Dr Yukteshwar Kumar contacted us to share his story about a shocking incident of racial abuse he experienced in the streets of Bath.
I contacted police to verify they were looking into the incident.
I discussed the story with my editor who agreed with me that there was no contempt risk as proceedings were not active, nor libel case as the assailant was unidentifiable.
I found Dr Kumar’s account to be consistent and believable. With a strong public interest justification, I went ahead with the story.
I interviewed Dr Kumar to get further details that made the story more compelling.
The story really captured interest, both at a local level and on a national scale, especially with contemporary concerns that racism was being stoked by the Brexit debate.
Apart from my own sharing on social media, a large number of campaign groups took up the story.
The story had 43,000 page views and thousands of comments of support.
I continued to keep an eye on the story with a couple of follow ups including Dr Kumar’s response when he received an anonymous letter applauding the woman who racially abused him, which had a further 6,500 views.
Being both a University of Bath lecturer, and now a local councillor, Dr Kumar has proved a very useful contact to have a good relationship with.
When I saw that he had become one of the first two councillors of Indian descent ever elected in the authority, I was able to immediately call him for an interview, despite him having been up all night for the vote count.
He was also happy to speak with me about his international students stuck in China in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
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