UK press officer Niall Couper’s work for Amnesty International begins at seven in the morning, but he just about has time to switch his attention to less demanding world affairs in the evening

Amnesty International’s press officer Niall Couper’s talks PRmoment through his day...

My day

5.45am: Get woken by my youngest daughter – 18-month-old Lyra. Not the perfect start to what will be a day full of meetings.

6.00am: Catch the headlines on Radio 5 Live and then put on BBC Breakfast to see what it is leading with.

7.00am: I quickly log into my Amnesty email account to see if there is anything I need to deal with. A meeting I had with The Mirror has been moved from its headquarters in Canary Wharf to ours in Shoreditch. There is also a request from Radio Free Asia for an interview with our director, Kate Allen, on a new fundraising initiative to buy radios for Burma. A quick couple of emails and the interview is sorted for our offices at 5.15pm.

8.15am: I try and read as many of the newspapers as I can on the train in, looking for any human rights stories. I look after Asia-Pacific so any stories from that region take a particular interest.

9.15am: In the office and comforted by the news that one of our opinion pieces on Burma made it into the Telegraph over the weekend. Scroll through several news sites to see what other stories are out there.

9.45am: Next up is a meeting with The Mirror to try and set up a new reporter competition for students with ourselves and the NUS. I lead on Amnesty’s youth work in the media team and have been keen to add a youth dimension to our Media Awards. Last year I helped set up two new awards for 7-11 year olds and 11-14 year olds with the education arm of The Guardian – the awards for both are going to be given out 48 hours later. I run through the concept with Tom Parry from The Mirror and he promises to take it back to his deputy editor.

10.30am: The daily media unit team meeting. We run through the news and decide on what to blog on. Then it’s a quick run through what each of us have on for the day.

11.00am: Try and clear my emails.

12.00pm: Check in with Amnesty’s education and student team to make sure that everyone is OK for the logistics of presenting the awards for Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year – and most importantly that the two winners and their parents feel comfortable with what’s going to happen.

12.30pm: Have a meeting with the Burma campaigner and various people from across the organisation to get an update on the Burma radio appeal. I mention the radio interview set up for later in the day and a few other interviews we did over the weekend.

1.30pm: Grab a quick bite to eat and chat to various Burma contacts in the UK to see whether any of them are interested in coming to tonight’s photo exhibition. Helen Pidd from the Guardian, Kevin Rawlinson from the Independent, Aung Gyi from the DVB and Sandar Winn from the BBC – all say yes.

2.15pm: The new coalition government has had us all second guessing cuts. One of the areas of concerns is the Citizenship strand of the curriculum. It’s a key part in helping deliver Amnesty’s human rights education programme. So I have a meeting with our advocacy and education and student teams to discuss possible strategies.

3.00pm: Then it’s back to talk to our researchers on upcoming reports on North Korea and China. Both sound hard-hitting.

4.00pm: Write press release for tomorrow on the results of our Shell online campaign. It was our most successful online fundraiser. I set the email to go for 9.30am the next day.

5.00pm: Ensure Kate Allen is fully briefed ahead of the radio interview. Then liaise with the journalist from Radio Free Asia and make sure everyone is comfortable.

6.00pm: Private view of Burma photos.

7.00pm: Check emails remotely to see if any meeting times have changed. All clear. Put both the kids to bed and still get time to catch one of the World Cup games.