200 MURDERS - ten years on from that front page...

TEN years ago today we published this stand-out – can’t bring myself to say iconic – front page of the Daily Express in Trinidad & Tobago.

Notwithstanding the awfulness of the subject matter, the page was a triumph for inspiration, creativity and some downright dogged hard work – rather like everyday journalism.

The page might look very straightforward but star designer Barry Mohammed worked his magic with the deftest of drop shadows and the perfect marriage of typography for the stark figure and word.

Each murder is written up with name, age, place and what happened. Enterprising, yet painstaking work from crime reporter Denyse Renne who catalogued all these individual tragedies.

Like much of the innovative work we did at the Express – then the biggest daily newspaper in the Caribbean – reactions were mixed. Some readers thought it was a dramatic and poignant way to report THE major story on the islands. Others thought we shouldn’t highlight events which reflected badly on the specific communities mentioned and the nation in general.

Now, reflecting 10 years on, I think we did a pretty good job. Running a straight story saying murder No 200 had taken place would have had readers turning to one of the other 140 pages. At least this couldn’t – and didn’t – go unnoticed.

Even now I still find myself reading those details, like this one picked at random: No 71. Allister Jack, 27, alias ‘Stumpy’ a taxi driver of Poinsettia Drive, Morvant. Found dead with two gunshot wounds in Never Dirty, Morvant, April 8.

A life lost, but not forgotten.

PS: If we did the same page today it would read ‘295 MURDERS’.

Read more about my time as editor of the Trinidad Express in earlier blog posts.