South West England NUJ

In his keynote address, freelance journalist James Garrett stressed the importance of tenacity, and never letting up on revealing the truth in holding those in power to account.

He told the student journalists that when he started at Bristol University in October 1975 he had no idea of what he wanted to do when he graduated.

He became inspired to become a journalist by the movie, All The President’s Men (1976), and the ABC Official Secrets Trial (1977-8), in which two journalists and a whistleblower were threatened with lengthy jail sentences for revealing the (then-secret) existence of GCHQ.

He joined his first newspaper, the East Anglian Daily Times, on April Fool’s Day, 1980. Starting as he meant to go on, he became an investigative reporter and NUJ activist. When his trainee-ship ended he was father of the NUJ chapel and it did not come as a total surprise when the editor suggested his career might be better furthered elsewhere!

In 1986 he returned to Bristol to join BBC Radio Bristol as a reporter and then the regional TV newsroom. James reported for Points West for several years before joining the regional political program, as well as producing investigative documentaries.

In 1994, he crossed Bristol to join HTV West as a reporter/ producer on a new current affairs documentary series, West Eye View. James was involved from episode one in January 1995, when he reported on violence against social workers, to the very last in December 2008, in which he investigated Somerset Council’s disastrous ‘Ignite’ IT project.

In 1996, James provided a platform on West Eye View and Channel 4’s Dispatches for anesthetist Dr Stephen Bolsin to blow the whistle on the Bristol heart surgery scandal. His revelation that dozens of small children died because of incompetent surgery, led to major inquiries.

James has been freelancing since 2008, and recently returned to investigative reporting. His work today is regularly published in Private Eye and a Substack newsletter, Somerset Confidential.

For 46 years James, a Life Member, has been a proud member of the NUJ, even when senior editorial roles made it inappropriate for him to be an activist. He chaired the Bristol branch in the late-1980s and again in the early-2020s, when he oversaw the creation of the SWE branch. He is currently branch membership secretary, helping to welcome in new members.