Investigative journalist Nick Davies returns with yet more remarkable insights and analysis about the phone-hacking scandal that engulfed Murdoch’s papers. Having trawled through documents disclosed through a host of court cases, Davies has pieced together information that suggests figures at the top of the Murdoch news empire—including potentially the man himself—knew more than we previously thought.   To read Nick’s stories in full, and the response from News Group Newspapers, visit...

Back in 2009, journalist Nick Davies uncovered a scandal: newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch had been hacking the phones of celebrities, public figures and even victims of crimes—notably the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler—in search of stories. The Leveson inquiry was established to investigate, and the world moved on.   For this month’s Prospect magazine, Nick Davies has trawled through documents to unearth new evidence which suggests that the phones of some politicians were still being...

Lionel Barber and Alan Rusbridger are joined by Maurizio Molinari, editor of Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica to explore exactly what Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is doing with Italian state media.   Renowned historian Antonio Scurati was booked to deliver a monologue on a talk show on Italian broadcaster RAI 3 on 25th April, Italy’s Liberation Day, when it commemorates victory over fascism. In this speech, he was planning to accuse Meloni’s government of sticking to ideologies of...

Tensions in the Middle East ramped up at the weekend with the massive drone and missile attack launched by Iran on Israel. The eyes of the world refocused on the region, particularly Gaza—but what about the other occupied Palestinian territory, the West Bank?   Gideon Levy is an award-winning journalist who has been writing a column in Haaretz called “The Twilight Zone” for many years. On the podcast, he discusses his current view of life in the West Bank with Alan Rusbridger and Lionel...

The war in Ukraine has been grinding on for over two years now, and the media spotlight on the region has dimmed over the last few months. But Anne Applebaum, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and writer for the Atlantic, has been following the conflict closely.   Because much of the world’s media has turned attention away from Ukraine, with editors focusing time and money instead on the war in Gaza, Anne explains that the innovation of Ukrainians in the war is being under-reported. So is...

Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has passed a law that will ban foreign media from operating within the country. Al Jazeera is one of the main outlets on the ground providing reportage, and the most watched network in the region—so what impact will the closure of their operations in Israel have on the ability to get news out of the war zone? Alan Rusbridger and Lionel Barber are joined by journalist and humanitarian Khaled Mansour to discuss where genuine news reporting from the conflict...

This week, Alan Rusbridger and Lionel Barber are joined by Gavin Esler and Michael Crick as they get stuck into GB News, broadcaster bias—and what it’s like to watch and appear on the channel.   Previously, Alan had tasked Gavin with watching GB News’s output for a month. The outcome? Tory MPs interviewing Tory MPs, “shallow” reporting, and a lack of balance not just about politics but about the reality of issues such as housing in UK society. Michael Crick is a contributor to GB News—albeit...

In any war, counting the number of people killed is challenging. So, too, is understanding how they died. In Gaza, where the still-rising death toll already includes 13,450 children, these figures can be obscured by biases, allegations—and the realities on the ground. In this week’s episode, Lionel Barber and Alan Rusbridger are joined by leading statistician David Spiegelhalter to discuss how to shed light on casualty numbers in a war situation.   Also this week, George Brock joins Alan and...

Journalists are often taught that “when a dog bites a man, that is not news; when a man bites a dog, that is news.” But, according to former Guardian journalist and professor of sociology at Manchester university Gary Younge, sometimes events are newsworthy because they happen often—journalists just need to get curious about the reasons why. For example, after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a US justice department report revealed that every time a police dog bit...

Alan and Lionel sit down with AG Sulzberger, chair and publisher of the New York Times. AG took over as publisher of the New York Times six years ago after many years as a hack. His term coincided with that of Donald J Trump, for whom the Times was public enemy number one. AG stood his ground, telling the president to his face that his anti-press rhetoric was “not just divisive but increasingly dangerous”.   He and his team have taken the Times and transformed the digital offering, adding...

Vice and BuzzFeed were once at the forefront of the digital media revolution—Vice alone was once valued at nearly double the New York Times! But now, both firms have shut their news operations, Vice has closed its flagship site, and further cuts to staff numbers are expected.   BuzzFeed’s former UK editor Janine Gibson, now weekend editor of the Financial Times, analyses why these millennial media giants became so troubled.   Plus, writer Peter Pomerantsev chats about a forgotten master of...

An investigation by Hope Not Hate reported this week that Paul Marshall, owner of GB News and UnHerd and frontrunner in the race to buy the Telegraph, had repeatedly liked and re-tweeted racist and Islamophobic content. In this special bonus episode, Alan and Lionel discuss who decides whether someone is fit to own a major UK newspaper, what Ofcom can do to uphold standards—and what could happen to political discourse in the United Kingdom if Marshall’s bid succeeds. Hosted on Acast. See...

Does the word “PRESS” on a flak jacket keep a journalist safe or make them a target? In this week’s Media Confidential, we focus on the sobering death toll of reporters covering the war in Gaza, as highlighted by the annual report of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Alan and Lionel hear from the CPJ’s chief executive Jodie Ginsberg and speak to AFP’s Global News Director Phil Chetwynd, who has a team reporting from inside Gaza and who highlights an incident when journalists were...

What motivates the media world behind the clickbait? What drives broadcast, print and digital media producers and journalists? In this episode, Alan Rusbridger and Lionel Barber answer listeners’ questions on media bias in an election year, the impact of 24-hour news on mental health, and whether President Biden should be active on TikTok. Plus—do Lionel and Alan think Taylor Swift could swing the US election? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amid great concern over the provision of local news in the UK and beyond, could organisations such as the Manchester Mill and the Bristol Cable challenge famous old papers in some of Britain’s biggest cities and calm long-term fears of areas becoming “news deserts”?   Alan and Lionel hear from Joshi Herrmann and Sophie Atkinson from Manchester Mill about whether their community subscriber model is the way to fund commercially sustainable journalism capable of holding powerful people and...

Can Rishi Sunak still rely on what has often been called the “Conservative media”, or are news organisations on the political right becoming increasingly hostile to the prime minister?   Journalist David Aaronovitch helps Alan and Lionel analyse who and what is driving significant cultural and political shifts in some of the UK’s newsrooms and media boardrooms. Could the Telegraph and GB News even desert the Tories and back the Reform party at the next general election?   Enjoy one-month’s...

Alan’s investigation into “Gibb-gate” continues. In a major article for Prospect, he sets out the influence and connections of a tight-knit and largely unaccountable clique which is undermining the political independence and regulation of public service broadcasting. At the centre of that group is Robbie Gibb, Theresa May’s director of communications when she was prime minister.   Alan and Lionel discuss the independence of the BBC and its journalism, as well as government appointments more...

Is Donald Trump now unstoppable in his quest to secure the Republican presidential nomination, after kicking off caucus season with a decisive win in Iowa? As Trump shapes up for another shot at the White House, Alan and Lionel ask how US media can pitch their coverage and analysis to ensure scrutiny of such an unreliable and divisive figure, without ignoring the election issues that matter to his supporters. They’re joined by Alex Burns, who is now head of news at POLITICO and covered the...

Award-winning actor Toby Jones, who plays Alan Bates in ITV’s Mr Bates vs the Post Office, reflects on the drama’s huge public and political impact, alongside its producer Patrick Spence.    Alan and Lionel ask why this screen version has cut through in a way that news reporting of the Post Office Horizon scandal did not, with insights from Professor Rasmus Nielsen, Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.  Here's a new seasonal subscription...

2024 is a crucial year for liberal democracies around the world, with over 50 nations voting in general elections and up to 4.2bn people casting their votes. In this episode, Alan Rusbridger and Lionel Barber discuss why media election coverage will be more important than ever, as key campaigns spill over from conventional, legacy formats such as print, television and radio and onto a wide range of social media platforms. Will fake news and misinformation become even more widespread, and...

Sky News’s Political Editor Beth Rigby joins Alan and Lionel to reflect on 2023’s key events and to launch the inaugural Media Confidential “awards”, nominating people, stories and news organisations for recognition in these categories:   Most important story of the year Most under-reported story of the year Turkey of the year Political scoop of the year News organisation of the year Journalist of the year Villain of the year Hero/Heroine of the year   Here's a new seasonal subscription offer...

One of the world’s leading photojournalists discusses her career in conflict zones and tells the story of how she captured a famous, horrific image while under fire in Ukraine.     Lynsey Addario analyses the challenges of war photography in an era when journalists are increasingly likely to be targets and false images on social media make it difficult to assess what is real. She also shares her perspective on the pictures coming out of the war in Gaza and the courage of those capturing...

Alan and Lionel hear Israeli and Palestinian perspectives on how the war in Gaza is being covered and on the continuing fight to control the media narrative.   Palestinian-British writer Samir El-Youssef discusses how the conflict and Hamas are reported on by Arabic-language news channels while Esther Solomon, editor-in-chief of Haaretz English, talks about trying to balance opposition to the politics of Benjamin Netanyahu with covering the on-going impacts and consequences of Hamas’s...

Award-winning journalist Nick Davies broke the story of phone hacking by UK newspapers back in 2009 and now lays out the startling implications of News Group Newspapers’ major settlement with former Cabinet minister Chris Huhne, which adds a significant extra dimension to the affair. Plus, Alan and Lionel discuss the issue of BBC funding with the former BBC executive Pat Younge, as the government look set to renege on its agreement with the corporation over the amount of the licence...