I am delighted to announce that a new BBC Radio 4 documentary I have been working on recently will air on Saturday May 11th at 8pm,

‘Heroes and Hacks’ examines Watergate on its 40th anniversary and evaluates its legacy for journalism and society. I interviewed all the legendary ‘greats’ – including quite a few of my own heroes – including: Bob Woodward, Len Downie, John Pilger, Heather Brooke and Nick Davies. There’s even a short clip of me interviewing Ben Bradlee over 20 years ago (which indicates how long I have been studying the topic!). I am planning a new academic/trade book and multi-platform digital project on this in the next 12-18 months.

It was great fun to do and the production company who produced it for BBC Radio 4 – Whistledown Productions – were superb. Special thanks to producer Colin McNulty for all his hard work and help.

I was invited recently to give expert evidence in the Scottish Parliament on the future of investigative journalism in Scotland in the wake of press regulation proposals. The Education and Culture Committee were were well-briefed on the thorny topic and its members asked some very engaging questions. I was delighted to follow on from Lord McLuskey who wrote the recent report for the Government and also deliver my evidence alongside Pete Murray from the National Union of Journalist who is not only a widely respected colleague but a great pal.

Of course the most surreal part of all was realising halfway through my evidence that one of the committee members was none other than an old school friend who I hadn’t seen since the Physics class nearly 30 years before. What a way to meet the lovely Clare Adamson MSP again.

The whole morning was filmed and is available here.

On the 200th anniversary of Scottish explorer David Livingstone’s birth, I was very proud to be one of the architects of a new scholars programme for journalists from Malawi. He attended the university where I work – the University of Strathclyde – when it was a mere college. Fittingly, until recently when I moved offices, I also worked for a decade in the Livingstone Tower which was named after him, walking past a statue of him every morning.

It took 6 months working with the Deputy Editor of Scotland on Sunday newspaper Kenny Farquharson, my colleague Dr Jane Andrews from the university’s David Livingstone Centre for Sustainability and staff from the office of Cabinet Secretary for Education Michael Russell – who personally supported this – from Scottish Government to make this happen. We’re all very proud and look forward to it coming to fruition later this year.

Meantime here are two fantastic articles in Scotland on Sunday announcing the new plans.

A new BBC Radio Scotland series of programmes begins soon as part of a ‘Crime and Punishment’ season.

The first 30 minute broadcast is entirely devoted to covering my professional investigative work over the last 24 years, in particular the 13 years I devoted to the Robert Brown miscarriage of justice case – reckoned to be one of the longest in the UK and certainly the worst involving a Scottish prisoner.

It was flattering to be asked to participate and discuss my work. The questions from host Neil Mackay were interesting and wide-ranging. It’s the first time in my career I’ve really been asked to examine my personal motives for doing investigative work and to be recorded over 90+ mins for a 30 mins broadcast was a new experience. It’ll be interesting to see what’s included and what gets cut out…

You can find the programme here and listen to it live on the day or afterwards via the iPlayer: BBC Radio Scotland – Covering Crime with Eamonn O’Neill Thursday 14th March 2013 2.05pm.

I am delighted to announce the publication of new academic book called ‘After Leveson? The Future for British Journalism’. I contributed a chapter on the possible ‘Chilling Effect’ of the Leveson Report on investigative journalism in the UK. My analysis took into account research I’ve carried out on the complex and unpredictable aftermath of the Watergate scandal in the 1974-2000 timeframe in the USA. I connected this to the thought-provoking ‘Cultural Chaos’ theory introduced in his book of the same name by my former Univ of Strathclyde colleague Prof. Brian McNair now on the faculty of Queensland University of Technology. I found much to commend in his analysis and believe his progressive conclusions tie-in with my examination of what happened after the so-called high-point of the genre in the USA. It’s available here: ‘After Leveson? The Future for British Journalism’.

Readers of my posts on this site will know I have written extensively of the child abuse scandal which has engulfed the RC church globally. Several of the articles in the past have mentioned the important contributions made by former New Orleans-based lawyer Ray Mouton, now a bestselling critically-acclaimed author, since he represented the first RC priest accused of child abuse in the 1980s. He was one of the co-authors of the notorious ‘Manual’ – a 100-page document – drafted in May/June 1985 warning the church about the scale of abuse and strongly advising it to change all its policies regarding the issue. They were ignored and the document was shelved.

Ray Mouton has written a fictional story about this matter in the unforgettable novel ‘in God’s House’ review elsewhere on my site. In the wake of the Papal resignation today he has just issued the following statement:

Eamonn O’Neill being interviewed on Scotland Tonight by Rona McDougall.

Scotland Tonight, the most-watched current affairs programme produced by my former employers from two decades ago, STV, invited me to discuss the controversial Pat Finucane case. I explained during the on-air interview my thoughts about the newly-published review carried out by Sir Desmond de Silva into the murder of the Belfast-based lawyer in February 1989 and its findings of top-to-bottom collusion between the British security forces and Loyalist terrorists during the ‘Dirty War’ in Northern Ireland during the 19060-90s timeframe.

It’s a story I have reported on and kept a close watch on for some time now and I explained how the report’s conclusion, although not unexpected and not complete either, still made shocking reading. In my view this case and this is a subject that will run and run for the foreseeable future.

Reading ‘In God’s House’ the début novel by Ray Mouton, was an intense and suspenseful experience. The prose was fresh and crisp and displayed a Hemingway-esque control and awareness of plot, character and narrative arc from beginning to end. As the story unfolded, I felt myself gripped and eventually shocked by the events, characters and emotions which were introduced to me throughout this deceptively-human but ultimately-epic story. I have reviewed many novels in the last 20+ years as a professional journalist but none hit me as hard as this.

I repeatedly found myself thinking of the masterful work by Mario Puzo, ‘The Godfather’ as I turned page after page of Mouton’s astonishing book. When I read Puzo’s seminal work, whilst being well aware La Cosa Nostra existed I wasn’t prepared for the journey it took me on nor for the education about its players, dramas and underlying themes. It wasn’t a book about the ‘Mafia’ it was a book about the violence men do, an Italian-immigrant family, cultural-loyalties, economic-survival, institutional-corruption and – above all – the roots of an American family.

Mouton’s novel touches deep emotions in similar, if not better, ways. This is not a story about ‘child-abuse.’ This is a wonderful and thought-provoking story of: ambition; professional-judgment; ethics-in-the-workplace; duty-to-family, community, profession and oneself; courage-of-all-forms; and the challenge of religious faith in the modern age.
Yes, Mouton tackles head-on a subject that’s in global headlines but he singularly enlightens the unsuspecting-reader about its street-level legal complexities, multi-layered realities and, ultimately, its appalling consequences.

Like Puzo’s masterpiece, it presents dreadful characters, shocking scenes and unforgettable outcomes. It simply stays with you after you’ve turned the final page.
But above all this is a novel in the purest literary sense: it takes the reader along a path that seems familiar but is revealed to be alien; it unveils truths in the midst of a sea of lies; and it paints a portrait of a lawyer who might not be the person he wanted to be, but is certainly a timeless, sympathetic and wholly human hero for our times for the rest us. In that sense there is an unmistakable – but updated to a modern setting and with possibly more raw intensity – similarity to Harper Lee’s classic hero Atticus Finch from ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’.

This novel succeeds in winning the reader’s trust by creating characters who accompany us on a journey into dark places and as a legal thriller effortlessly ranks on a par with the best his fellow Southern writer John Grisham has to offer (and I am thinking of Grisham’s best work – and his and my own personal favorite – ‘A Time to Kill’ which tackled the equally unsettling issue of racism in the South and also had a flawed but courageous hero in lawyer Jake Brigance. Yes, Mouton’s book is that good).

There have been many journalistic articles, many network documentaries and many newspaper commentaries across the globe written about the crisis within the heart of the Roman Catholic Church. Only one book has been written by the ultimate insider, and this book is by Ray Mouton.

Mouton’s novel takes you beyond the other places because it takes you into the very soul of the damaged Church of Peter. I doubt if any other work of fiction could address such a catastrophic event in such a powerful, accessible, authoritative and shockingly entertaining way. But – and this is important to impart – it triumphs because it left this reader with a feeling of hope that one good man can indeed, face evil down and against all the odds of hell, actually make a difference. That in itself is a testimony to what this author and this story has managed to achieve.

‘In God’s House’ by Ray Mouton is published by Head of Zeus and is available here.

 I am deeply honoured and proud to have been invited by Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, to join the brand new JUSTICE Scotland Council which launches in the heart of the capital’s legal community tonight. JUSTICE has been based in London for decades and has a formidable and well-deserved reputation for advising and becoming involve din matters of law connected with social justice. It’s a non-party affiliated charity which has an important role to play in the fast-changing legal landscape of Scotland. Tonight’s launch is by Lord Hope of Craighead, Deputy President of the UK Supreme Court and a fellow University of Strathclyde man. It’s a privilege to serve alongside him and other colleagues from the law, academia and other areas of Scottish life on this

Roberto Calvi was found hanging under Blackfriar’s Bridge in central London 30 years ago. I managed to track down his son, Carlo, some years ago, and persuade him to return with me to the very spot where his father was found dead on the morning of June 18th 1982. All the forensic evidence I examined, the experts I spoke to, and the sources who went on the record – and those who wouldn’t – all agreed that Roberto Calvi aka ‘God’s Banker’ – had been murdered. He was found with bricks in his pockets, hanging from a rope and wearing a watch which indicated when he’d finally been immersed in the rising tidal waters of the Thames. He knew too many secrets about the Mafia and its dealing with the Vatican Bank. He was tormented in his last days alive and fell into the hands of murderers who took advantage of his fear. Various judicial moves have taken place in Italy in intervening years to get to the bottom of this mystery but none has ever really held the guilty men accountable. The whole mess has taken a dreadful toll on hsi son Carlo, a really nice but also tenacious man and someone who has tried very hard to uncover the truth and put those responsible behind bars. This is a story which I continue to investigate to this day and gather facts about whenever I can. It’s been slow progress and has taken many hours poring over documents and statements. This is the original article I wrote and, to mark the anniversary of the death, I hope it gives you an insight into the labyrinth world Roberto Calvi inhabited. Especially, since – if the recent news from the Vatican recently is anything to go by – the same pattern is being played out all over again… Click this link.