I recently chaired a discussion at Chatham House, the international affairs think tank, on how digitization is revolutionising our world. It started with an interview with Heather Brooke, the journalist and free speech campaigner, promoting her new book.  The discussion (on the record – no Chatham House rule applying to this event) concluded that digital technology was breaking down geographic, …

The political conference season is upon us – and a season of political speeches. It’s not my role to provide political analysis (you’ll be relieved to hear) but for anyone who has a public message to deliver there are lessons to be learned by watching the professionals. Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour Party Conference this week has attracted a …

The UK media clan are busy picking apart the issues around so-called “Super-injunctions” and privacy – particularly the lack of a UK Privacy law. Much of this has centred on the revelation by my former colleague Andrew Marr that he had taken out an injunction some years ago to prevent news of an affair being published. This was initially greeted …

There’s been much discussion and speculation about the visit of China’s leader, President Hu Jintao to Washington this week. Just what was discussed in his talks with Barack Obama in the White House? I think I may be able to offer an exclusive insight. Fifteen months ago I had my own personal meeting with President Hu in Beijing. Here’s how …

The Economist ran an interesting piece last week on how Britain may be uniquely cynical about politics. It reminded me of the Sir Peter Parker quote that too much of modern politics is self interest masquerading as altruism. At the heart of course is the issue of Trust – and Westminster still has some way to go to operate in …

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford is publishing a study I’ve written on the future of International News. Downloads or purchasable here. Here’s the introduction: Foreign news is undergoing a transformation. For more than a hundred years the principal means of learning about events in the rest of the world has been through the reporting of …

Alan Mutter – a former newspaper executive,Silicon Valley CEO and academic at Berkeley Journalism School has renewed the call for american journalism to abandon any pretence at objectivity. “It’s time to retire the difficult-to-achieve and impossible-to-defend conceit that journalists are now, or ever were, objective. Let’s replace this threadbare notion with a realistic and credible standard of transparency that requires …

An interesting week to visit the US with some historic mid-term elections producing the biggest vote against a sitting President for more than 70 years. There’s been plenty of analysis of the results so I won’t indulge myself.   (Except to note, as my colleague Marshall Manson has pointed out,  Bill Clinton managed to deliver results in the face of a hostile Congress …

I’ve been asked for my view – so here are the headlines: What’s good – Agreed funding for at least 6 years Avoids a protracted and toxic debate on funding Avoided the confusion over purpose and additional bill of free licences for the over 75s 16% cut in real terms is do-able, but there will be hard and unpopular choices …

Two of my colleagues have been more productive than I have recently. Edelman’s UK CEO Robert Phillips has written this chapter for a new book on Trust and Morality in PR Journalism and Communications. He calls for recognition that PR is moving into a new era. “In its future, PR offers leadership for the wider world of communications and, with …