Gee Harland: Meet the journalist behind the byline

I am a court and crime reporter for Newsquest covering the counties of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. I have been a journalist for almost three years now, which in career terms is relatively short, but it already feels like I’ve seen and heard so much.

This is one of the reasons I decided to venture into journalism – to listen to stories I might never have heard otherwise, to meet people whose paths I would never have naturally crossed, and to give people a platform to start making changes in the world however small.

Though these ideas seem grand, my dream of becoming a reporter merely started because of my passion for writing. School subjects which required long essays for assessments were my favourite and in my spare time I was writing anything and everything.

All my shorthand notepads after I finished at my first job (Image: Gee Harland)

“Why don’t you become a journalist?” my mum suggested when I was 16 years old, pondering over which GCSE subjects would help me out the most in my future.

Once the suggestion was out there, it was full steam ahead. I started writing reviews for online music magazines as well as starting my own blog. My biggest achievement was having a press ticket approved to review Truck Festival when I was 18.

My most recent press band when I worked at the Oxford Mail (Image: Gee Harland)

Soon I was packing my bags and heading to Cardiff University to study ‘Journalism and Communications’ and throughout my three-year course I was a news editor for the student paper, Gair Rhydd, and undertook work experience with Wales Online.

After graduating with a first class degree, I was accepted into an NCTJ (National Council for Training Journalists) accredited Masters course at the same university to study News Journalism.

Though the exams were finished virtually due to the first coronavirus lockdown, I passed and was sent out into the real world…which was not in the best condition when I graduated.

On my graduation day at Cardiff University (Image: Gee Harland)

I spent the first few months of my new job as a trainee journalist for the Henley Standard interviewing people on the phone, watching council meetings over Zoom, and reporting about cancelled events.

At the same time, I was supposed to be completing a portfolio of work for my senior journalism exams which required me to be meeting people in person. It was not an ideal start but 18 months later my exams and portfolio were complete and I was highly commended in the Trainee Journalist of the Year category at the NCTJ awards 2023.

Highly commended at the NCTJ 2023 awards (Image: Gee Harland)

I then decided to take a new position at the Oxford Mail to expand the area I was working on and to get more experience with breaking news. I think I always knew that court and crime were the stories I found the most interesting but I wasn’t quite ready to let go of the local stories and the communities you found them in.

Me with my printing plate from my first splash at the Oxford Mail (Image: Gee Harland)

After a year of reporting on the county I mostly grew up in, I was ready to specialise. But why court and crime?

If it wasn’t for journalists, the majority of the public would have no idea what goes on inside courts. Reporters are a big part of making sure justice happens fairly – and openly.

I wanted to become a journalist to give people a platform to make changes – no matter how small – and by reporting on cases and being readily available for people involved in these cases, you give them a place to go to find justice which doesn’t just stay behind the daunting doors of a crown court.

That brings me up to the present day. I hope today I’ve let you see a little of the person behind the byline.