By Hamish Mackay
Self-proclaimed gangster Paul Ferris and undercover reporter Donal
MacIntyre, who has made a speciality of exposing crime, are set to
appear together at the Edinburgh Television Festival.
Ferris and MacIntyre will take part in a debate about the
broadcasting industry’s coverage of crime, and whether crime and
criminals are glamorised by British TV.
Roger Graef, managing director at documentary producer Films of Record, will chair the session.
Ferris has been the subject of a MacIntyre documentary, Vendetta, which investigated the criminal underworld in Glasgow.
He said: “I have led a life of crime. But
now I have vowed to go straight I’ll not turn my back on those who
still walk that walk. That’s their choice, their lives. People like me
who have been steeped in crime don’t hate the media as long as they
tell it how it is.
“That was why I was happy to take part in the documentary with Donal MacIntyre.”
In
1992, after the longest-ever murder trial in UK history, Ferris was
acquitted of the murder of the son of his former employer, the supposed
“Godfather” of Glasgow’s ganglands.
In 1998 he was jailed for seven years for trafficking guns and explosives.
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