The 47th Harry Brittain Fellowship
6 June to 14 July
The Value of Life
By Funsho Aina (Nigeria)
HOW can I begin to write about my most memorable experience as a Harry Brittain Fellow in the UK when each module of the six-week programme opened new
vistas in my journalism career? How can I quantify the professional meetings fellows had with some of the shining stars of the British media; or the fresh insights we got in the newsrooms of The Guardian, Independent, The Times, The Sun and
other reputable newspapers?
Surely, no one can suppress the excitement of visiting places like Buckingham Palace, 10 Downing Street, House of Commons, St. Paul's Cathedral, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and other popular icons of the British heritage. How could one possibly forget the fun-filled ride on the London Eye or the ferry ride to Greenwich, 'the home of time' as we know it today?
Funsho sitting in the newsreader's seat at PA News |
The one week journalism training in Manchester not only opened my eyes to the latest techniques in newsroom management, it also roused many of us from the drudgery of daily news gathering. Like London, visits to Wales, Northern Ireland, Liverpool were both fulfilling professionally and culturally. There was the Big Pit mine and Caerphilly Castle in Cardiff; the causeway and the great wall in Derry. Belfast brought home the gruesome reality of the protracted conflict in that region and the efforts being made to recover.
I will forever cherish thoughts of my one-week newspaper attachment with Portsmouth News. Not only was I instantly 'adopted' by all the journalists working in the newspaper, they all happily bent backwards to teach me everything they knew about modern day journalism.
However, I think what touched me the most about my experiences in the UK was my meeting with Mr. John Ryan of the Thomson Foundation, Cardiff, who told me a
moving tale of how Nigerian troops once saved his life from a gang of murderous rebel soldiers in Sierra Leone.
