Renowned journalist John Pilger will be the first visiting speaker in the Lincoln School of Journalism’s series this semester. The event will be held in the EMMTEC building at 6pm on October 12th.
In a conversation with Professor Richard Keeble, he will discuss “Why journalism matters”. This will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience. Mr Pilger is a visiting professor of journalism at the university, and helped launch the School back in November 2004.
His most recent film, The War on Democracy, looked at the United States’ interventions in Latin America, where they undermined democratic governments and supported tyrants and murderers. Before the talk, he will launch his archive on the university’s website.
Also coming this semester is Tom Bower, an investigative journalist who recently won a libel case against him brought by Richard Desmond, the owner of the Express newspapers. Winning a libel case is incredibly rare in this country, which has draconian defamation laws.
Mr Bower will speak on October 19th, at 6pm. Only journalism students can attend, and places are limited. Details will be circulated within the department.
On October 26th, the guest will be Air Vice Marshall Andrew Vallance, the secretary of the government’s D-Notice committee. The committee is essentially a voluntary censorship system, which “provides guidance” to the media on military and other “national security” matters.
The other guests this semester are:
- A panel of former journalism students, on November 2nd.They will talk about “Life after Lincoln”.
- Mihir Bose, on November 16th.Mihir Bose is an author, historian, and formerly the BBC’s sports editor.
- Mike Jempson and Dorothy Byrne, on November 23rd.Mike Jempson is the director of MediaWise, a media ethics group. Dorothy Byrne is the head of Channel Four News. The two are visiting professors at the university, and will discuss whether “Human rights reporting has had its day”.
- Michael Ford and Tessa Mayes, on November 30th.Michael Ford is a BBC ethics expert. Tessa Mayes is an author and investigative journalist. Both are visiting professors at the university, and will talk about the media’s coverage of scandals.