THE Northern Echo has been campaigning ever since William Thomas Stead used the paper 170 or so years ago to protest against prostitution, child slavery, the Bulgarian Atrocities, and to call for the establishment of a Board of Arbitration to settle industrial disputes.

The great Harold Evans was a notable campaigner during his time at The Northern Echo in the 1960s.

The campaign of which he was most proud was forcing the government to trial free smear tests for cervical cancer for women in the North-East.

But his best-known campaign during his time at The Northern Echo was winning a posthumous pardon for Timothy Evans, who had been wrongly hanged for the Rillington Place murders in 1950.

Evans said: "You can't sit in Stead's seat and not have a passion for campaigning journalism. I began drawing on the paper's tradition going back to the Bulgarian Atrocities."

Our latest campaign - to fight for Europe-wide legislation to ban the sale of children's pyjamas which are not flame-resistant - is going well.

It was launched after two-year-old Daniel Mitchard-Harrison, from North Yorkshire, was terribly burned.

The campaign has been featured on national television, MPs are raising questions in the House of Commons, North-East Euro MP Stephen Hughes is raising the issue in Brussels, and major retailers such as Asda, Woolworths and Tesco have promised to consider their own policies.

But, whether it is ultimately successful or not, the Protect Our Children initiative will be remembered for being a milestone in the paper's history of campaigning journalism for one important reason: it is the first Northern Echo campaign in which video and the internet has made a real difference.

Due to the fact that video reports on our website are now integral to what we do, we have been able to show our readers why this legislation is so important.

We have been able to broadcast footage showing how quickly boys' pyjamas, bought from high street stores, can be engulfed in flames. Less than a year ago, we would have had to do that with still pictures - now we can bring home the horror in a way which has far more impact.

Indeed, it was after Asda bosses had watched the shocking video that the company telephoned to say that it would start immediate talks with its suppliers.

In addition, the internet has enabled our petition, calling for a change in the law, to be signed by people all over the world.

This is new and it is powerful. The digital age has given newspapers a new dimension to use in their campaigns. Wouldn't William Stead have found it exciting?

Watch the video and sign the petition at www.thenorthernecho.co.uk.

LAST Wednesday nearly 200 people were killed and many more maimed when four huge bombs exploded in Baghdad - the bloodiest day in the city for two years. Try to imagine the horror.

On the same day, Chelsea played West Ham in the Premiership and the game was previewed by The Sun under the headline: "Lamps and Joe ready for war."

"Frank Lampard will go to war for Chelsea tomorrow against his old club West Ham," said the first paragraph. He and another former Hammer, Joe Cole, were in for a "hot reception".

'Lamps' - as he is affectionately known - insisted: "Both teams are desperate to win and it's going to be a bit of a war."

I wish someone would show them all a video of the aftermath of a bomb blast.