The Media Show

Rebekah Brooks is returning to News Corp as chief executive of its UK division, a year after she was cleared of all phone hacking charges. Her appointment has been condemned by Hacked Off and the shadow culture secretary Chris Bryant. What impact will her return have on a business that has tried to re-shape its image in light of the phone hacking scandal? Steve hears from Peter Preston, former edi...

The Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, says that the government has no desire to dismantle the BBC and that some defenders of the corporation are "tilting at windmills". We hear the first official response from the BBC's Director of Strategy James Purnell. Also in Edinburgh, Channel 5's Director of Programming Ben Frow, reveals how the channel is trying to...

Buckingham palace has appealed to the world's media not to publish unauthorised images of Prince George. It says some paparazzi have gone to, "extreme lengths" to take pictures and, "a line has been crossed". The palace said a small number of media organisations, mostly in Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand and the US, had published photos of Prince George in "unacceptable circumstances". How...

A prominent sportsman has been granted an injunction preventing The Sun newspaper from publishing a story about a relationship he had before he was married, based on the woman's account. The case has raised questions over how injunctions like this, relating to kiss-and-tells, impact on journalism, especially tabloids. Andrea Catherwood talks to The Sun's editor David Dinsmore, and discusses the ef...

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has called on the Football Association to act on a "worrying trend" among its member clubs of handing out media bans. It comes days after Scottish football columnist on The Times, Graham Spiers, along with a BBC journalist, was banned from Rangers. Andrea Catherwood talks to Graham Spiers, who explains how his journalism has impacted on relationships with fo...

The Japanese Nikkei group has bought the Financial Times from publisher Pearson for £844 million. Pearson has also confirmed it's now in talks to sell it's 50 per cent stake in the Economist. Steve Hewlett talks to Douglas McCabe from Enders Analysis about the sale and to David McNeill, the Independent's Japan correspondent and Economist writer about how east-meets-west cultural differences might...

The BBC Trust, the governing body of the BBC, has published its response to last week's government green paper on the BBC Charter Review. The review will look at, amongst other things, how the BBC should be governed and regulated - with many thinking the new charter will spell the end of the Trust. In her first interview for The Media Show, Trust Chair Rona Fairhead discusses her vision for the fu...

The BBC's Director-General Lord Hall has said it is up to licence fee payers to determine the size and shape of the BBC. It's Annual Report, out yesterday, shows how spending and staff numbers rose, despite cost cutting at the corporation. The Chairman of the BBC Rona Fairhead also said there are likely to be further cuts in "scope," prompting speculation that services would be cut. Steve Hewlett...

In today's budget, the Chancellor George Osborne announced that responsibility for the policy and delivery of free TV licences for the over 75s is to be shifted from the government to the BBC - at a cost of more than half a billion pounds. To balance that, says the BBC's Director General Tony Hall, the government has committed to let the licence fee increase by inflation; to close the so-called ca...

Tim Hincks, the President of Endemol Shine, on defining and nurturing creativity, tackling the middle class bias in TV, why we should embrace the mainstream and why UK television is best when it engages with the rest of the world. Richard Ayre from the BBC Trust explains why the Trust has given a provisional and conditional go-ahead to BBC proposals to close BBC3 as a broadcast channel and move it...

The BBC Trust says that the BBC's TV commissioning process is not sustainable. Currently, 50% is guaranteed for in house commissions, independent producers compete for 25% and the last 25% is open to all. However, the Trust says there is a strong case for reducing or even removing the 50% currently guaranteed for in house commissions. The decision opens the doors for Director General Tony Hall's B...

Chris Evans will replace Jeremy Clarkson as the new presenter of Top Gear. It ends months of speculation over who would fill Jeremy Clarkson's shoes after he was sacked after a 'fracas' with a producer on location. Chris, who previously insisted he was not interested , has now signed a three year deal. Co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May will not be part of the show. Chris Evans tells Steve Hew...

The chief executive of not-for-profit Channel 4 has enjoyed a 16 per cent pay increase to £855,000 following an 'exceptional performance', according to the broadcaster's annual results published yesterday. This, despite Channel 4 reporting its lowest audience share since 1984. David Abraham received a maximum bonus of £166,000, but insisted the company was not taking fewer creative risks to hit bo...

Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French magazine, was attacked in January over its cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Two gunmen stormed its offices shooting dead several people including the magazine's editor Stephane Charbonnier and four of its cartoonists. Witnesses said they shouted "Allahu Akbar" and "we have avenged the prophet". The attack followed a number of serious threats and a 2011 firebomb...

Sir Martin Sorrell is the most influential man in advertising. As the CEO of WPP, the world's largest advertising group, he is one of the world's most connected executives. After 30 years, WPP now embraces some of the best known names in advertising and PR - including Ogilvy and Mather, J Walter Thompson and Burson-Marstellar. Steve Hewlett talks to Sir Martin about the balance of power between tr...

As Facebook's latest innovation - Instant Articles - gets underway, we discuss the pros and cons for Facebook, news organisations and the public. Could this innovation be a plan to take over the news business or a way for publishers and broadcasters to reach a larger potential audience more quickly? Question: When is Australia part of Europe? Answer: When it comes to Eurovision. This year there'll...

Research from Cardiff University shows that coverage of this election was dominated by the story of the polls, with broadcasters choosing to run stories about the 'horse-race' between Labour and the Conservatives, rather than stories about policy or issues. So, why did they decide to give poll results such prominence, and had they focused more on covering policies, would this have revealed more ab...

On the final day of election campaigning, we hear from the front line journalists who have been on the trail with candidates. There have been reports that this election has been more stage-managed by spin doctors than any previously, with national journalists even being excluded from covering events. Steve Hewlett is joined by some leading political journalists; Michael Crick from Channel 4; Patri...

Kim Shillinglaw, Controller of BBC 2 and BBC 4, is the BBC executive tasked with securing the future of Top Gear. In her first interview for The Media Show, Steve Hewlett asks her how she will save the network's 'baby', now that Jeremy Clarkson and executive producer Andy Wilman have left, and whether Hammond and May will be appearing next season. He also asks her about the remit of the channel, a...

As the General Election campaign hots up, two new political satires have been unveiled- ITV's Newzoids and Channel 4's Ballot Monkeys, with the former reuniting some of the vocal and production talent of Spitting Image. Radio 4's Dead Ringers and the Vote Now Show are also back on air, not to mention election specials for satirical stalwarts Rory Bremner, Jack Dee and Charlie Brooker. But despite...

Politico, the non-partisan, Washington based political news organisation is to launch a European edition next week in print and online. With new headquarters in Brussels, it aims to become the dominant voice on European politics and policy. John Harris, co-founder and editor-in chief of Politico joins Steve to discuss their plans for expansion. The columnist and former Apprentice contestant Katie...

The Telegraph's chief content officer and editor-in-chief Jason Seiken has left the newspaper after just eighteen months. His tenure was not without controversy - recruited from public service broadcaster PBS in the USA, Jason was tasked with responsibility for all editorial operations and transforming the newsroom into a dynamic, entrepreneurial culture with digital products at its core. What imp...

The Supreme count has ruled that 27 letters written by Prince Charles to Ministers, the so-called 'spider letters', should be made public. It follows a ten year campaign by the Guardian newspaper and reporter Rob Evans, who first submitted a Freedom of Information request to see the letters back in 2005. Steve Hewlett talks to Rob about the ruling, what it means for press freedom, and what he has...

Steve Hewlett hears from BBC creative director Alan Yentob on why star Jeremy Clarkson has been sacked and from Guido Fawkes, the blogger behind the million-name petition to reinstate the Top Gear star. He also discusses the political implications of the Clarkson sacking for the corporation with former political editors Michael White of the Guardian and Trevor Kavanagh of the Sun newspaper. Also o...

Should they have seen it coming? Steve Hewlett looks at how the BBC is handling the latest Jeremy Clarkson controversy and the challenges of managing "difficult" TV presenters. Self-confessed occasionally "difficult" TV presenter Giles Coren, veteran "Queen of Daytime" ITV producer Dianne Nelmes and former commercial TV executive Dawn Airey discuss the delicate balancing act of nurturing and reini...