Upcoming Events

Live from Downing Street: The Battle for the News

This autumn will see a revolution in the way that Boris Johnson’s government handles its communications with the media and with the public.

For the first time there will be regular Downing Street on the record on- camera briefings fronted by an official government spokesperson. What impact will the introduction of these White House style press conferences have on the way politics is reported in this country?

This latest move comes after the blacklisting of some tv and radio programmes for ministerial interviews and with journalists and photographers being denied access to ministerial visits. News desks are instead sent official videos and photographs.

Is this all just the usual daily tussle over the news agenda or is something more sinister going on?

Join us for a fascinating discussion on this vital issue with key professionals who know the score from the inside. 

PANEL

• Pippa Crerar - Daily Mirror Political Editor. Chair of the Parliamentary Press Gallery and the journalist who broke the Dominic Cummings/Barnard Castle story.
  
  
  

• Will Walden - He is a respected Westminster journalist now Senior Counsel for strategic communications at global PR firm Edelman. Formerly Boris Johnson’s spokesman, press secretary and communications director, he remains a confidant of the PM.
  
  
  
  
  
• Mark Mardell, who reported on high-level politics on both sides of the Atlantic.  Before returning to London to his current role as presenter of Radio 4's  World This Weekend he was BBC North America Editor, based in Washington, and before that Political Editor of Newsnight and BBC Chief Political Correspondent.  
  
  
  
  
  
• In the chair:
  Phil Harding, former Editor of the BBC Today programme and Chief Political Advisor to the Corporation.
  

ZOOM Event opens at open at 5.45pm, conversation starts at 6.00pm