Former MA Journalism student leads new BBC crime documentary

Amber Haque, MA Journalism graduate, has been working on the second series of BBC Hometown, a programme that follows journalists exploring the tragic events from their hometowns.

Throughout the series, Amber investigates knife crime around Manchester, starting with the death of Yousef Makki, a 17-year-old scholarship boy at Manchester Grammar School, who was killed in one of the city’s wealthiest suburbs, Hale Barns, in 2019.

Amber uncovers a growing culture of middle-class teenagers carrying knives and explores allegations of bias and injustice in Manchester’s deprived neighbourhoods.

Amber said: “It’s been a very interesting, personal, emotional journey taking me back to a lot of places where I have grown up.”

Amber graduated from the university seven-years ago and was on the PGDip master’s journalism course, she said that the course “was such a pivotal chapter in getting me ready for my career.”

The MA Journalism course allows students to learn a variety of skills across, print, radio and TV, to help them in their future careers in the industry.

Amber said: “I think the opportunity to have done things like Quays News for example, and make packages gave me the opportunity to make mistakes and just get out there.

“I tried everything when I was on Quays News filmed, edited, reported, found stories and it just set me up well on how to story tell.”

Quays News is one of the universities broadcasting channels, that allows students to put together their own news programmes.

It was not only the opportunities available on the course but the lecturers and tutors that helped Amber toward her career: “All of them (the lecturers) created an environment where we worked as a team and helped each other and it was just an ideas place, which I think that has never left me.

“I definitely learnt and got the first start from Salford, one-hundred-percent.”

School Associate Dean Paul Broster, who taught Amber on her MA Journalism programme, said: “This is phenomenal work from Amber, but her success comes as no surprise as we have watched her career blossom since her graduation.

“Her energy, talent, compassion and desire to make a difference made her a great student but also demonstrated all the qualities you need to become a top-class journalist.

“She is a real role model, and we look forward to seeing her back in the classroom at Salford soon to inspire more students to follow in her footsteps.”

The final episode of the series premieres this Sunday at 9pm on BBC Three or watch the series from the start on BBC iPlayer.

Find out more information about the MA Journalism course.