mend at the Byline Festival

mend were proud to sponsor and attend the Byline Festival, the first festival of Independent Journalism that took place on 2-4th June 2017 at Pippingford Park, Ashdown Forest in Sussex. The idea behind the event was to share ideas and experiences as a reaction to the fake news, monopoly of the media by a few organisations and also to discuss how to preserve journalistic freedoms and standards. Many famous names from the worlds of journalism, academia and comedy were in attendance including John Cleese, Martin Bell (still in his white suit), Bonnie Greer, Professor Brian Cathcart and many more

The CEO of mend, Dr Shazad Amin spoke on a panel called ‘Exclusion of the People’ chaired by non other than mend’s ex Head of Policy, Shenaz Bunglawala. He talked about the marginalisation of Muslim voices in the media and the framing of the Muslim narrative that occurs after terrorist incidents.

mend’s London Regional Manager Aman Ali and Chair of the Redbridge Working Group Vaseem Ahmed gave workshops on Muslims building relationships with the media, which is of utmost importance in the current climate

mend looks forward to participating in the 2nd Byline festival which will be taking place at the same venue in late August 2018. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact us.