Gair rhydd

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gair rhydd (Welsh for "free word") is the official student newspaper of Cardiff University. It is a weekly, free, tabloid-sized paper established in 1972 and edited by a full-time sabbatical officer of the Students' Union. Its sections cover domestic and international news, health, science, jobs and money, politics, sport, opinion, and a spoof problem page; in addition, there is a Welsh language section titled "Taf-Od".

The first paid editor, Meirion Jones (now on the BBC's Newsnight), was elected in 1980. Since then, gair rhydd has won numerous student media awards, including several in the early 1990s and, more recently, the title of Best Paper at the NUS/Daily Mirror National Student Journalism Awards. It also won Newspaper and Magazine of the Year at the 2005 Guardian Student Media Awards, with deputy editor James Anthony also being named overall Student Journalist of the Year.

In 2003, gair rhydd launched "Quench", a fortnightly lifestyle magazine, which won Student Publication of the Year 2005 at the EMAP Fanzine Awards.

The paper's current editor is Tom Wellingham; its deputy editor, Will Dean, is also editor of "Quench". Wellingham and two other student journalists were suspended temporarily when, on February 4, 2006, they reproduced a controversial cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed.[link] The issue was withdrawn from publication within a day of being released, and the editor published a public apology in the next issue.

In 2006, gair rhydd celebrated the publication of its 800th issue. Later that year, on June 12, 2006, a one-off Berliner format edition (issue number 818) was published, which was at least twice the size of the usual issues, making gair rhydd the first non-national British newspaper to use this format.

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