Mark Hirst

Mark Hirst
Mark Hirst speaking outside the Scottish Parliament at the return of the William Wallace "safe conduct" letter.
Born	Scotland
Occupation	Broadcast journalist

Mark Hirst is a foreign correspondent with RIA Novosti, (Rossiya Segodnya/Russia Today), Russia's largest news organisation.^[1][2] Hirst is a former broadcast journalist^[3] with STV News.^[4] He has also produced and appeared in a number of documentary films for UK and international broadcasters. Hirst is a graduate of Queen Margaret University obtaining a BA Degree in Communication Studies.

History and career

In 2001 Hirst took charge of media relations for Orkney Islands Council. In 2003 he was appointed as press officer for the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration.

In August 2001 Hirst was a delegate at the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Wicklow, Republic of Ireland. The conference was attended by South African Ambassador to Ireland Melanie Verwoerd and the former South African Minister of Defence and Chief Negotiator Roelf Meyer. Meyer had led the negotiations on behalf of the South African National Party that ended Apartheid. Representatives of victims groups, church leaders, academics, political representatives and former combatants also attended.

In June 2002 it was reported that Hirst attended a briefing by the British Security Service (MI5) in the North of Scotland. In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Herald^[5] and Irish Sunday Tribune Hirst claimed the Intelligence Officer who conducted the briefing told delegates that the IRA "had fought a just cause" and "had won a successful campaign". The Home Office refused to comment but subsequently issued a DA-Notice preventing the UK media from publishing details of the officer’s identity. Martin Ingram, a former intelligence officer in the army’s spying arm, the Force Research Unit said: “I think what this officer is saying is an honest appraisal.”^[6]

In August 2004 Hirst was a speaker at the Damien Walsh Memorial Lecture at Queens University Belfast as part of the Féile an Phobail. The event was organised by the Victims and Survivors Trust.^[7][8] Former civil rights leader and journalist Eamonn McCann gave the second part of the lecture focused on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

In 2003, in association with Atlantic Television and France 3, Hirst produced and appeared in Histoire d'un naufrage confidentiel (The Story of a Secret Sinking). The film won Best 'International Maritime Documentary' at the International Film Festival in Toulon in 2004. The film has subsequently been shown in 85 countries around the world and 200 million viewers. In 2005 Hirst founded the Lancastria Association of Scotland. In 2008 he successfully petitioned the Scottish Parliament calling on the Scottish Government to commission a Commemorative Lancastria Medal, which he designed. In June 2008 the first medals were issued by the First Minister of Scotland.^[9][10][11] In 2012 Hirst was Associate Producer for the documentary Maritime Mysteries, Case Closed which was broadcast on TV5 Monde.^[12]

Hirst has been a regular contributor to the Scottish Left Review magazine^[13][14][15] and also the Scots Independent newspaper.^[16] As a freelance journalist he has written for every national and regional newspaper in Scotland. He is a former reporter for Orkney Farmer magazine.^[17][18][19]

In 2009 Hirst was involved in supporting the Justice for Megrahi Committee and in June and July of that year he twice met with Abdelbaset al-Megrahi at Greenock Prison shortly before his release back to Libya.^[20]

For the past ten years Hirst has been involved in the production of over a dozen documentaries for a range of production companies including the BBC, ITN Factual, TV5 Monde, Atlantic Television, ZDF, Grande Angle Productions, Creative Differences, Arcadia Entertainment and Real Radio.

References

External links

• Mark Hirst on Journalisted