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PARIP 2003 NATIONAL CONFERENCE: 11-14 September MCLAUGHLIN:
CAHAL I am currently recording audio-visual testimonies from the political conflict in the north of Ireland. This is regarded as research, because of the context of process, collaboration, reflection and analysis, and is distinguishable from professional practice, with its differing emphasis on product, and industry standards of formula, audience, and copyright. I have recorded the recollections of two political ex-prisoners, one republican and one loyalist, now Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and a prison officer inside the Maze Prison, which held the largest number of prisoners convicted of violent offences in Europe. The project is a collaboration, with copyright remaining with the ex-prisoner participants, and with the primary audience as the ex-prisoner communities. Ten years
ago, I directed a short access programme for Channel Four’s The
Slot, with two ex-prisoners (one of them also taking part in the
above research) being questioned by sixth-form students from a Belfast
integrated school. C4’s solicitors were concerned with ‘criminals’
benefiting from their ‘crimes’, not appearing ‘apologetic’
for their activities and an oppositional voice(s) to maintain ‘balance’.
Although the programme was delayed from transmission for one day, the
solicitors eventually were persuaded that no broadcast regulations were
being breached.
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