.
Wheatle conceded that some of the changes were positive. “For example, on the old
frontline, as we used to refer to Railton Road, you can now visit an art gallery, there’s a
sushi bar, there’s restaurants. In my day there was none of those things. So that’s a good
thing.”
“But the police are still stopping black youths out of proportion to how they stop anybody
else, which needs to be addressed I believe.”

2 - The disappearing island and the family trying to save it (Profile Piece)

Josh Yee Shaw spends most of the year looking after his family’s small Fijian private island,
Nukulevu. This tranquil slice of paradise, no bigger than half a football pitch, has been in
their possession for 5 years under a lease from the Catholic Church.
However, a combination of challenges – from climate change to COVID and over-fishing – is
making Josh, who is 24, his mother Suzi and younger brother Colin, 20, develop big plans for
the island moving forward.
Most recently, a volcanic eruption in neighbouring Tonga and increasingly intense cyclones,
as well as rising sea levels means the fate of the island is hanging in the balance.

Josh’s livelihood revolves around the ability of Nukulevu - which lies off the Eastern shores
of Fiji’s biggest island Viti Levu - to host tourists, local guests, and parties. He’s working
around the clock to help ensure his family don’t also lose this idyllic patch of land which
means so much to them.
“It’s been really tough on us you know, as we recently lost our grandpa last year. He loved
the island and spent a lot of time on it with me, I remember these times fondly. So, I want to
do what I can to make sure it’s around for a long time.” Josh says.
Despite being one of the smallest contributors to global carbon emissions, Fiji faces some of
the most devastating consequences of extreme weather patterns of any country in the
world.
According to Fiji’s National Climate Change Policy, since 1993 Fiji has recorded an increase in
sea level of 6 millimetres per year - more than the global average - leading to flooding which
has made areas of the island nation uninhabitable.
Experts believe that if this trend continues the percentage of inundated houses in Fiji will be
around 5% after just 22cm of sea level rise, which is disturbing news considering the
projections for the rise in sea level by 2100 are 1 to 2 metres.
This puts the Fijian government in a tough situation and has forced them to commence large
scale relocations of entire communities, fresh water sources and other major infrastructure.
Josh talks about the measures taking place on Viti Levu currently, saying:
“We’ve actually had some villages that have had to relocate away from the sea, and into the
hills and on the West side of the main island they've demolished a whole mountain ridge to
get small boulders for a sea wall that stretches for about four to five kilometres in length.”
With these large projects taking place on the mainland Josh and his family are concerned
about what will happen to Nukulevu, spurring them to act fast to protect their tiny island
that’s disappearing by the day.
“We’ve built our own sea wall to help combat climate change as well as continuing to add
mangroves to the mangrove forest we have on the north side of the island,” Josh says.
“However, we just recently had a cyclone earlier this month. It was a category one, but our
sea wall still went through a bit of damage. So, it goes to show how vulnerable we are if the
cyclones continue to become more severe.”
Colin was on Nukulevu with some friends during the cyclone, having finished for the week at
university and saw first-hand how the island is at the mercy of the elements.
“You see the shoreline one day and then the day after the cyclone, you can see it's just
moved up closer,” he says.

“It’s just eaten away at the island and you're losing more and more land and you know it's
not going to stop anytime soon. This makes you realise how little time you have and how
vulnerable our little island is, as well as the whole of Fiji and the other Pacific islands.”
The world’s attention was brought to the region when, on January 15, the Hunga
Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai volcano erupted off the coast of Tonga, 800km away from Fiji,
sending a plume of ash over 30 miles into the sky and triggering several tsunamis, flooding
Tonga’s capital as well as parts of Hawaii and Japan.
“I actually heard a rumbling in the distance which would have been the shockwave from the
explosion of the volcano,” Josh says.
“I'm surprised because we heard the rumbling, but we didn't sort of feel any quake, tidal
activity or any waves, because Tonga got hit pretty badly by the aftereffects of the volcanic
eruption. So yeah, we're really lucky that nothing bad happened on this side.”
Award-winning Science Journalist, Alexandra Witze, says the eruption had been a disaster
for Tonga’s entire population who have had to clear away a thick layer of ash and establish
clean fresh water supplies, estimated to equate to nearly 39 million Tongan pa‘anga or 17
million US Dollars.
“Three people have died in Tonga as a result of the eruption and the overall crisis is being
amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, which started after relief ships arrived from other
countries, subsequently leading to Tonga facing its first wave of cases.” Witze says.
Having Nukulevu to retreat to meant that Josh and his family were able to get away from
their family home in the bustling capital of Suva, which was where most of the country’s
COVID-19 cases occurred. “Absolute chaos” is how Josh describes the arrival of the
pandemic with people breaking the rules to remain at home.
“The government began closing off certain sections or whole towns and it got to the point
where there was this one guy who got caught swimming across one of the borders in the
middle of the night, probably on his way to get laid,” he says laughing.
Looking ahead, Josh and his brother are continuing to take short-term measures to help
Nukulevu. But their idea of real protection may come from using the island as a way to
educate local people on creating a sustainable future.
Protecting the corals and opening a dive shop would help bring in even more money from
tourism while teaching local people how to use nets that don’t catch undersized fish would
protect fish stocks.
“What we want to do is help educate locals on how to live sustainably so that the future
generations can live off the sea also,” Josh says.

3 - Ukraine crisis exposes bias in Europe’s refugee stance (Double Spread)