Paul McNamara - Channel 4 News - Isle of Wight and education - Aug 2016

Channel 4 news filmed a piece on the Isle of Wight after ‘ghetto’ comments: Watch it here (Updated)

Channel 4 News filmed on the Isle of Wight on Monday and Tuesday.

Investigative journalist, Paul McNamara, pulled together a feature for that was originally expected to go out on the Tuesday, but was eventually shown on Wednesday.

It came following the fallout of Ofsted’s chair, David Hoare’s comments, referring to the Island as a poor, white ghetto with inbreeding.

David Hoare has since apologised and after being instructed to by the Department for Education (according to TES) now says he will will visit the Island to apologise in person and seek to get a better understanding of the issues faced.

Chief Inspector “incandescent”
The Chief Inspector of Ofsted, Michael Wilshaw, said on Saturday he didn’t believe Mr Hoare should resign over the comments.

However, The Times are reporting today that he was “said to be privately incandescent about the comments made”.

Update: The broadcast piece
Here’s what was broadcast on Channel 4 News on the evening of the 10th.

Gathering the view of Islanders
The C4 news team were at Brickfields car boot fair on Monday gathering voxpops from members of the public.

They’ve also interviewed Labour councillor, Alan Hollands, as well as the Green Party’s national education spokesperson, Vix Lowthion.

Vix told OnTheWight,

“They [C4 News] spoke with a group of bright and hardworking Island students, all off to university in September, and were impressed with how articulate and motivated they are.

“They looked for the ‘ghetto’ and couldn’t find it. The comments by Mr Hoare were damaging and didn’t reflect the full experience of being a young person on the Island.

“It will be interesting to see the angle that channel 4 take on this story!”

Former war reporter
Before joining the C4 news team, Paul McNamara was a war reporter, working for the biggest newspapers in the UK and US, and reporting on conflicts from the frontline of Afghanistan to the Arab Spring.

Image: © Les Lockhart and Open World news

19:00 Update: It’s not clear that the IW ‘ghetto’ package will make Channel 4 News tonight. Perhaps editing deadline too tight. They were shooting until 1:30pm
Update 9:32 11 Aug 2016 – Added the broadcast video and altered the text to reflect this.