Philippa Budgen
It can be daunting talking to journalists. Telling them about the causes and people that matter to you. Trying to convince others why they should care as much as you do. If you want to have an impact and make a difference, your public voice is so important for effectiveness and influence.
As a former BBC journalist I have deep knowledge of the press landscape and the criminal justice system. Through my network of media contacts in respected publications and broadcast media I help organisations to create a clear message and get their voices heard. I offer everything from media strategy to interview training and hands-on, continuing communications support.
My consultancy briefs range from court innovation; access to justice; forced marriage legislation; teenagers and the law. I work with lawyers, think tanks, charities and campaign groups. I particularly enjoy supporting organisations which are new – and sometimes wary – of press exposure.
How do I work? I take time to get under the skin of every organisation in order to build understanding and trust. To every project and client I bring integrity, straight-talking and an absolute commitment to communicate complex ideas effectively.
Jonathan Black, past President of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association, partner BSB Solicitors
Phil Bowen, Director of Centre for Justice Innovation
How I can help:
Typically I offer:
- Media strategy advice. So you know you need to raise your organisation’s profile? Here’s how you can do it. This blueprint establishes your overall media goal; what parts of your project or campaign are likely to work in the press, what won’t.
- Media training. You have a couple of spokespeople who need to brush up on their interview skills prior to a launch.
- Messaging workshops. Jargon-busting facilitated practice at making your message clear and effective for a wider audience.
- On-going support: preparing a campaign, report or new project to be fit for the media- from idea through to press launch.
- Broadcast content for websites.
But:
- It’s all bespoke. I tailor my support according to your needs. So if you think I can help but I haven’t mentioned your specific requirement, let’s talk.
About me:
I provide a bridge over a cultural gap – between the criminal justice sector and the journalistic world. Journalists are demanding. They want a story. They want a headline, they need a case study. And they want it NOW!
Those working in the criminal justice world don’t view their cause as a ‘story’, nor do they regard the people they support as ‘case studies’. Yet the two worlds can and must meet for an organisation to achieve a strong authentic voice and to influence opinion and policy. As an independent media consultant I guide criminal justice organisations through the media maze and help bridge the gap.
How am I qualified?
- BBC reporter for more than 15 years. Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, You and Yours and documentaries. The World Service and Radio 5 Live.
- MA (Distinction) in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. My dissertation researched the role of the victim in youth referral orders.
- Prison visitor for more than ten years in a women’s jail.
- Media training. Throughout my journalistic career I have media trained spokespeople from a variety of disciplines: legal and justice professionals; dentists, social scientists and academics.
The best way to find out how I can help… get in touch.
New Blog
This is my new blog. Come back soon as there will be many more posts to come…
Time
Time: Uncomfortable truths behind hard-hitting prison drama It’s the head-splitting sounds as the prison van arrives from court; the claustrophobia of a cell you’re never sure you're safe in; the looming menace of the wing bullies who dominate the phones. Anyone who has been to prison as a visitor, worker or on a sentence talks about the sensory assault when they first walk into a prison. Jimmy McGovern’s hit BBC 1 Sunday night drama Time shines a light on prisons and, more importantly, the prisons culture today. It tells the story of a middle class teacher (Sean Bean) serving a four year prison sentence for killing someone in a [...]
Break-out from lockdown
Break-out from lockdown. Try escaping your own four walls of isolation with new prison podcasts. Clearing out my sock drawer I went to prison ….helped by a ‘prison wife’. Bear with me. There’s something strangely companionable about someone else’s voice, another person’s world in your ear in these unsettling times. For me it’s a return to the familiar, to a past normal as a BBC radio reporter. The hidden world of prisons lends itself to radio and podcasts. A world those on the outside often struggle to get a true picture of. Most TV documentaries don’t help (with the rare notable exception of Gareth Malone’s The [...]
The quiet power of Just Mercy
The quiet power of Just Mercy..... It’s midweek, I’m front row at the cinema in London’s Leicester Square, flanked by an informal panel of amateur film critics, both preoccupied by crime- one is an academic, the other a defence lawyer. We’re watching Just Mercy, the new legal film based on the memoir of civil rights activist lawyer Bryan Stevenson (played by Michael B Jordan) who fights dubious convictions for prisoners on death row. It charts the ups and downs as he takes on their cases and gives them a voice in a system where they otherwise wouldn’t have one. The case of woodworker Walter Mcmillian (Jamie Foxx) who was wrongly imprisoned [...]