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Journalists win campaign victory on the web

Is this story a pointer to the future of web-based journalism? There are several facets to it that make it interesting because it combined both campaigning and investigative aspects, and it was rooted in a local community. It did not involve a newspaper (and, therefore, a large staff and the accompanying overheads). But, and this point should not be overlooked, its successful outcome was largely due to the result of work by two trained, professional journalists with national newspaper experience.

In December 2005, Justin Williams - night editor of the Sunday Telegraph - and David Hewson - an author who previously worked on The Times, Sunday Times and The Independent - set up a website called save-wye.org in order to oppose plans by Imperial College to build a science park in the village of Wye in Kent.

Their first posting referred to the "bombshell" agreement between Imperial, Ashford Borough Council and Kent County Council "to transform our charming rural area into a hotbed of futuristic research and development, or, as others might put it, home to a bunch of new and sprawling housing and industrial estates which will transform our lives and the heritage of this region forever." They had a hunch that Imperial were planning to build a huge number of houses and were frustrated by the failure of the local paper - the Kentish Express, which Williams once edited - to take up the story.

In the following months Williams and Hewson mounted a campaign which gained the enthusiastic support of local people. They also cultivated contacts within Imperial College and eventually secured the help of several whistleblowers who provided them with documentary evidence that a "secret plan" lay behind the science park proposal.

Their breakthrough came when they discovered that Imperial planned to raise £100m by building 4,000 houses on 300 acres of land designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty. It would have quadrupled the size of Wye. According to the journalists, Imperial had "hoodwinked" the two local authorities into signing "concordats" in which they gave their backing to the plans before anything was known to the public. This revelation galvanised Wye's 2,500 inhabitants, and there were times when their website was attracting 1,500 unique hits a day.

The upshot was that, on September 15, Imperial College dropped its plans. The campaign had ended in victory for the people of Wye. Williams and Hewson, working in their spare time, had written 250 articles about the scandal. They had produced weekly printed editions of their downloaded articles for people without access to the internet. The local press, which took no interest at first, was eventually forced to take the matter seriously (though without giving credit to the web campaigners).

This is only one case of course, but it deserves attention. Here were two journalists using their skills to report and campaign on a local issue by using a medium that is unhindered by vested interests. In so doing, they have enabled people to ask penetrating questions about the way in which decisions are made in their name behind closed doors. At its heart, this is a fine example of the way the web can enhance democracy.

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