street of shame

Photographic memory
Reach plc , Issue 1636

higgerson.jpg
PHOTO FINISH: David Higgerson is not endearing himself to staff at Reach
DAVID Higgerson, chief digital publisher at Reach plc, did nothing to improve his reputation among hacks with an all-staff email on Halloween.

He urged them to listen to a new Daily Mirror podcast series, "Back from the Brink", saying it featured "Mirror photographer Rowan Griffith, whose assignment in Afghanistan in 2010 ended in life-changing injuries, speaking about his experiences in episode four".

Rowan Griffiths (with an "s") is indeed a Mirror photographer who has travelled to a number of war zones for the paper – but as long-serving Mirror staff are all too aware (and the podcast itself made clear), it was his fellow photographer Phil Coburn who was severely injured by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, in an attack which also killed Sunday Mirror defence correspondent Rupert Hamer.

Snapper judgement
As Coburn explained to colleagues in his own rather pointed email the following day: "Relatively recent Reach employees may not have heard of me as I am rarely in the office.... I have been a photographer with the Mirror for 22 years. I was the photographer who was in the US Marine MRAP in Helmand province, Afghanistan when it was hit by an IED. I lost my lower legs and had a burst fracture in my spine and was alongside reporter Rupert Hamer and a young Marine when they both died of catastrophic injuries.

"I am writing this not to embarrass anyone but, as I am sure that you will understand, I could not let such a mistake go unheeded from not only a personal point of view but also for the record and for the factual inaccuracies which I feel the need to correct.

"The Mirror, to my knowledge, has lost two reporters on assignment. One was Ian Fyfe who jumped with paratroopers into Normandy on D-Day in 1944 and the other was Rupert Hamer... These are both incidents which I think everyone who works for the Mirror/Reach should be aware of. Facts and accuracy are important in journalism to say the least."

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