Speakers 2026

Ros Atkins is BBC News’ Analysis Editor. He also co-presents The Media Show on BBC Radio 4. 

John is an employed barrister and advises editors and journalists for ITN’s news services – ITV News, Channel 4 News and Channel Five News.   He has a particular interest in open justice. He led the broadcast industry lobbying the judiciary and government to allow cameras in court, resulting  in legal reform allowing filming in the Court of Appeal and sentencing in the Crown Court. He also helped establish the CPS Police Media Protocol (which allows images shown in court to be provided to the media) and authored the Reporters’ Charter which details the rights of reporters to report the courts. He is a past Chair of the Media Lawyers Association and has previously worked for Associated Newspapers and News UK.

Rebecca is the Chair of the Crime Reporters Association (CRA), a group of specialist journalists covering crime and policing across print, broadcast and new media. She first joined the CRA 15 years ago and was elected Chair in 2019, becoming the first woman to lead the organisation since its inception in 1945. The award-winning journalist joined the Daily Mail 20 years ago as a general news reporter and moved onto the crime desk in 2010. In 2020 she became Crime and Security Editor, the first woman in the paper’s history to hold that role.

Natalie is Editor in Chief for London and the East of England at Reach Plc, and is Editor of Nottinghamshire Live. She has been a journalist for 20 years, working across regional and national titles.

Award winning journalist with The Impartial Reporter and freelance with other media. Chief coverage is court and crime and public authority accountability. Tanya has successfully challenged defence-sought reporting restrictions and anonymity in court cases and created templates for journalists to ensure open justice. She is heavily involved in holding public authorities to account and challenging attempts to hide or distort uncomfortable facts including within failed police investigations and procedural breaches.

One of the biggest miscarriages of justice on a multi-agency basis which Tanya has worked from the start was the murder of showjumper Katie Simpson by her sister’s partner Jonathan Creswell. In the face of indifference, silence, hostility, harassment and abuse, Tanya refused – and continues to refuse – to accept off-hand responses and systemic distancing. She has fought against every public authority involved including PSNI, the Police Ombudsman, Health & Social Care Trusts and many others. What she uncovered demonstrates entrenched failings and a culture of stonewalling in the vain hope problems would go away. They didn’t and Tanya continues to pursue the authorities in question. This includes PSNI who deliberately provided misleading responses to the Information Commissioner, who initially supported the refusals of FOIs Tanya submitted.  Overall, with the evidence and information she has obtained Tanya remains committed to the requirement of  a legally-binding judge-led public inquiry.

Ben Fishwick is editor of the Southern Daily Echo in Southampton and regional editor for Southampton and the Isle of Wight at Newsquest. He became editor in January 2022 after a career at The News, Portsmouth, moving from being a patch reporter, to court reporter and then chief reporter. An award-winning newsroom leader, he has an interest in the courts, policing and justice. He currently co-chairs the Newsquest Investigations Network.

Alessandra Galloni became Editor-in-Chief of Reuters in April 2021. She oversees all editorial functions across video, text, pictures, and graphics. She is the first female editor-in-chief in the organization’s 170-year history. Previously, Galloni was global managing editor, overseeing news planning and creation, where she was responsible for managing Reuters coverage and developing stories with a cross-regional focus. She first joined Reuters in 1996 for the Italian-language news service in Rome, later moving to the equities reporting team in London. She re-joined Reuters in September 2013 as editor of the Southern Europe bureau following 13 years at The Wall Street Journal, where she worked as a reporter, economics and business writer and editor, in London, Paris and Rome. Galloni is the recipient of the 2020 Lawrence Minard Editor Award from the Gerald Loeb Foundation and the UCLA Anderson School of Management, one of the highest honours a business journalist can receive. She is also the recipient of an Overseas Press Club Award and a UK Business Journalist of the Year Award. An Italian national, Galloni is a graduate of Harvard University and has a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics.

Allison Hoffman is Executive Editor, U.K., at POLITICO, where she leads the London newsroom and oversees coverage of British politics for a global audience.

Hoffman plays a central role in shaping POLITICO’s U.K. editorial strategy as well as strengthening collaboration and workflows across its European and U.S. newsrooms. She rejoined POLITICO in 2025 as Transatlantic Editor, helping connect teams and coverage across borders at a pivotal moment in European and transatlantic politics.

Prior to that, she spent more than six years at CNN, most recently as the Executive Editor of CNN Politics. Earlier in her career, Hoffman held senior editorial roles in POLITICO’s Rosslyn newsroom, where she oversaw the White House team during the first Trump administration, and at Bloomberg Businessweek.

Scarlet Howes is the US Editor at The Sun. She was previously Chief Sunday Reporter and Senior Reporter. Scarlet has worked on a number of agenda-setting stories and broken several scoops for the newspaper. She won Journalist of the Year at the Society of Editor’s Media Freedom Awards for her work on the Huw Edwards scandal. Scarlet broke the story that Edwards had been paying a 17-year-old boy thousands of pounds in exchange for sexual pictures. Scarlet was one of the leading journalists who won six awards – including Journalist of the Year – for the story.  These included Investigation of the Year at the Society of Editor’s and British Journalism Awards, along with Scoop at the London Press Club, British Journalism Awards and Press Awards. She was also highly commended as Journalist of the Year at the London Press Club. Her work also contributed to The Sun winning paper of the year. Scarlet last year revealed abuse in the Strictly Come Dancing changing rooms. She also gave testimony in court which secured the conviction of the leaders of Just Stop Oil following an investigation which ultimately saw them behind bars. They were given an unprecedented sentence which set the news agenda and saw every newspaper lead on the story on its front page. Scarlet has also covered world events including the Pope’s funeral in Rome, the Queen’s death, the King’s Coronation and most recently the Charlie Kirk shooting in Utah. She spent six weeks on the Poland/Ukraine border when Putin invaded Ukraine and broke major scoops during Covid including how Rosie Duffield had broken lockdown to meet her married lover which saw her lose the party whip.  She is now based in New York and is covering the US for The Sun across seven days for the print edition and online. 

Mishal Husain is the editor at large for Bloomberg Weekend and host of The Mishal Husain Show, a global podcast released every Friday, with a single essential conversation for the weekend. Her first guests, in October 2025, were Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and the global guest list will feature leaders, thinkers, and cultural figures.

Mishal joined Bloomberg from the BBC, where she presented its leading news programme Today on BBC Radio 4 for over a decade. Before joining Today in 2013, she was an anchor on the international news channel BBC World News and has also been a familiar face to UK audiences on the main national news programmes. She was previously based in Washington and Singapore as a correspondent and anchor.

Mishal has presented several critically acclaimed documentaries including a series on Mahatma Gandhi, a documentary on social media and the Arab uprisings of 2011, a profile of Malala Yousafzai, and “The Longest Reign,” about Queen Elizabeth II.

In 2024 she was awarded the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism by the British Journalism Review.

Mishal has written two books, most recently a family memoir, Broken Threads: A Family From Empire to Independence, which became a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, and The Skills: How to Win at Work.

Secunder Kermani is an acclaimed international reporter, working as foreign correspondent for Channel 4 News. His work, focussed on conflict and human rights abuses, has received awards from the Royal Television Society, BAFTA and the Emmy’s. He has reported extensively on the Middle East, and alongside rebel forces in Myanmar. Secunder was previously the BBC’s correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he helped lead coverage of the return to power of the Taliban. 

Jack is Editor-in-Chief of the 158-year-old national news agency for the UK and Ireland. He is responsible for PA’s editorial content across all formats and is leading the continuing transformation of the agency to a video-first, multi-platform operation.
He was previously at the Evening Standard where he was Acting Editor & Publisher, Managing Editor and Head of News during an 18-year stint that began when he joined as a news reporter in 2006. At the Standard, Jack oversaw the digital transformation of the newsroom during a period which saw the title win multiple awards for its investigations and campaigns.

Darren Lewis is a current columnist and former assistant editor at the Daily Mirror. He is in his 26th year with the publication and named Commentator of the Year Award for his weekly column at the 2024 Media Freedom Awards. He was narrowly edged out in November 2025, receiving a Highly Commended. 

Anthony Loyd has been writing for the Times for over thirty years. He began his career reporting from the Bosnian war in 1993 and has since worked in multiple conflicts, including those in Ukraine, Chechnya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Libya, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic. His special reports have included eye-witness dispatches from the siege of Sarajevo, the genocide in Srebrenica, the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, the defeat of Islamic State in Mosul, Muammar Gaddafi’s downfall in Libya, and the withdrawal of the US-led coalition from Afghanistan in 2021. Anthony exposed the use of Sarin gas by the Assad regime in Syria in 2013, and later discovered and interviewed Shamima Begum in 2019. His Times multimedia projects have included the short film ‘Another Man’s War’ from Ukraine, and the highly acclaimed podcast series ‘Last Man Standing’.  Among his many awards for The Times the reporter has won foreign correspondent of the year five times in the British Press Awards , and twice won the prestigious Prix Bayeux-Calvados for war correspondents.

Sam is an Emmy and BAFTA-nominated journalist who has negotiated with everyone from Buckingham Palace to The White House, Tesla to Facebook, most famously, securing the BBC Newsnight interview with (former) Prince Andrew.

Sam’s book Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews was released in 2022 and was optioned for a Netflix film “Scoop” which was released in 2024, with Sam as executive producer.  Sam was played by Billie Piper with Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis.

Sam is also a global speaker, TEDx speaker, writer, broadcaster, Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Visiting Associate at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.

Paul McNamara is Senior Political Correspondent for Channel 4 News.

Paul joined the Channel 4 News Investigations Team in 2015 and reported on the biggest stories in the UK. He has covered three General Elections for the programme, the last as Political Correspondent.

Prior to Channel 4 News Paul was the co-founder of a production company and news agency providing investigations for Channel 4 Dispatches, BBC Panorama, and every newspaper on Fleet Street.

His career started at The Bedford Times and Citizen, before joining national newspapers to cover defence and the war in Afghanistan extensively.

Kevin Maher is a film critic, columnist and author who has been pontificating about movies since the early 1990s. He joined The Times in 2004, and is now chief film critic for The Times and The Sunday Times. He has written two novels, The Fields and Last Night on Earth, and one radio play.

Chief Constable Sir Andy Marsh QPM has been CEO of the College of Policing since 2021 and is the longest serving Chief Constable in England and Wales. As a system leader, Andy has been responsible for introducing a number of changes into policing, including a revised Code of Ethics, a fourth entry route and has worked alongside the NPCC to establish a new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection. 

He was honoured to receive a knighthood for services to policing at the end of 2024. 

Sharon Marshall spent a decade as a tabloid reporter and columnist. She’s penned over 75 scripts as part of the BAFTA-winning Emmerdale and EastEnders writing teams and wrote the bestselling memoir Tabloid Girl. Known as the nation’s Soap Queen – she has presented a weekly segment on ITV’s This Morning for over 23 years.

Chris Mason is the Political Editor of BBC News, a position he has held since 2022.

The job takes in broadcasting from the Today Programme to the BBC News at Ten, and plenty in between, including the BBC’s daily news podcast Newscast. Chris joined the BBC in 2002 as a reporter at BBC Radio Newcastle, after completing a traineeship at ITN. He went on to be a Europe Correspondent and has done around one hundred overseas trips as a reporter.

He became a national BBC Political Correspondent in 2012 after stints as a political reporter at Radio 5 Live and covering Westminster politics for BBC Local Radio.

He has presented programmes and documentaries on BBC Radio 4, presented on 5 Live and the World Service and presented BBC Breakfast.

Ramita Navai is an Emmy and Robert F. Kennedy award-winning British-Iranian investigative journalist, documentary maker and author. With a reputation for working in hostile environments, she has reported from over forty countries, made over thirty documentaries and features and worked as a foreign correspondent for print. She has recently won the Foreign Affairs Journalism prize at the British Journalism Awards 2025, for Gaza: Doctors Under Attack.

After a Masters in journalism at City University where her graduating film on transsexual legislation in the UK won the national Young Broadcast Journalist of the Year Award, she began her career as the Tehran correspondent for The Times. While in the region, she also reported for The Sunday Times, The Irish Times, RTE radio and many other publications and media outlets, also covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In 2006, Ramita joined Channel 4’s acclaimed series Unreported World, where she reported and produced twenty documentaries. In 2008, Ramita investigated the traffic in human body parts inSouth Africa and the child brides of Nigeria, before travelling to Turkey in 2009 to lift the veil on honour killings and witchcraft in Papua New Guinea. She reported on the child assassins weaponised by warring gangs in El Salvador and the epidemic of child drug addiction in Afghanistan in 2010, before investigating the illegal means of imprisoning children in Burundi in 2011. In 2012, Ramita’s documentary with PBS Frontline Undercover Syria was awarded the Emmy Award for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story.

Her first book City of Lies: Love, Sex, Death and the Search for Truth in Tehran won the Debut Political Book of the Year at the 2015 Political Book Awards, and was awarded the Royal Society of Literature’s Jerwood Prize for non-fiction. It has been translated into six languages.

Ramita is the creator and host of The Line of Fire, a podcast about the moment of facing death. The first series made the top 10 in the Apple podcast charts. 

In December 2022 Ramita was awarded the Women in Film and TV News and Factual Award, which recognises outstanding achievement by a woman in this field in the last two years.

In 2023, Ramita reported and executive produced Afghanistan: No Country For Women for PBS Frontline and No Country For Women for ITV. It was the result of a six-months investigation into the Taliban’s treatment of women, exposing mass arrests and abductions. It went on to win the Grierson Award for Best Current Affairs Documentary, a Rose d’Or Award for News and Current Affairs, a nomination for the 2023 BAFTA Current Affairs award, and the Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form award at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

In 2023 Ramita was named Presenter of the Year by the Royal Television Society and won the Best TV Presenter – Factual Award at the Edinbugh TV Festival. 

In 2024, Ramita’s documentary for FRONTLINE saw her on the ground following Hamas’ Oct 7th attack. Israel’s Second Front premiered on PBS in 2024.

In 2025, Ramita wrote, produced and presented Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, a forensic investigation into Israeli military attacks on hospitals in Gaza. Gaza: Doctors Under Attack aired on Channel 4. 

Claire Newell leads the award-winning Telegraph Investigations team.  The team has published a series of groundbreaking exclusives that have held the powerful to account. From #MeToo scandals to corruption in sport and politics, the team has uncovered evidence that has led to criminal and parliamentary inquiries.

Gabriel Pogrund is Whitehall editor at The Sunday Times. He was named Political Journalist of the Year and News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Press Awards. For his investigative reporting on the government, the BBC, MI5 and MI6, he won Journalist of the Year at the 2023 British Journalism Awards. He is the co-author of two books, including Get In, a Sunday Times bestselling account of Sir Keir Starmer’s rise to power. In 2018, he was Stern Fellow at The Washington Post.

Dominic Ponsford has edited Press Gazette since 2006, leading its digital transformation and campaigns defending press freedom. A journalist since 1998, he  oversees Press Gazette’s growth as a leading voice for quality media.

Stuart Ramsay is chief correspondent, covering major global news stories and world events – including 18 separate wars over a 30-year career.

He is Sky’s longest-serving foreign correspondent.

Stuart has been posted to bureaux in Russia, the US, South Africa, India and Dubai – with recent assignments focused primarily on the wars in Syria and Iraq, the migrant crisis in Central America and the on-going political crisis in Venezuela.

Stuart has won two Emmys, and been nominated for another three.

He has received four BAFTA nominations, a Monte Carlo Film Award Golden Nymph, London Press Club’s journalist of the year and three Royal Television Society wins, including 2017 scoop of the year for his revelation of secret Islamic State files.

Stuart is also a co-presenter of Hotspots: On The Frontline, a one-hour programme airing on Sky Atlantic that explores the dangers, complexities and emotions of reporting from around the world.

Beth Rigby is Sky News’ political editor, known for sharp analysis and fearless Westminster reporting. She has covered two general elections, the Scottish independence and EU referendums, and the twists of Brexit, regularly breaking stories on cabinet reshuffles, government splits, and crises. After graduating from the University of Cambridge, Beth spent nearly two decades in print at the Financial Times and The Times, moving from financial reporting into political journalism – a transition that shaped her clear, incisive style. At Sky, she hosts the weekly podcast Electoral Dysfunction with Harriet Harman and Ruth Davidson, which has accrued nearly 7 million downloads since its 2024 launch. Her work has earned major awards, including 2024 RTS Political Journalist of the Year and Woman of the Year at the Women in Journalism Awards, for her incisive election coverage. She is known for making complex political issues accessible and is one of a growing number of female political editors in UK broadcasting. Outside work, she enjoys running (she’s training for her second London Marathon this year), cooking, dance, and interiors. 

Gavin was elected to the Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in 2022 and took up the role in April 2023, having served in Surrey Police from Constable to Chief Constable.

As Chair of NPCC Gavin is responsible for ensuring strong co-ordination and collaboration across UK Policing, including British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.  Policing practices across the UK are held together by strong principles and values, which are rooted in policing by consent.  Working together with the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, the College of Policing, His Majesty’s Inspectorate, the National Crime Agency, and many other public and voluntary bodies, Gavin ensures NPCC contributes to a shared vision of achieving the most trusted and engaged policing service in the world, by making communities safer and stronger.

Gavin is the Senior Responsible Officer for the national Police Race Action Plan.  He is a Director of BlueLight Commercial and Police Digital Services.  He chairs the Boards of the Criminal Records Office, and Police Crime Prevention Initiatives.  He is a trustee of the charity Police Care UK, and chairs the Board of Trustees for Police Arboretum Memorial Trust.  He is a patron of the Police Mutual Assurance Society.

In his former role as Chief Constable of Surrey, Gavin was chair of the NPCC Finance Coordination Committee and NPCC Communications Advisory Group.  Prior to that he was NPCC lead for Neighbourhood Policing and chaired the committee to produce the College of Policing Guidelines on Modernising Neighbourhood Policing.

Liam Thorp is the multi award-winning political editor of the Liverpool Echo newspaper, one of Britain’s biggest regional news organisations. Having started his career as a trainee reporter in Greater Manchester, Liam moved to the ECHO in 2017 to become a political reporter. He then advanced to become political editor and is now one of the most recognised members of the regional press in the country.

He has won numerous awards in his career, including being named the Regional Press Awards specialist journalist of the year three times. He is also the current Society of Editors regional journalist of the year. Liam has been nominated for the prestigious Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness and Private Eye Paul Foot awards for his investigative and campaigning journalism.
Liam is passionate about reporting on issues of social justice such as homelessness and the effects of government policies on the most vulnerable.

Liam lives in south Liverpool with his wife, his toddler, his new baby and his Romanian rescue dog.

Camilla Tominey is one of the UK’s foremost journalists, serving as a Television Presenter for GB News, where she hosts an agenda-setting eponymous politics show every Sunday morning. As Associate Editor of the Telegraph since 2018, Camilla presents the Telegraph’s flagship podcast The Daily T,  providing listeners an insider’s perspective on the news. She also writes a weekly column for the Telegraph.

As one of the country’s foremost royal experts, Camilla has reported on pivotal stories such as the engagement of Prince William and the Princess of Wales Kate Middleton, the relationship between Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle in 2016, the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the Coronation of King Charles III.  

As a seasoned commentator on politics and the royals, Camilla has worked all over the world, for media outlets such as NBC in USA, Nine Network in Australia, ZDF & ARD in Germany, RTL in France, among others. In the UK, she has also served as a Royal Correspondent for ITV’s This Morning. A respected journalist, Camilla was named Journalist of the Year at the McLean-DB Recovery+ Award for her work on the story about children of alcoholics.

Recognised across the world for her coverage of the Royal Wedding, she attracted a viewership of 55 million, which is no easy feat. Camilla’s accolades speak for themself – she was nominated Multimedia Journalist of the Year by London Press Club Awards in 2021, and as Journalist of the Year at the 2023 Publishing Awards. Last year she won a Television and Radio Industries Club (TRIC) Award for her poignant interview with former ITN anchor Alastair Stewart about his dementia diagnosis.

Dominique Walker is one of the UK’s leading documentary producers and executive producers, with a career spanning more than three decades across the BBC, Channel 4, ITV and major streaming platforms. Known for bringing complex or specialist subjects to broad primetime audiences, she has produced and overseen more than 100 hours of factual television that combine rigorous journalism with popular storytelling. Her work includes the BAFTA winning Jamie’s School Dinners, the multi award winning environmental documentary Drowning in Plastic.

Dominique spent several years as a commissioning editor at Channel 4, where she developed and oversaw a wide range of documentary and factual entertainment programmes. Her films and series often sit at the intersection of journalism, public policy and popular culture, exploring issues such as food, medicine, social justice and the environment in ways that resonate with mass audiences and shape public debate.

She is currently developing two new documentary projects for BBC One primetime. One on microplastics in humans, and the other examines ultra processed food.

Sarah is the President of the Society of Editors and the Director of Newsgathering and Operations at Sky News with responsibility for UK and international journalism as well as Sky’s operations teams.

Sarah has been at Sky News for 13 years as Head of International News, Head of Home News and Deputy Head of Newsgathering before her most recent promotion. In her role as Deputy Head of Newsgathering she ran major events and special projects including Sky’s coverage of the death of the Queen, the Coronation and award-winning projects around climate in the run up to COP26 in Glasgow.

Before Sky News, Sarah was at the BBC. She has over 20 years’ experience working across TV, digital and audio and has worked in many genres including news, documentary and drama. She is a member of the DSMA Notice Committee and is on the board of the British Journalism Review.

David was Chief Reporter for the Daily Mail for 29-years and a former Mail crime correspondent. For the last 12-years he has run the Mail’s Betrayal of the Brave campaign fighting for Afghan military interpreters and others employed by UK forces left behind in Afghanistan. Other campaigns he has overseen include Flood Aid, helping tsunami victims, and separate ones for the children of Bosnia and Kosovo. He has worked extensively abroad, often in conflict zones, including both Gulf Wars, Bosnia, Kosovo, NATO bombing of Serbia and in Afghanistan and the Middle East. 

Alan is a former journalist, having spent nearly 10 years working in roles across local, regional, and national media. Much of his experience is in senior management roles in regional newsrooms, particularly leading change projects as newsrooms shifted from prioritising print to digital. In 2021 Alan took on the role of Press Office Manager at Essex Police, before stepping up to his national role at the National Police Chiefs’ Council. Alan is currently leading the national policing response to the recommendations made in the Nicola Bulley Review report for police communicators.