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Solent University's course leader for journalism, Dr Jaron Murphy, has been announced as one of the NCTJ's top 238 most respected journalists, alongside names such as Caitlin Moran, Fiona Bruce and Andrew Marr.

17th October 2018
English and journalism

Solent’s course leader for journalism, Dr Jaron Murphy, has been announced as one of the NCTJ’s top 238 most respected journalists, alongside names such as Caitlin Moran, Fiona Bruce and Andrew Marr.

The National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) asked journalists working in the UK to choose who they most respected in the media. The person who received the most nominations will be announced as the charity’s patron later this week.

Jaron began training as a journalist in 1994 and working as a journalist in South Africa in 1995. In 1998 and 1999 he won national awards in the country for investigative journalism, having risked his life to tackle police torture, which later led to convictions.

He has worked in South Africa, Ireland and England, and formally graduated with a DPhil in Literature from Oxford University in 2015.

Jaron says: “It’s an honour to be recognised in this way by working journalists in an industry where at its best, integrity and credibility are everything. They know the respect is mutual. I'm pleased my appearance on the list coincides with the inauguration of Theo Paphitis - who has cited honesty as one of his core values - as chancellor of the University.

“It is also a confidence boost for my students, who can readily appreciate the relationship between my academic teaching and professional practice in industry, not least in relation to the values of journalism in an international context.”

He advises journalism students: “At the entrance to the Spark building there is a quotation from Nelson Mandela: ‘A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.’

“The dauntless spirit which infuses this superb, wise and inspirational quotation embodied by the great Madiba himself has been a rock on which my journalistic and literary values have stood firm all these years, in a profession frequently threatened by corrupt and dangerous individuals and forces who despise press freedom and fear public exposure.

“My advice to students would be to nurture the seed that Nelson Mandela plants by way of that quotation. Strive to become someone with something very special to offer in service of the greater good.”