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Keynote: James Cruickshank in conversation with Sam Poling

James Cruickshank, founder and editor-in-chief of The Digger, will talk about his life and work as a muckraker for Scotland’s best, and most notorious, investigative crime magazine. Cruickshank, whose work has seen him shunned by the authorities (he was once banned from Glasgow Sheriff Court) and targeted by gangland criminals (in 2020, his car was firebombed by unknown assailants) will argue that The Digger has become a pressure valve for thousands of people who have no voice or representation.

James Cruickshank

James Cruickshank founded The Digger in 2004 in the kitchen of a high-rise flat in the Possil area of Glasgow, one of the poorest parts of Europe. The Digger has gone from selling 100 copies per week to becoming the most widely read crime magazine in the city of Glasgow; it makes money, and is now established as a leader in alternative press.  A self-confessed, critic of the agencies of law and order and a staunch defender of free speech.

Sam Poling

Sam Poling is a multi-award-winning investigative journalist with the BBC, having won five BAFTAs for her documentaries for Panorama and the investigations series Disclosure and Frontline, as well as three Royal Television Society awards and the British Journalism Award for criminal investigation.
  • 21 October 2023 15.30–16.30 BST (UK time)
BST (UK time)
Keynote
Talk