Category Archives: Journalism

I used #BBCAskThis…

… to bring up issues I think have been as yet overlooked in the campaign leading up to the UK general elections. I have no idea whether the questions will be considered – I made them out in writing and … Continue reading

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Profiling Guccifer

Some more material and a few shreds of thought on the story and the hacker himself… The other day Pando.com of San Francisco published my big feature on the Romanian hacker Guccifer, real name Marcel Lazar-Lehel. He is a fascinating … Continue reading

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No Land’s Man or How Not to Do an Election

The 2014 presidential elections were a pyrrhic victory for Western values in post-Communist Romania. Note: a Romanian language version of this article was published by Gazeta de Romania, a London-based newspaper for Romanian expats. Read it here. Thousands of Romanians … Continue reading

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The Medianett saga: adventures in mercenary churnalism

“Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme…” – John Milton, Paradise Lost, 1667 Cub reporters: beware of marketing agencies employing investigative journalists. These wrongens* will likely try to corrupt you. Initially I wanted to be the source instead of the … Continue reading

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Nursing a crisis

In light of news earlier this month that the NHS is seriously overspending on agency staff, Rotherham Hospital provides a glimpse into how the dogma of outsourcing often achieves the exact opposite of its intended purpose which is to save … Continue reading

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Rave heads, revisited. Revisited.

The Cable nightclub in London Bridge and the Vibe bar in Brick Lane – raving institutions both – were forcibly shut down within a year or so of each other and now the authorities put the squeeze on Fabric, conditioning … Continue reading

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The orphans of Romania who are building new lives underground

A story I wrote and that ran in Huck Magazine, a subculture bi-monthly. I knew about the children of the tunnels, but was just one of the passers-by. Huck readers and I now look at them through the eyes of … Continue reading

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Tech Strings

“Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?” – Joseph Heller, Catch 22, 1961   Pando.com is the San Francisco-based website that first covered the Silicon Valley wage-fixing cartel and most harshly scrutinised Pierre Omidyar’s motives for putting $250 million into his … Continue reading

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From The Guardian: Ikea funds went to Romanian secret police in communist era

Secret police files reveal six-figure payments to Ceausescu’s henchmen, as retailer denies knowingly paying Securitate. by the Deviant’s Matei Rosca in Bucharest  

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GUSH Cosmetics Au Naturel

From between the Deviant’s sofa cushions! Eco-friendlier-than-thou multinational cosmetics corporation’s North America boss had ties with tar sands oil extraction and strip-mining industries. Soap tycoon Mark ‘Castevet’ Constantine of LUSH Cosmetics talks to the Deviant on the phone – shocking … Continue reading

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