Celebrating Great Journalism - 19 July

Welcome to our weekly round-up of impactful journalism from across our 120+ trusted brands, from national titles like the Mirror, Express, Daily Record and Daily Star, to local brands like MyLondon, BelfastLive and the Manchester Evening News, as well as our US-based brands.

Our newsrooms have been busy covering the shocking assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the England men’s team’s defeat in the Euro 2024 final by Spain, along with the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday.

A shocking weekend in America

Understandably, the weekend?news agenda was dominated by events in Butler, Pennsylvania, where an assassination attempt on former President Trump happened on Saturday. Our teams in London and New York worked together to provide round-the-clock coverage across our UK and US titles.

US News Reporter Jeremiah Hassel was dispatched to the city where events unfolded and has reported from the scene for several days now. He spoke to stunned witnesses and has covered the impact the events have had on this small community.

Meanwhile, Reporter Yelena Mandenberg has been in Milwaukee , where the Republican National Congress has been taking place, appointing Donald Trump as their presidential candidate for November’s election. Martin Fricker and Erin Rose Humphrey joined forces with Yelena, reporting on locals’ reaction to the RNC happening in their county .

The King’s Speech

On Wednesday, a sense of pride came over the Liverpool Echo newsroom when a Public Authority (Accountability) Bill, more commonly known as Hillsborough Law, was outlined in the King's Speech.

The Liverpool Echo has long supported the families of the 97 Liverpool fans who died at Hillsborough in 1989 in their tireless campaign for truth and justice.

The families have long been calling for a change in the law to ensure no-one will ever go through the pain and hardship they have. A Hillsborough Law goes a long way to ensuring this by creating, amongst other things, a legal duty of candour on public authorities and officials to tell the truth and proactively co-operate with official investigations and inquiries. They welcomed the news in this report by Dan Haygarth and Liam Thorp .

The Echo has been a key voice in the campaign for a Hillsborough Law. The team has repeatedly pressed the Labour Party and its leader, Sir Keir Starmer, to deliver the package of measures in full - including in one-to-one interviews and in private meetings. Securing a commitment ahead of the General Election and seeing that commitment honoured was a huge moment for the families who lost loved ones in the disaster. Prime Minister Keir Starmer paid tribute to them after the King’s Speech, as reported by Liverpool Daily Post Editor and Regeneration Reporter, Dan Haygarth .

Meanwhile, Mr Starmer also applauded the Mirror as he vowed to force murderers to face the families of their victims in court. The PM promised action on key issues the title has campaigned on, including shoplifting and knife crime.

Mr Starmer said: "We are wasting no time in getting on with the job of changing Britain to make people's lives better…I'd like to applaud the Mirror for the brilliant campaigning it has done on important issues including tackling the scourge of shoplifting, banning lethal weapons, and ensuring killers face the families of their victims in court."

Two M.E.N. campaigns were also mentioned in the King's Speech . Martyn Hett died in the Manchester Arena bombing. The M.E.N. joined with Martyn's mum, Figen Murray, to campaign for Martyn's Law, which will strengthen security at public events and venues. This law was one of 40 unveiled in the King's Speech.

The M.E.N. also campaigned for Awaab's Law after revealing how Awaab Ishak had died, aged two, because of mould and damp conditions in his home. They worked with Shelter to campaign for more protection for those in poor quality housing. Awaab's law is already on the statute book but in the King's Speech the government confirmed it would apply to private landlords too.

Meanwhile, this week Andrew Bardsley and Amy Walker, M.E.N. court reporters, managed to successfully appeal to a judge to overturn orders protecting the identity of two boys convicted of the murder of Nathanial Shani . The boys were just 13 and 14 at the time of the killing. Andrew and Amy argued that the fact they were so young was entirely the point and said that justice needs to be seen to be done if the UK is to have a proper conversation about knife crime and its devastating impact. The judge agreed.

Around the UK

News broke on Monday that missing 19-year-old Jay Slater had sadly been found dead. We’ve had reporters from the Mirror and the M.E.N. on the ground in Tenerife throughout the month-long hunt.?

The Mirror and M.E.N. are two of our titles piloting the ‘user needs’ approach to story selection, which involves asking what people are looking to get from a story when they click on it. That process led to Senior Live and Breaking News Reporter James Holt’s article examining why it took 29 days to find Jay and to Senior News Reporter Patrick Hill’s first-person piece on his experience of the terrain where Jay was found .

Following on from the tragic events in Bushey last week, where sisters Hannah and Louise Hunt and their mum Carol Hunt were killed with a crossbow, Express Crime Editor Paul Jeeves investigated just how easy it was to get hold of one of the deadly weapons. In an alarming exclusive, he found he was able to purchase one in just two minutes .?

Daily Record Reporter Ryan Thom also delivered two strong exclusives this week, following TRNSMT festival taking place in Scotland. Tuesday's front page broke the story of how 16-year-old Lee Paton was beaten into a coma in an unprovoked attack at the event. In a follow up on Wednesday, Lee's loved ones blasted TRNSMT security staff for "standing by and watching" as two thugs stamped on his head.

Days after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Ireland Crime and Defence Editor, Michael O'Toole, scooped rivals with an exclusive on how police had uncovered a far right plot to try and murder former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar . The story set the news agenda and was widely followed up and commented upon by leading politicians.

It also highlighted the toxic environment both for politicians and journalists in covering issues around immigration and far right protests. In Dublin this week those tensions boiled over into serious public order violence .?Colleagues from our teams in the Irish Mirror, Irish Star and DublinLive kept audiences and readers informed with some courageous and top class live reporting from the flashpoints.

The teams at the Irish Mirror, Irish Star and DublinLive produced rolling coverage of the violent disorder that broke out at a Dublin site earmarked for refugees . The websites and social media pages carried live updates , pictures, videos and reaction as far-right protesters clashed with officers.

In the North, the team at BelfastLive worked around the clock to cover the annual Twelfth of July celebrations - including comprehensive advance content and on-the-day coverage.?

Thanks for reading - we’ll be back with more highlights next week.