The Media Show

This week Mr Justice Eady ruled that Imogen Thomas could not publish her story about her relationship with a married footballer, or even name the footballer, due to his right to privacy. Media lawyer Duncan Lamont and PR consultant Max Clifford discuss whether the latest judgement signals the end of the "Kiss and Tell" story. When he announced the Hargreaves Review into intellectual property last...

Questions about privacy and freedom of the press have dominated the headlines this week. Twitter users allegedly breaking super-injunctions, Max Mosley losing his case for stronger privacy laws in the European Court and a complaint from the Middletons to the PCC have re-ignited the debate about public figures' right to privacy. But is there a real threat to freedom of the press? And are tabloid ex...

Yesterday Lord Patten took up his new role as Chairman of the BBC Trust. He has already said that BBC executive pay is still too high and that the BBC can't rule out cutting a service. The Telegraph's Neil Midgley takes a look at the early signals from Lord Patten on how his approach could differ from his predecessor, Sir Michael Lyons. The media regulator Ofcom recently ruled that performances fr...

Hugh Tomlinson QC is the barrister in several of the recent high profile, yet secret, celebrity privacy cases. Gill Phillips is head of editorial legal services at the Guardian, who guided the paper through the challenge to the Trafigura superinjunction. What do they make of the recent media reports of celebrities allegedly over-using injunctions to protect their private lives - and can they devis...

The BBC Trust begins a service licence review into BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Live extra today. It comes as the Trust rejects a complaint by the commercial radio station talkSPORT that 5 Live, its main competitor, broadcasts too little news and sport. Whilst it's not been upheld, the BBC Trust says the claim raises "significant and valid questions about what constitutes news on 5 Live", which will now...

Last October, Danny Cohen was appointed as channel controller of BBC1, having been head of the BBC's youth channel, BBC3. In his first interview with The Media Show since taking over at the UK's most watched TV channel, Danny Cohen speaks to Steve Hewlett about competition from ITV, older on screen talent and whether BBC 1 could be more edgy. Last week News International made an apology and offere...

At last night's British Press Awards, the News of the World and the Guardian were both up for Scoop of the Year - the Guardian, for its stories about phone hacking at the News of the World. It came on the day when two News of the World journalists were arrested as part of the Met Police inquiry into phone hacking. Steve Hewlett went along to the awards discuss the developments with some of the awa...

Last weekend, a Libyan woman, Eman al-Obeidi, broke through the security surrounding foreign journalists in a Tripoli hotel to tell a horrific story. She accused Gaddafi's forces of beating and raping her before being dragged away. Jonathan Miller, foreign correspondent for Channel 4 News, was attacked as he tried to record Eman al-Obeidi's story. He explains the difficulties of reporting objectiv...

Cuts in local radio, dropping Wimbledon and Formula 1, closing down networks at night: just some of the radical options reported in this week's papers as the BBC looks to find ways of balancing its budget after the latest licence fee settlement. Will any of them actually happen and are they even needed? We hear from the senior BBC executive running the review, Pat Younge. Maggie Brown of the Guard...

After news of the devastating earthquake in Japan broke, broadcasters were under pressure to get correspondents to the disaster area to report on developments. But with several presenters now in the region, have news outlets gone overboard? To discuss how decisions about the logistics were reached, Steve is joined by BBC head of newsgathering Fran Unsworth and ITV head of foreign news Tim Singleto...

Richard Peppiatt's published an open letter to Richard Desmond, saying he was quitting his job at the Daily Star on several points of principle. He says he was asked to make up stories (the Star denies this) and was unhappy about the Star's coverage of Muslims in Britain. So, having admitted that he wrote stories he knew to be untrue, does he have a future in journalism? Last week the government d...

Veteran foreign correspondent Marie Colvin secured an interview with Colonel Gaddafi this week, alongside the BBC's Jeremy Bowen and ABC's Christiane Amanpour. She joins The Media Show from Tripoli to explain how she fixed the interview and discuss the challenges she faces in reporting for Libya. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has dominated the headlines as much for his personal battle...

Former Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer shares his thoughts on the future of BBC Trust. What does he think of the man widely expected to be its new Chair, Lord Patten, and what will his biggest challenges be? Steve Hewlett is joined by Alex Thompson, Chief News Correspondent at Channel 4, and the BBC's Wold News Editor Jon Williams. How do they deal with reporting on the protests which are sweeping...

Last month, BBC director general Mark Thompson said the arrival of YouView would "herald an intense battle for the living room". This month, though, it became clear that viewers would have to wait for this upgrade to Freeview for up to a year longer than expected and more than two years longer than originally hoped. What are the implications for those viewers who want this next generation of free...

As Question Time's editor leaves the programme owing to its move from London to Glasgow, Steve Hewlett looks at the BBC's plans to move more programmes to the regions. Former Question Time editor Nick Pisani and Professor of Journalism Tim Luckhurst discuss whether political programmes can work well so far from Westminster. BBC Chief Operation Officer Caroline Thomson explains the BBC's strategy....

In the last week, the Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel have each published books telling the story of their relationship with Wikileaks and its leader Julian Assange, following their recent publication of leaked US diplomatic cables. Some of the information in the Guardian's book, referring to the alleged source of the leak, Bradley Manning, prompted Wikileaks to label the Guardian "th...

On the day the BBC World Service announces substantial job losses, Steve Hewlett talks to the Director General Mark Thompson about cuts, the licence fee settlement and the corporation's strategy for the forthcoming years. Are the changes at the World Service a sign of things to come, as the BBC finds a way to make efficiency savings following a licence fee settlement that will see its budget reduc...

As more celebrities threaten to sue the News of the World over alleged phone hacking, Steve Hewlett hears about the latest developments in the case. Guardian columnist Roy Greenslade explains how details that have emerged in recent weeks throw light on the extent of the problem and discusses what the revelations mean for the News of the World. The Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has outlined his pla...

Steve Hewlett presents a topical programme about the fast-changing media world. As former presenter Miriam O'Reilly celebrates winning an ageism case against the BBC, we ask whether this ruling will impact on who programme executives choose to be their on-air talent. A recent EastEnders storyline on sudden infant death syndrome has prompted a record number of complaints leading producers to announ...

Facebook starts 2011 on a high as the company has been valued at $50bn after new investment. But can Facebook be worth that much? Benjamin Cohen, Technology Editor for Channel 4 News and Matthew Horsman, founder of Medatique, discuss what the world's biggest social network is really worth. The attorney general issued a warning to editors last week after some newspapers and broadcasters reported pe...

2010 was the year when the media became the story. From coverage of politics under the coalition government to the drive to make journalism pay its way and the impact of the WikiLeaks revelations, stories about the media look set to continue to make headlines in 2011. Steve Hewlett is joined by Times columnist and former BBC executive David Aaronovitch, Anne McElvoy who is former executive editor...

As revelations about Vince Cable's thoughts on Murdoch owned News Corp's bid for BSkyB come to light, Steve Hewlett looks at The Telegraph's role in reporting the story and asks where this leaves News Corp's bid. It's nearly thirty years since Rupert Murdoch bought The Times. Through freedom of information requests, the BBC has gained an insight into how the deal was done. Graham Stewart, author o...

Yesterday the BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons announced the BBC's strategy review, saying that it couldn't rule out the closure of some services. Steve Hewlett talks to Michael Lyons about where the BBC cuts are likely to fall and his response to the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt's recent claims that BBC political reporting has been out of touch with the national mood. Banker Nicholas Shott h...

Last week, Andrew Jennings drew praise and criticism for his Panorama report on FIFA. This week, in his first broadcast interview after the programme, he calls UK sports news journalists "the worst in the world" for not trying to beat him to his story. Mihir Bose, former BBC sports editor and Ashling O'Connor of The Times respond to his claim and discuss the challenges of covering sport off the pi...

Michael Grade was chairman of the BBC and then ITV and is now heading to the House of Lords. Last week, he suggested that Channel 4 should drop its adverts and that licence fee payers should take over its funding. As a new Conservative peer, what changes would he try to bring about in the TV industry? With traditional journalism, many of this week's stories from Wikileaks could have commanded thei...