Liveblogging is increasingly being used by the media to cover events as they happen, and news consumers now expect almost instantaneous updates from reporters on the ground.

This trend means the thoughts of Keith McSpurren, founder of Cover It Live, as he talks at City University tomorrow will be well worth paying attention to.  His company allows users to embed players on their own sites and pull in content such as video, pictures or interactive polls alongside text updates.

In the spirit of things I will be liveblogging the event from 1pm, and you can follow Keith’s talk over at Blogger or on the Cover It Live site itself.

Liveblogging is a technology that is burgeoning in popularity, The Times used the format for covering the recent Budget, while Trinity Mirror’s regional titles have really embraced the concept – the Liverpool Daily Post even liveblogged the Rhys Jones murder trial.

However there are issues with both the concept of liveblogging and the technology that lies behind it.  Does the immediacy detract from an analytical approach and devalue a reporter’s coverage? Or as Cover It Live is almost invisible to search engines, will publishers be able to embrace a technology which will be hard to monetise?

If you have any questions you would like to ask Keith you can leave them below as a comment and on Blogger too, or just tweet them towards @michaelhaddon. I’ll be sure to try and get his take.

The final session of JEEcamp saw randomly selected panels from a list of attendees discuss crowdsourced questions, with the first being chaired by Joanna Geary, a web development editor at the Times.

New business models

John Thompson, founder of Journalism.co.uk, discussed the changing nature of journalism as traditional business models evolve and publishers struggle to keep up.

“I really believe good journalists know their readership and their communities and they can use that commericially – they just don’t realise it because they have always had the luxury of support structures in place.

“Conversations I have had today are discussing the idea of putting pay walls up and I sincerely believe that is a no hoper strategy.

“Publishers are going to have to realise they are being forced to compete with other business than just publishing – they are going to have to get into other areas.”

There were concerns voiced that this could make journalism come too close to advertorial but Thompson dismissed these fears, arguing “I wouldn’t say it it a way of advertising services, it is a way of building communities that you can sell services into and create content.“

Local democracy

The second panel tackled the role of local authorities in regional journalism and specifically the prevelance of council-published newspapers.  Andy Dickinson, lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, said “I think it is a convenient lie for councils that they can’t engage with journalism organisations because they don’t disseminate information properly.“

Dickinson said he saw a changing dynamic in this historic relationship, and advised professionals to engage in existing communities instead of emulating them in an attempt to chase profits:

“Maybe we just have to accept that in terms of democratic interplay the movement of information from government institutions to the great public – the fourth estate role – is something we can’t make money out of.

“Where I see things like that working really well and an opportunity for journalists to get involved and make money is fantastic websites like What Do They Know and Fix My Street.”

With so many debates, ideas and arguments sparked by the unconference, Paul Bradshaw, lecturer at Birmingham City University and organiser of JEECamp, was hopeful concrete developments would come as a result:

“There all kinds of exchanges of mediums and contacts so interesting things come out of that – hopefully people will have great ideas.  It’s the big fight about what comes of all this change.

“It is not a revolution, I think it is more complex than that and the people in this room will to a large extent determine what shape the future takes.”

Photo taken by These Digital Times on Flickr, videos shot by Kasper Sorensen on Vimeo.

After Kyle MacRae’s JEECamp keynote speech there were several breakout sessions on community management, new business models and tips for finding funding.  However, the main recurring theme was how the digital age has changed the nature of local media – with regional newspapers under threat it seems hyper-local projects are the great new hopes.

Hyper-local News

James Hatts, editor of London SE1, summed up the essence of hyper-local news by saying “if you do these things right then there is a lot of goodwill out there” and those concerned about their area “will care that it’s well reported on and that there is a sense of community and information sharing“.

However, he spoke of the sector’s difficulties in developing enough revenue and argued that Google Adsense needs to be easier to use for advertisers:

“There’s an obvious synergy between sites that celebrate a sense of place and the local independent businesses, but at the moment it is difficult to make money from the referrals. There’s a real opportunity there for bridging the gap.”

Meanwhile Sue Greenwood demonstrated Sweeble, a site allowing community websites to be easily converted into a print product. She believes combining a blog and a hyper-local newsletter might be a feasible economic model. Then James Fryer from SoGlos.com reiterated the importance of SEO, and signalled a changing of the guard, as Google still sends 70% of their traffic despite links with traditional media outlets.

Social media networking

The ethos of Jeecamp was informality and many smaller huddles had formed to discuss issues relevant to them. Christian Payne (aka Documentally), from Our Man Inside, talked about how freelancers can best utilise the sense of reciprocity inherent in social media to make contacts.

The photographer and new media consultant, who has almost 5,000 twitter followers and 24,000 updates, sees embracing the internet as an extension and improvement on traditional methods:

“I don’t think the value of the network depends on how many people are following you, to be successful on twitter you just need to connect to the right people who are going to help amplify you.

“My social networking existed before the internet, it’s just been easy for me to migrate into the digital world – the difference is I can hold 50 conversations a day instead of two.”

Photos taken by kasperbs and These Digital Times on Flickr, video shot by Kasper Sorensen on Vimeo.

Standing before a collection of social media nuts as they update twitter, write blogs, record Audioboos and film with Qik, it is clear Kyle MacRae is brave man.

The founder of Scoopt is talking at JEEcamp, an unconference organised to explore issues in the news and technology industries with a specific focus on experimentation and enterprise.  He has essentially just told his audience they need to get out more:

“I think it does pay dividends to escape the echo chamber, to get out of the field you are working in and view it objectively from a distance. Most journalists here are all completely clued up and savvy about what is going on.

“I’m not convinved that is an advantage when it comes to starting a new business in the sector.  Look at the industry from the outside without getting specific knowledge and just try to spot opportunities.

The Scotsman clearly doesn’t scare easily, as he uses his keynote speech to dismiss the usefulness of consultants and new media gurus – gods to the geeky attendees.

“My advice would be stop listening to Jeff Jarvis and all the others – do they really know anything, are you actually learning anything from them, or can you work it out yourself?”

MacRae certainly has tried to work things out for himself, and he spoke about selling his user-generated picture agency to Getty Images and negotiatiating with the BBC to obtain seconday re-sale rights on their viewers’ photos.  These plans were thwarted when the Corporation felt unable to exploit the content in a commercial arena.

MacRae also attempted to provide images for professional outlets through Flickr, but the process dragged so much he resorted to asking anyone interested to tag their photos with ’scoopt’ instead.

He feels Getty failed to fully develop Scoopt’s potential and the site finally closed in February. However, despite this setback he is positive about the future for new business models in journalism:

“I am still convinced there are a lot of opportunities in journalism to do something professionally, to build something that can generate money.

“We all know there are precious few jobs and the industry doesn’t know what it is doing, but there are all sorts of ideas and startups and experiments going on – some of which will hopefully fly.”

This is a belief at the heart of JEEcamp, that journalism can flourish under new business models as enthusiastic new initiatives replace the tired old models that now seem obselete.

“I think being an entrepreneur in journalism right now is probably the best, and possibly the only, opportunity there is.

“If you can do it without funding it is a great time – really cheap, really easy.  Just go for it, commit and hopefully make a success of it.”

Photos taken by JemimahKnight on Flickr, video shot by Kasper Sorensen on Vimeo.

The fallout surrounding the smear emails between Damien McBride and Derek Draper has seen much media attention being paid to the role played by Paul Staines and his Guido Fawkes blog.  However some commentary has cast this shameful ploy, which was designed for the anonoymity of the internet, as problematic for politics and society.

‘Once the internet – with its instant response ability, its tendency to destroy secrets and its vast memory – becomes the dominant medium, then scandal, gossip and personality come into the foreground as main elements in the political struggle.’

In the wake of McBride’s resignation over the damaging emails, this appraisal of the political climate by John Lloyd seems familiar.  The contributing editor to the Financial Times uses the plot to advance an old argument, that this is another indicator of how the British media have negatively impacted upon political discourse.

It is a return to the form of ‘What the media are doing to our politics‘, where Lloyd states that the degradation of politics by cynical journalists is harmful to democracy.  His advice on how this could be rectified is counter-intuitive:

‘The goal of developing informed citizens need not be served by acts of constant aggression or attitudes of constant suspicion towards politicians and public officials. It could also be served – and better served – by understanding and taking seriously official and representatives’ stated aims.’

If Paul Staines, or Guido Fawkes, had not adopted an adversarial approach to expose those shameful messages then it is likely they would have remained secret.  Surely the Internet’s ‘instant response ability, its tendency to destroy secrets and its vast memory’ are all wonderful developments that will help to increase the quality of political reportage and should be celebrated at this juncture.

Staines may not be the most moral of individuals, and his libertarian message may not help the reputation of politicians, but in this instance his aggressive endeavours must be acknowledged admirably.

The Guardian’s David Leigh agrees a more combative approach is required by reporters, saying that John Lloyd’s ‘hints that the media ought to hurl fewer rocks and function more as an explanatory transmission belt for politicians point in a thoroughly sinister direction.’

This is especially pertinent when considering the recent pre-eminence of individuals like Andy Coulson and Alastair Campbell, seasoned combatants with incredibly successful communication strategies.  Leigh says:

‘When a journalist asks members of British institutions uncomfortable questions about what is going on, they respond with more or less polished evasions or with downright lies. They employ expensive PR teams to paint pictures that drift artistically away from reality. They try to intimidate with their lawyers. They conceal what they can, and what they can’t conceal, they distort.’

It seems sensible that an attempt to implement Lloyd’s ‘civic journalism’ would be exploited mercilessly by those in positions of power.  Even the man himself concedes that the dynamics between journalist and politician are played out reciprocally.

‘Both sides assume bad faith: the interviewer assumes evasion, at worst deceit; the interviewee assumes concentration on sore points, at worst a fight from which the interviewer would normally emerge the winner.’ As such it needs to be questioned, given the situation, if any fault can lie entirely with the media.’

The journalist Anthony Sampson made the point that ‘journalists must always feel a duty to criticise rather than to praise, and to disclose what those in power wish to conceal.’ This is for numerous reasons – some noble and some base – and more should be done to try and engender change, yet Sampson concedes:

‘It is a conflict which can never be fully resolved, for it is part of a wider conflict between commercial pressures and considerations of public interest which lies behind most British institutions. But the more newspapers can engage in public debate with the institutions they criticise, and the more honestly they can represent their concerns, the more they can safeguard their own relationship and credibility with their readers.’

Lloyd’s belief that the media’s presentation of politicial motivations has eroded trust has to be misplaced.  Partisan reporting and cynical analysis may be contributing factors in adversely impacting upon reputations, but this is not necessarily a negative outcome.

The smear campaign dreamt up by McBride and Draper demonstrates that politics is often an unsavoury business that needs to be challenged to the best of our ability.  Leigh is correct when he states ‘it’s important that the various media behave as countervailing powers in a democracy: in fact it’s absolutely necessary.’ Indeed there should be discussions on how this can best be achieved, especially given the recent questions raised over the close relationship between the Lobby and politicians who seem to thrive in a mutally symbiotic relationship.

Ironically Lloyd provides the definitive words explainin why the abrasive, confrontational and cynical attitudes of journalists can – and must – be excused.  ‘In the end, politics can always trump the media because it has the power – state power – to do so.’

This has to be held to account.

This post was originally published at Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists.

Michael Haddon graduating from University of Liverpool

So there is to be more soul-searching about the lack of prospects for journalism graduates after our national news agency joined the long list of companies to cancel their trainee scheme.  I found out the Press Association’s decision on twitter thanks to a fellow applicant but was not too surprised.  The Guardian and Telegraph have already come to the same conclusion as economic and advertising trends continue to conspire against us.  The Times stands alone as the last shot for a trainee position at a national and, as probably the most prestigious, it will get a enormous number of applications.

It makes impressing at Telegraph.co.uk, where I am currently working as an ‘Innovation Intern‘, all the more pressing.  The internship gives the opportunity to work with Tim Rowell and hopefully some of the other journalists (like Julian Sambles, Justin Williams and Shane Richmond) who are behind the succesful online operation.  It is a commitment for the Telegraph, providing training on their CMS and the ability to experience different desks – perhaps even a stint in the Lobby. This seems different to the vast majority of work experience placements where students are often seen as free labour.  I am also planning on holding their Digital Editor Ed Roussel to his offer of coffee as a bit of networking never hurt anyone.

Afterwards I will be working as a Media Intern for the Fabian Society, a ‘left of centre’ think tank affiliated to the Labour Party.  This will be a great opportunity to continue using and developing my journalistic skills by blogging for Next Left, making podcasts or broadcasting live video with Qik. I think many young journalists will have to move into related fields because of the paucity of available media positions. Taking opportunities in communications or public relations could be a sound way of maintaining skills and, perhaps more importantly, contacts.

It is obvious there are just not going to be enough staff jobs to support the amount of graduates hoping to pursue work in the media industry, so it makes sense to try and gain freelance work which might be in more plentiful supply. I hope to carry on contributing to journalism.co.uk and other titles too, continuing writing for Online Journalism Blog will also help me abreast of any developments in the industry.

We all have to take a realistic – but not pessimestic – asseessment of the way things stand. I’m sure that many young graduates will give up and get out of the game, but I love journalism too much to do that.  Now thoughts of walking into one of the best graduate schemes are gone and the aim must be making sure we are best placed for that elusive job which should eventually show up.  I plan to continue blogging, interacting using twitter and revitalising that LinkedIn presence where a personal profile might be able to help career ambitions.

However, as those less committed (or less financially stable) graduates leave the industry we have to hope enough resourceful, innovative and enthusiastic young journalists will remain.  They will definitely be required at some point in the near future to help overcome all the problems that the publishing industry faces and the old guard seem reluctant to acknowledge.  There are plenty on TNTJ – did I mention I am one of them?

This post was originally published at onlinejournalismblog.com.

Many of the services that are being developed as part of the ’semantic web’ are necessarily works in progress, but they all contribute to extending the success of this burgeoning area of technology. There are plenty more popping up all the time, but for the purposes of this post I have loosely grouped some prominent sites into specialities – social networking, search and browsing – before briefly explaining their uses.

BROWSING

OpenCalais is a way to tag people, places, facts and events in pre-existing content to increase its value and accessibility. It makes use of RDF to annotate content intelligently and automatically so that it can be used in more meaningful ways. Developed by Thomson Reuters, the service now has a preview tool that can take any document and provide a display of the results of tagging and linking the semantic data. It provides an immediate and useful example of the way the technology works and is fun to play around with. OpenCalais is also available as a WordPress plugin which uses the service for auto tagging posts and archives with the correct themes.

headup is a Firefox plugin that enables semantic capabilities within any web page. Extra data is displayed fully in context as the service just alerts the user with a ‘+’ symbol when there is something else of interest to them. On encountering data about a band, headup might highlight the latest YouTube videos, tour dates and official blog-posts next to their name. This data can all be viewed without ever navigating away from the original page. Impressively headup’s semantic engine promises to provide a personalised service by retrieving information that specifically interests the individual user. Watch a demonstration video below.

SEARCH

SemantiFind claims to return more relevant results than traditional search engines, yet users can still continue using them as it is compatible with Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live Search. You have to download and install a free browser plug-in, but SemantiFind results are displayed alongside normal search engine results, offering some familiarity. You can watch a demonstration video here.

Powerset is among those services applying natural language processing to the web and Wikipedia already benefits from its approach. Powerset displays an interface alongside the Wiki itself so users can navigate quickly and seamlessly using the keywords, themes and sections which have been stripped out of the original article. You can watch a demonstration video here.

iGlue is a search engine that tries to identify and manage entities, not keywords. The service finds relevant information even if the given element appears in a form different from that used in the original search. It understands that corresponding words can sometimes be substituted. You can see a demonstration of the technology here.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

Twine seems to be the pre-eminent ’semantic web’ service when it comes to social networking. It acts as a means of collecting and sharing all kinds of online content, learning more about you as you fill it up and link to other content. Twine aims to build on the principles of developing communities of interest. You can even interact with Nova Spinick, the site’s creator, and see what things have captured his attention.

It is clear that all of the services - whether targeted at browsing, search or social networking - foster more advances in the field and my final post on the ’semantic web’ explores the revolutionary uses of these new technologys for the benefit of journalism. My previous post called ‘The next step to the ’semantic web” can be found here.

This post was originally published at onlinejournalismblog.com.

There are billions of pages of unsorted and unclassified information online, which make up millions of terabytes of data with almost no organisation. It is not necessarily true that some of this information is valuable whilst some is worthless, that’s just a judgement for who desires it. At the moment, the most common way to access any information is through the hegemonic search engines which act as an entry point.

Yet, despite Google’s dominace of the market and culture, the methodology of search still isn’t satisfactory. Leading technologists see the next stage of development coming, where computers will become capable of effectively analysing and understanding data rather than just presenting it to us. Search engine optimisation will eventually be replaced by the ‘semantic web’.

Correctly tagging the mass of available data to provide a clear sense of meaning is the best way of achieving this according to Nova Spivack, founder of Twine, one of the leading sites in this field. He says:

“This next generation is actually based on enriching the meaning, enriching the structure. The reason we want to do this is so that software can understand the web like humans can understand the web. Because the semantic web is not for humans, it is for machines.”

Undertaking this task will revolutionise the way we utilise the internet, creating intelligent interaction and impacting on the way the web is perceived in popular culture. Vint Cerf, one of the driving forces behind the creation of the internet, says:

‘I don’t believe that we will see arising out of the current internet…conscious artificial intelligence, but we will probably see the system become easier to interact with – for example, voice interaction is becoming increasingly easy to accomplish. I’m almost certain you’ll see products emerging that will allow you to orally interact with the network – ask for something, demand something, or command something and have [it] happen.

“We may feel that this system is more intelligent because we are interacting with it in ways that don’t require us to point, click and type. The semantic web idea will make the internet seem more intelligent because we are extracting knowledge that other people put into it in a way that looks pretty intelligent.”

So the aim of the ’semantic web’ is to allow data to be accessed and shared effectively by wider communities, yet processed automatically by computer. In order for this to happen there needs to be a simple system to catagorise data so it can be easily located and organised. Much progress has been made in this infrastructure, particularly in the development of the new languages – Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Web Ontology Language (OWL) – by the World Wide Web Consortium .

The languages are used to annotate code, representing ‘knowledge’ which will enable applications to use them more intelligently. At the moment HTML is limited to describing static content, documents and the links between them. However RDF, OWL, and XML can describe arbitrary things such as people, events or objects. It is layered on top of HTML and consists of a subject, a predicate, and an object. For example: “Jeremy Paxman” <subject> belongs to <predicate> journalists <object>. These descriptions allow increased meaning behind the static content, demonstrating the structure of the knowledge behind it.

In this way a machine can process knowledge itself instead of text, using a process similar to human reasoning. This should result in more meaningful results being returned in searches and perhaps even allow for increased automation when it comes to research by computers. The success (or failure) of these experimental technologies will motivate further research and development, not only from within the industry but also academia.

It is certain their efforts will influence the future development of information technology. In a further post I will explore the services currently being forged and in a final post on the ’semantic web’ I will tackle the revolutionary uses this new technology has for journalism. However the last word here must go to Tim Berners-Lee, the internet pioneer who says:

“A ‘semantic web’ has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialise.”

The thrust of the final chapter of Nick Anstead and Will Straw’s ‘The Change We Need‘ is ostensibly about the need to open up the political process – but what this really means is that the Labour Party need to relax their controlling instincts.

They show how technological advances and the resulting social changes were utilised effectively by Obama’s Presidential drive and highlight a new way of political campaigning. The authors argue in their conclusion that this point needs to be recognised by all parties if they want to remain relevant in today’s world, and I would agree with that sentiment.

It seems the incidents that define Barack Obama’s campaign to become the 44^th President of the United States were the user-generated content produced in his honour, like the ubiquitous Obama Girl. However, in a more serious capacity…

‘Barack Obama’s web site contained a social networking element, my.barackobama.com, or MyBO as it became known. This allowed users to register with the campaign, and then create policy or interest groups with like-minded supporters (such as Veterans for Obama), organise their own fundraising drives or canvassing events, and advocate their beliefs through blogs or online petitions. This approach was extremely successful.’

It seems unlikely that people would willingly sign up to a social networking site built around the presence of our current Prime Minister. Surprisingly, mygordonbrown.com has already been registered so perhaps this might not always be the case. That the same organisation has also staked a claim for mydavidcameron.com suggests this is opportunism more than any guiding principle though. And I am sure that the Liberal Democrat leader will still be upset that there is no mynickclegg.com.

Seriously though, the way the US public took to MyBo was incredibly successful but some of the other initiatives operated by the Obama campaign did cause problems. Change.gov, the transition project where the President-Elect asked users to ‘come back often as we define new programs and possibilities to engage and be part of this administration’, is a case in point. Users did come back often and placed almost a million votes on more than ten-thousand questions – the most popular of which were to be put to the next President. The winner, displayed prominently on the homepage?

Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?

Clay Shirky, internet writer and consultant for the Obama campaign, recently recounted how this caused problems for the administration – some staffers calling for the question to be taken down. Others managed to convince them that this would only cause more embarrassment and so the question stayed . This was the eventual response and the problem was solved, no more adverse publicity. The interesting thing is whether Labour would be in a position to take a similar attitude of fortitude, I can’t speculate authoritatively but assume it would take a significant realignment in attitude at some levels.

Anstead and Straw move on to make some clear conclusions and I overwhelmingly agree with the recommendations they reach. The first is rightly to ‘remove all barriers to participation‘ in political engagement.

Labour Party membership fees create a barrier to entry and make it harder to regularly ask supporters for donations. Scrapping party subscriptions, and instead moving towards regular fundraising drives of members and the wider progressive community, would offer supporters the chance to contribute to specific issues or electoral-based campaigns.

This would also be a significant symbolic step, as in the digital age people want to be part of a community and of a network – not a closed system. However, the impact of this statement is negated by them continuing…

To avoid a funding cliff edge, this new model could be phased in gradually by giving new members the right to set their own subscription level (including paying nothing). Existing members could be encouraged to change their subscription fee with an assumption, but no obligation, that it would increase.

Surely there can’t be any assumption of this as the entire point is to give autonomy to the members? It goes against the spirit they have spent an entire publication setting up.

Another conclusion reached by Anstead and Straw is of the need to ‘give supporters the tools to self-organise‘, which would be a welcome step. Party activists preaching to the converted is a problem that has already been identified.

Labour currently has, in technical terms, some very good online tools allowing members to publish content, organise and debate ideas with each other… these systems should be opened up and developed further, to ensure that broader connections between progressives can be formed.

Perhaps their most important recommendation though is to ‘keep supporters better informed‘. Sue Macmillan spoke at the launch of LabourList about the party’s strides in this capacity, but there is still much to do.  The way Obama was embraced by the Democratic community will probably not be replicated for quite some time in any country, but the feeling of community can be much improved quite simply.

It is vital that Labour improves its use of email and other information and communication technology, such as SMS text messaging, to form an individualised link with every one of its supporters. Messages should also request action rather than providing a one-way flow of information, as they so frequently do.

The authors’ final conclusion is to ‘reward hard work and entrepreneurialism‘, something which Thomas Gensemer, managing partner at Blue State Digital, advocated recently. This would deepen an individuals relationship with the Party as well as benefit the campaign.

The efforts of individual activists need to be recognised, allowing them to progress through the echelons of the Party and to gain more responsibility.

Overall it seems ‘The Change We Need‘ will be an incredibly interesting read when it is published on Monday, and hopefully the debate to coincide with this will flesh out its themes further.  Perhaps the only major point of contention I have with the concluding chapter is painfully obvious – the end. In fact that is precisely the problem – it is far too obvious. ‘Yes we can?‘ Do Nick Anstead and Will Straw not read Private Eye?

The Government must avoid giving ammunition to Islamist propagandists by guaranteeing British ex-detainees get the same basic benefits as the rest of us.

The story of Guantánamo Bay is familiar for many of us, but the fate of the prison’s inmates after they leave and attempt to integrate into society is one we pay less attention to.

This should not be the case in a compassionate democracy, but the issue has become all the more pressing now President Barack Obama has broken with the policies of his predecessor by pledging to close the camp within a year.

Obama’s refusal to use the term ‘enemy combatant’ should also restore some of the lost humanity of those held there, which demonstrates the problems in our perception of those caught up in the ‘War on Terror’ waged by George Bush.

In an exclusive interview with the Hackney Post, ex-Guantánamo detainee Tarek Dergoul has revealed the shameful treatment he received after eventually returning home to the borough.

The 31-year-old says he was tortured during three years of imprisonment in Cuba but was then refused basic benefits after coming back to Britain.

Dergoul was released without charge and although he should have got the same care that anyone would hope for after a period of such suffering this was not the case.

Humiliated, he had to campaign for three years to secure simple income support and housing benefit.

This is the same length of time he was denied liberty on a barren beach 90 miles from America.

The British Government has been too content to leave its citizens in the extrajudicial custody of another nation – out of sight and out of mind.

Soon all European Union states must accept they have a responsibility to repatriate at least some of the 244 Guantánamo prisoners when they are eventually allowed to leave.

This will hopefully remove what has been an effective call to arms for Islamist propagandists.

Someone who served his community by caring for the elderly like Dergoul should not have faced so many obstacles or had to turn to a human rights charity to finally get the services he craved.

His daily struggle to communicate with family is down to the lack of connection he can feel with those who have not suffered as he has.

Salvation could lie with the charity Cageprisoners where he is currently working on a documentary featuring fresh interviews with every one of his fellow British inmates – all 13 of whom were eventually released from Guantánamo without charge.

As the driving force behind the project, perhaps it will finally allow Dergoul to escape from the social and mental imprisonment caused by the horrors he claims to have experienced in Cuba.

This editorial was originally written for the print edition of the Hackney Post, a hyper-local news organisation set up by City University students.