ITV considered that the salient aspect of Mark Alexander Harding’s identity, the one that they needed to highlight, was that he was from Jersey. (Channel Islands Jersey, not Springsteen Jersey.) Apparently we are to believe that because Mark Alexander Harding was from Jersey, he decided to publish bomb-making instructions taken from an Al Qaeda magazine. ITV doesn’t see fit to explain what Mark Alexander Harding’s relationship to Al Qaeda is. It doesn’t tell us if he is a non-Muslim thrill seeker or a convert to Islam. It doesn’t tell us with whom, if anyone, he has been associating. It doesn’t tell us whether he was frequenting some Jersey mosque. In short, it tells us nothing that would be illuminating or informative about this at all.Journalism, 2014.
“Jerseyman charged with terrorism offences,” ITV, October 9, 2014:
Mark Alexander Harding, 21, has been charged with terrorism offences after publishing bomb-making instructions taken from an Al Qaeda magazine.The Jerseyman, from Grouville, was arrested in the parish by police on Friday 3 October.He was charged in the Jersey Royal Court on the same day and has been remanded in custody awaiting his next court appearance on 31 October.Mr Harding is charged on two counts of the Jersey terrorism law including copying of the bomb-making section of the magazine and publishing it online.The second count covers being in possession of the spring edition of an Al Qaeda magazine at his home.