New student-led law documentary series to explore contemporary issues

A new TV documentary series investigating contemporary legal issues has been created by students from Kent Law School (University of Kent, @UniKent) in partnership with KMTV, the local TV channel covering Kent and Medway.

Over a series of four episodes, students explore the impact of legal issues within the local Kent community including:

• How Brexit has affected local businesses
• Property law reforms proposed post Grenfell
• Surrogacy law reform
• Immigration law and policy effects on Kent refugees

Each episode will feature a group of Kent law students carrying out interviews on location and in studio with individuals affected by the legal issues, professionals working in the affected fields and non-profit organisations. Kent Law School experts will also feature, providing insights and advice on the legal issues discussed.

Students worked with KMTV production professionals, journalists and creatives to develop the series titled Critical Law TV, from researching and presenting, through to producing and editing. The students’ input allowed them to gain important skills and work experience in the making of this series, combining their knowledge of law with a passion for journalism.

Emma Topham, Lecturer at Kent Law School and project lead for Critical Law TV said:

‘As a critical law school Kent prides itself on placing law within the wider context of society and hope that this documentary project not only offers our students the chance to find their voice on important contemporary issues, but to also make a positive contribution to the local community.

‘This project is one of many student experience initiatives run by Kent Law School, encouraging students to develop new skills while supporting employability and in this particular case building competence in reporting on legal issues.’

Andy Richards, KMTV’s Editor-In-Chief, said:

‘One of KMTV’s strongest values is enabling young people to gain that crucial first foothold in the field of television production. Critical Law TV was an ambitious project to do just that in a whole new collaboration with Kent Law School.

‘With the challenges thrown up by the pandemic, the participating law students have been nothing short of exceptional in dealing with everything from equipment workshops on Zoom, to learning how to edit a TV package, to cross-examining MPs and industry leaders in an “as-live” setting. The students should be really proud of what they’ve achieved.’

Critical Law TV will be broadcast throughout August to around 250,000 homes in Kent and Medway on Freeview 7, Virgin 159, BT and online as well as feeding into a wider UK local television network of 13 million households. 

The broadcast schedule is:

• Friday 6 August (19.00 BST): Brexit and Law 
• Friday 13 August (19.00 BST): Property Law 
• Friday 20 August (19.00 BST): Family Law 
• Friday 27 August (19.00 BST): Race and Law 

How to watch 

• KMTV is available on Freeview on Channel 7, with coverage across 236,800 households in Maidstone, Medway, Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Sheerness, Sittingbourne and surrounding areas. KMTV broadcasts to the rest of Kent via Virgin Media Channel 159, kmtv.co.uk for On Demand and live streaming, and the KMTV app (available on both Android and iOS in the UK and Overseas)