Update: 6 September 2024: The Guardian has appointed a Manchester-based community affairs correspondent, a role first announced in July 2023.

Chris Osuh is currently features editor at the Manchester Evening News and will move to The Guardian in October.

He will cover Greater Manchester’s black communities alongside wider reporting of Britain’s black, Asian and ethnic-minority populations and issues affecting them.

Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner said: “The Guardian puts readers and their communities at the heart of so much of its journalism and was founded in Manchester, so it is particularly fitting we have someone based in the city to cover the urgent stories and issues that affect us today.”

In addition Keisha Thompson has been appointed as the Manchester-based programme manager for the Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement project, which revealed links between the founders of the Manchester Guardian and transatlantic slavery.

Thompson will lead on community engagement and partnerships in Greater Manchester to advance understanding of the city’s connections to transatlantic slavery, the newsbrand said.

Original story 28 March 2024: The Guardian has appointed five new correspondents in the Caribbean, South America, Africa and UK with the aim of boosting coverage of underreported communities.

The new roles are part of Guardian owner Scott Trust’s programme of restorative justice addressing the newspaper’s historical connections with transatlantic slavery, first revealed in July 2023.

Natricia Duncan, who has written for national media in her native St Vincent and the Grenadines and for The Guardian in the UK on immigration and race equality issues, has been named the title’s first Caribbean correspondent, based in Jamaica.

She said: “Coming from a small island in the Caribbean, I understand the importance of giving voice to those who feel marginalised and invisible.

“Despite its rich cultural tapestry, dynamic leaders and complex environmental and socio-economic challenges, the region is often misunderstood, misrepresented, or ignored by global media.”

Tiago Rogero joins as South America correspondent based in Brazil, where he created the award-winning narrative podcast Projeto Querino.

Eromo Egbejule has been named West Africa correspondent based in Ivory Coast, after a stint as Africa editor at Al Jazeera English while Carlos Mureithi is joining as East Africa correspondent based in Kenya joining from his role as Africa climate and environment correspondent for the Associated Press.

Guardian readers around the world will get “more dedicated news, expert analysis and original features” from each of these regions as a result, the newsbrand said.

Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner said: “Our new Caribbean, South America and Africa correspondents will cover the urgent stories and issues affecting communities in these regions today, and with a depth and breadth rarely seen in the western media.”

Finally Tobi Thomas is already in post as The Guardian’s UK health and inequalities correspondent after previously working for the title as a news reporter and data journalist.

The five recent appointments follow the recruitment of two journalists to The Guardian’s race and equity team in the US at the end of last year.

The Guardian is also still recruiting for a Manchester-based community affairs correspondent to expand its reporting of race in and around the North West.

A report published last year by the Scott Trust found links between the paper’s founder and slavery. The report shared an apology and proposals for reparation.

The Guardian Foundation has since expanded its training scheme in the UK to include three extra bursaries for aspiring black journalists.

Guardian Australia has launched its first trainee programme aimed at diversifying the newsroom while Guardian US is currently developing a similar scheme.

The Guardian’s journalism series Cotton Capital, which examines how transatlantic slavery shaped The Guardian, Manchester and beyond, will also publish new stories in the coming weeks.

Cotton Capital was highly commended at the British Journalism Awards in December. The judges said: “Few publications would be brave enough to subject themselves to such scrutiny.”

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All but two London boroughs have publications covering council activities, although in some cases self-published reporters have stepped into the gap left by the withdrawal of established publishers.

Ealing appears to be the best-covered London borough, with five news outlets regularly covering news from council meetings.

South East London appears the least covered, with Greenwich, Lewisham, Bexley and Bromley having one news outlet each.

Hammersmith and Fulham, and Sutton were identified as the only London boroughs with no media outlet providing frequent coverage of council matters. Their populations were 183,200 and 209,600 respectively, according to the 2021 census.

Press Gazette has previously investigated media coverage in Scotland and Wales, tracking the emergence of news deserts.

Press Gazette spoke to Darryl Chamberlain, the editor of The Greenwich Wire, the only local paper providing frequent local political coverage in Greenwich. It is a one-man-band with a few contributions from local democracy reporters and freelancers.

He said: "I started The Greenwich Wire a long time ago as a blog after I watched a resident being treated appallingly by the ceremonial mayor at a council meeting.

"I remember thinking that a journalist there would report on it, but there weren't any journalists, so I did."

With journalistic and editorial experience at titles including the BBC and Money Saving Expert, Chamberlain continued working part-time editing and reporting for The Greenwich Wire, particularly when "the legacy papers pretty much fell away from 2015."

Six years ago, Chamberlain asked readers to contribute financially. The outlet has a monthly revenue of £1,300, of which Chamberlain takes two-thirds for his salary. The rest goes to freelance contributors.

He added: "Covering Greenwich almost entirely alone is disconcerting, it’s very odd not having anyone to check yourself against.

“It’s not healthy that it is down to me, one-part timer to cover the council meetings, I really have to pick and choose.”

Chamberlain said that the situation was similar across South East London, noting Lewisham, Bexley and Bromley as seriously lacking local reporting.

When asked about the South London Press, which has grown from covering four boroughs to over ten, he said: “When the South London Press does original reporting, it is high quality."

But, he added that it is stretched in terms of the large patch it covers and relies heavily on BBC-funded local democracy reporters.

While there has been a decline of the 'legacy papers', there is evidence of smaller, online-only independent news outlets filling the gaps, with The Greenwich Wire being just one.

Haringey Community Press is another example, a free independent community news website.

Launched in November 2021 as an expansion from an earlier title established in 2016, Haringey Community Press became online-only this last month after publishing 82 print editions. It attributed this switch to "the unreliability of the local advertising market".

Chiswick W4 claims to be the "largest local community website of its kind in Europe" with over 200,000 visits per month. It is supported by freelances and local democracy reporters, and aims to cover Chiswick-related news with "no editorial line".

Similar sites cover news across London but in many cases, they publish stories irregularly and/or do not cover council meetings. SheperdsbushW12 is one such example.

When Press Gazette previously tracked London local news coverage in 2017 we found that many boroughs then had just one dedicated reporter and some titles had one reporter covering several boroughs.

Greater London has a population of around 9 million, or roughly equivalent to Wales and Scotland combined.

In 2017 Press Gazette noted that Kensingon and Chelsea had gone from having two local newspapers with around ten staff in 1990 to one reporter covering the borough on a part-time basis at the time. Many felt this meant the safety concerns raised by Grenfell Tower residents in advance of a fire which killed 79 people were ignored.

The Kensington and Chelsea News closed in 2017. Today the borough is one of many covered by the South London Press.

According to Press Gazette research there has been around a two thirds reduction in the number of UK local newpaper journalists since 2007.

Methodology

Press Gazette contacted all London local authorities, requesting a list of the outlets that covered the council’s news on weekly basis. Of the 33 local authorities, 23 responded.

This list was extended using data from Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) and Google News searches for the local authority.

The focus was on collecting information on media outlets that cover certain local authorities, not where those media outlets are based or where people consume local media.

We also visited each online news outlet’s website to ensure that those who published less frequent reports of council activities were not listed. This was done once, meaning that the data reflects the coverage at the time the research was conducted.

Many London papers cover multiple boroughs, such as the South London Press which covers most boroughs in South London. We therefore investigated how thoroughly they covered each borough before adding them to our list.

My London and the Evening Standard do not feature in this study because they do not appear to provide weekly borough-level political coverage.

Disclaimer: Mapping local news provision in the UK is challenging because most titles no longer publish audited ABC print circulation figures, and where newspapers survive they are often hollowed out. That is why we have based our research on trying to track published relevant online content, requiring us to make qualitative judgment calls.

If you know of a news outlet that should be added to our list (or you think some should not be on there) please email pged@pressgazette.co.uk.

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National press coverage of the British general election has so far been even-handed, according to Press Gazette analysis of front page bias.

Press Gazette looked at every national newspaper front page published since Rishi Sunak called a general election (23 May to 16 June inclusive).

The purpose of the research was to deduce political bias by making a judgement as to whether the choice and presentation of front-page stories was favourable or unfavourable to the Conservative party. Historically, UK national newspapers have leaned to the right overall.

At this halfway point of the campaign, any pro-Tory bias in the national press overall has failed to materialise. This contrasts with national press coverage in the run-up to the referendum on Britain leaving the EU in 2016 when press coverage was overwhelmingly pro-Brexit.

Of the 246 front pages we looked at 56 were judged to be positive for Rishi Sunak, 57 negative for him and 132 were neutral.

Only the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and Daily Express have been overwhelmingly positive for the Conservatives in their choice and portrayal of front-page stories.

The Sun, which has been Conservative-supporting since 2009, appears to have deserted Sunak's party.

The title has yet to reveal its general election endorsement, but front-page coverage has largely ignored the general election altogether. The two front pages that were about the election were split, with one positive and one negative for Sunak and his party.

This contrasts with the Daily Mirror which published general election stories 12 times on its front page during the period under review, all of which were positive for Labour/negative for the Conservatives.

The Times and FT tend to occupy the centre ground politically but both published considerably more negative front-page stories for the Conservatives than positive ones in the period under review. This may reflect the fact that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has simply faced more bad news.

Front-page Times headlines judged to be negative for Rishi Sunak have included: "Farage's return and new poll deal blow to Sunak", "Mordaunt hits out at 'completely wrong' PM" and "Gove quits politics as more Tories stand down".

In March Press Gazette published analysis showing the diminishing power of national newspapers to influence elections today compared with 1992, when The Sun claimed credit for John Major's surprising UK general election win for the Conservatives.

The three strongly pro-Conservative titles (Daily Express, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail) have a combined print circulation of around one million copies per day, a figure which rises to at least 1.5 million on Saturdays. The remaining daily newspapers, which are either neutral or pro-Labour in their choice of front-page stories, have a combined circulation of around 1.9 million.

There have been four editions of Sunday newspapers since the general election was called. Only The Sunday Telegraph and The Observer have showed front-page bias one way or the other, with The Sunday Telegraph favouring the Conservatives and The Observer favouring Labour.

So far only two national newspapers have revealed UK general election endorsements for 2024: The Telegraph has backed the Conservatives and the Daily Mirror is backing Labour.

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Trust in news in the UK increased by three percentage points in the past year, according to the latest Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

In the UK 36% of more than 2,000 survey respondents said they trust most news most of the time – up from 33% last year.

However the UK’s trust level is down long-term, from 51% in 2015, with a low point of 28% in 2020.

How has trust in news changed globally?

Trust among the 47 countries included in the 2024 study averaged at 40%, with Finland having the highest (69%) and Greece and Hungary the lowest (23%).

The UK saw was ranked 25th out of 47 countries.

Few European countries saw growth in the past year, including the UK, Greece (up four percentage points) and France (up 1pp).

The Netherlands, Austria and Poland saw falls in trust of three percentage points each, while Romania saw a 5pp fall.

The most growth was seen in Asia-Pacific countries, specifically, Hong Kong (+16pp), Thailand (+3pp), India (+3%), Taiwan (+5pp) and South Korea (+3pp).

Which newsbrands do Brits trust?

Public opinions on brand trust in the UK remained largely unchanged since last year, with the BBC ranked the most trustworthy by the public (62%).

The least trustworthy was again The Sun, with 63% respondents saying that they wouldn’t trust it, although this was an improvement from 66% last year.

Does AI impact our levels of trust?

The report's findings indicated that those who trusted the news in general also appeared to be those who were more comfortable with AI being used as long as journalists remain in control.

But the UK scored the lowest of all countries for the proportion of people comfortable with the use of AI in news.

The report suggested this may be because “British press coverage of AI... has been characterised as overly negative and sensationalist.”

In the UK 10% of people said they would be comfortable with using news produced mostly by AI, with 63% uncomfortable. In the US 23% said they would be comfortable with AI-produced news and 52% were uncomfortable.

The report said: "We also find that people with greater AI awareness tend to feel relatively more comfortable with the use of AI in journalism. While still very low, comfort using news made mostly by AI is twice as high among those who have seen or heard more about AI (26%) relative to those who have seen less (13%).

"We see a similar gap when asking about comfort using news produced mostly by a human journalist with some help from AI (45% versus 30%)."

The UK was also ranked one of the highest in terms of the proportion of respondents who said they were worried about what is real and what is fake on the internet, at 70%.

But regionally, Western and Northern Europe were identified as areas with the lowest concern among citizens.

What influences trust globally?

The report found four main factors influencing trust across countries and ages:

1. High journalistic standards (72%)
2. Transparent about how the news is made (69%)
3. Lack of bias (65%)
4. Fairness in media representation (61%)

Those who identified their political orientation as ‘left’, ‘centre’ or ‘right’ ranked the factors influencing trust highly. Those who ‘didn’t know’ their political orientation were far less sure what was important for them in deciding which news outlet to trust, with each of the four main factors ranked roughly 20 percentage points lower than the average.

Generally, across all 47 countries included in the survey, those with low incomes, low levels of formal education, and younger people tended to trust the news less.

The report stated: “These are also groups that are often less well served by the news media, and generally less likely to think that the media cover people like them fairly..."

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Journalists must appreciate that their mental health has a direct impact on the quality of their work, a Sky News senior producer has warned.

With 15 years in the Sky newsroom, James Scurry explained the emotional toll of journalism and the lessons he’s learnt since training as a psychotherapist.

He said: “If you’re not that interested in whether you’re okay, think about whether you’re concerned about your story being okay.”

Without being in a stable mental state yourself, Scurry argued that you cannot provide a safe space for people to tell you their stories. He warned against conflating numbness with resilience.

He said: “If someone says to you that they have clinical depression, ask them about their life, take a moment because you’re not going to get the story unless you do.

“Without that consideration, you’ll put a story out there which is threadbare, inaccurate and boring.”

Scurry was speaking at Media Strong, a symposium exploring the impact of journalism on the mental health of those working in the field hosted by City University in London.

Why Sky News producer took himself off Jacob Crouch story

He recalled his experience covering the murder of ten-month-old Jacob Crouch who was repeatedly assaulted by his stepfather.

Scurry said: “I wasn’t tortured as a child but let’s just say that I understand cruelty…

“I was put on the Jacob Crouch story, and I listened to his parents laugh about how they tortured him to death, and it was utterly unbearable.

“Thank god for Sky News, they’ve got incredible mental health support…

“The best thing that happened to me was [Sky News editor of people and development] Sam Foster taking me aside and telling me to take myself off the story… and that was so healing to have her say that.”

Two weeks after being taken off the story, he was covering the Lucy Letby trial “with no problems”, which he argued was “evidence of good trauma-informed care.”

Scurry also stressed the importance of psychological education in the newsroom.

He said: “Emotional distress comes down to some form of dysregulation in the body’s nervous system…

“We need to understand that if you’re dysregulated, you’re going to do a shit interview because your prefrontal cortex is offline so you can’t access your executive functioning, meaning you won’t ask the right questions.”

He added: “I used to be the person who said that I could handle editing gruesome footage, but I run a mile from it now because I know that after 15 years with Sky, I’m full to the brim with vicarious trauma.”

Over 200 journalists attended the Media Strong event in-person and another 150 attended via the livestream.

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Autonomous AI tools can be used to asses journalists’ hunches before they sink too much time into an idea.

One expert told Press Gazette this could “enable some rejuvenation of small-scale investigative reporting”.

Dr Chris Brauer, chief innovation officer at AI academic research and advisory firm Symmetry, said new “agentic” AI technology can be used to statistically check the validity of a reporter’s hunch, saving time and encouraging experimental research.

Agentic AI encompasses systems that are designed to pursue complex goals with minimal human intervention.

Brauer said: “In the same way as WordPress transformed the ability of newsrooms to produce at scale through CMS, there’s a really powerful application of this type of technology at any scale of newsgathering.”

There are multiple ways a newsroom can build a hunch-testing AI, he explained. The approach taken depends largely on the data you want to test the hunch against.

If it is a data “lake” like the Panama Papers archive then the system works by converting natural language or unstructured data into mathematical information which can be read and analysed by the AI.

If the data is a content stream, such as ongoing corporate announcements, the hunch can be built to test against every new news item.

Brauer said agentic AI is the most powerful way to assemble a hunch-testing system.

He said: “In an agentic approach, you need to assemble your AI agents which involves creating roles and backstories.

“For instance, you could create a hunch investigator, a hunch rationale writer, and a critical thinking editor, and ascribe all these AI agents distinct goals and access permissions to specific software and datasets in performing their roles autonomously and as a multi-agent team.

“In the same way that you would onboard a junior reporter in the newsroom and provide them with guidance around best practice, you would do the same for the AI agent, in the same natural language.”

The journalist would then input their hunch and the agents would provide a suggestion of how strong the theory is.

The information input into the AI system can be controlled by the journalist to avoid misinformation or inaccuracy.

Brauer said: “You could have the COP Summit coming up and you could scale up an AI agent network whose sole purpose was to evaluate every possible implication of every story and statement.

“This would take about five days but would then do the heavy lifting for you.”

He added: “It may offer promise to enable some rejuvenation of small-scale investigative reporting which is under-resourced.

“You’re encouraged to be much more adaptive and experimental in your reporting – you don’t have to commit to any single angle early on.”

Brauer acknowledged two main obstacles to introducing this agentic AI hunch-checking software: it is computing intensive and it is not cheap.

However, he said: “There’s lots of concerns about the impact of AI on the newsroom and the ways it’s being used to automate and displace people…

“The journalist who is vulnerable in this context is the one who chooses not to consider the role that AI might play in their day-to-day work.”

The post How AI could save investigative journalists time and test their hunches appeared first on Press Gazette.

There has been a dramatic reduction in revenue, audience and staff sizes across the small independent (mainly local) UK media outlets monitored by the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF).

PINF estimates the UK’s 300 to 400 independent publishers make between £18.6m and £24.8m in annual revenue combined. The previous year’s estimate was £30m to £40m.

PINF monitors independent UK public news outlets with a turnover less than £2m.

On average, PINF found, website reach by unique users has more than halved and the number of employees has declined by a third.

The data comes from PINF’s fourth annual report assessing the state of independent local and regional news outlets. The report is based on a 48-question survey sent in January 2024 which received 73 responses.

[Last year’s report: Audience up but revenue still biggest challenge for independent news publishers]

Average independent publisher revenue falls by a third, with non-profits disproportionately impacted

The average revenue among independent local news publishers who responded to the survey this year is £62,000, which is down 30% from last year.

The fall was smaller among for-profits, who reported average revenue of £77,000 (down by 5%), while non-profits averaged £48,000 (down 50%).

Advertising now makes up 59% of revenue among surveyed publishers, the largest proportion of revenue it has accounted for since PINF started the survey four years ago.

PINF identified podcasting and email newsletters as having a positive impact on revenue.

"Correlational analysis of the data hints at routes to success in growing revenue," the authors wrote. "For the average non-profit, there is a positive correlation between revenue and each of Twitter/X followers, Threads followers, Instagram followers, podcast audiences, email subscribers.

"In the case of for-profits, there is no link between revenue and social media."

The 2024 PINF report includes a breakdown of average revenue and costs for four different types of publisher. The breakdown shows how most publishers are just breaking even or not at all, although the report's authors note the data was created using a small dataset.

Social media follower counts shrink but video views up

The report's authors suggested that "even allowing for significant overlap, it seems likely independent publishers are reaching most of the UK population". They reasoned this was true because there are between 300 and 400 independent publishers in the UK and their survey respondents reported an average annual online audience of 344,000 unique users (a fall of 56% compared to the previous year).

Facebook has replaced Twitter/X as the most used social media platform among respondents. The average publisher reports 10,000 Facebook followers, versus 9,000 on Twitter/X.

Although follower counts are down among respondents, they also reported an increase in social video views.

Formerly online-only publishers have started to invest in print, with 37% of publishers producing some print content last year.

Of all respondents, 71% focused on local news, 16% on regional, 8% on national, and 4% on global.

Whereas England has 85% of the UK population, it represents only 75% of the publishers sampled by PINF. Scotland has a larger share of the publishers (15%) than its share of the UK population (8%), as does Wales (7% against 3%). Northern Ireland accounts for both 3% of the publishers and the UK population.

The survey was not open to licensed broadcasters (including community radio stations) because of their distinct economic and regulatory environment.

Four in ten respondents (43% in 2024, 42% in 2023) were Impress-regulated while 13% were IPSO regulated, the same proportions as in 2023's report.

Expenditure cuts likely responsible for staff cuts

The average publisher has two full time equivalent employees, down from three last year, which the report's authors attributed to cost-driven cuts. Expenditure now averages at £56,000 across respondents, having decreased 38% since last year.

The last report included comments from publishers about the cost of living crisis and rising printing costs, with one survey respondent commenting "there is nothing left to cut."

The sector is estimated to employ 600-800 people, with a collective revenue between £18.5m and £24.8m.

When asked to rank how much they relied on volunteers, publishers gave an average of 53/100, with for-profits giving an average answer of 37/100.

Independent publishers consider themselves less impactful this year

There has been a growth in the percentage of women working in independent news publishing sector, at 34%. This compares to 22% in 2023.

Employees from ethnic minority groups occupied just 4% of roles despite accounting for approximately 18% of the English and Welsh population in the 2021 census. The 4% stat is unchanged from last year.

Publishers considered themselves to be less impactful this year, with the average independent publisher self-rating their impact at 62/100, compared to 68 last year.

The average non-profit reported its impact at 69, down from 72, while the average for-profit scored itself 55, down from 63.

PINF launches first Indie News Week to boost independent media

To coincide with the index's release PINF has announced it is launching its first Indie News Week, aiming to help publishers strengthen relationships with their communities. It will run from 3-9 June.

PINF will also run a match-funding campaign for public interest news, where raised money will be doubled by national donors.

The organisation says it is working with philanthropists to attempt to emulate the Press Forward initiative in the US, where major donors pledged half a billion dollars to rebuild local news.

PINF's executive director Jonathan Heawood said: "The UK can’t continue to rely on the efforts of professional journalists who are effectively subsidising the information needs of our society.

"At PINF, we are stepping up our efforts to strengthen capacity among indie news providers and to build external support for the sector."

The post Independent UK news publishers see falls in revenue, audience and staff appeared first on Press Gazette.

An Al Jazeera correspondent has argued efforts to enter the Gaza Strip by international journalists have not been enough.

Gaza correspondent Youmna El Sayed, who has been reporting from the strip since 7 October, made the comments at the Sir Harry Evans Investigative Journalism Summit in London on Wednesday.

Youmna El Sayed said: “International journalists have not fought for the right to enter the Gaza strip and to cover the war.

“They have abandoned the right; they have for many years lectured about the freedom of speech that they have let go when covering the war in the Gaza strip.”

El Sayed added: “They [international media] have used the excuse of ‘lack of information’ or ‘not enough Western journalists entering the Gaza strip’ for not covering the war like they should.”

International journalists have been banned from entering Gaza by Israel unless supervised by the Israeli Defence Force.

In early February, nine press freedom organisations wrote to Prime Minister Sunak, urging the government to do more to protects journalists in Gaza.

Later that month, more than 55 foreign correspondents led by Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford issued a plea to Israel and Egypt, requesting independent access to Gaza. Leaders of more than 30 international news organisations also published a similar letter.

Crawford told an event this month that a lack of apparent pressure from UK politicians to encourage Israel to allow foreign journalists into Gaza “seems really shocking and appalling and very hypocritical”.

In the first few months of the war, Crawford said, “I thought ‘maybe I’m not doing enough to get inside Gaza, maybe it’s just me that’s failing.’

“And then I realised that every single other foreign correspondent in the world is also, apparently, failing. And that cannot be possible – we’re all being blocked. And that is extremely alarming because we’re not getting the right picture.”

El Sayed, who was speaking alongside Al Jazeera Gaza producer colleague Safwat Kahlout, has worked in the strip for different international news outlets for the past eight years.

Referencing the death of six-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza City after she and her family apparently came under fire from Israeli tanks, El Sayed also said: “There is no excuse for those international journalists who have changed the terms and uses of words when they speak about certain incidents.

“When you call a six-year-old who was killed in her car a young woman, that is complete misconception.”

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The definition and logic of impartiality was debated by CNN‘s Christiane Amanpour and CEO of BBC News Deborah Turness at the 2024 Sir Harry Summit.

Following on from a comment Amanpour had made about Trump supporters being pulled into dangerous echo chambers, Turness asked her how to engage with a Trump-voting audience without isolating oneself.

Turness said: “If we corner ourselves, those audiences won’t come to us, they won’t receive our impartiality or our pursuit of truth.”

Amanpour responded: “I have a problem with the word impartial because I don’t really know what it means, is it neutral or objective?”

Turness defined impartiality as: “Fairness and respect for audiences.”

But Amanpour explained: “What if World War Two was about to explode – would we say we’re impartial to the Nazis’ desire to overrun the world?

“No, we are not impartial, and we should not be, we should be objective and truthful.”

Amanpour said earlier: “I’ve never subscribed to this idea that truth is subjective, because it’s empirical, evidentiary, and factual.”

On the other hand, Turness argued that due to subscription culture and the power of algorithms, people create their own echo chambers. When they “come up for air”, she argued, they meet impartial news and feel that it is an attack on their values.

They were joined by founder of Bellingcat Eliot Higgins and co-founder of Newsguard Steven Brill. The panel discussion entitled ‘How Do We Know What’s True?’ was moderated by Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy.

Higgins expanded on the echo chamber debate: “It’s not just about what the media can do, but what we can do as a society…

“We must look at the state of education in the UK around media literacy.

“We need to go a lot further, we need to show them how to find the truth and most importantly, why that truth matters.”

Brill mentioned how trustworthy media organisations have had their logos “hijacked” by those spreading disinformation, with Tiktok videos spreading fake news using BBC logos.

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An annual photojournalism fellowship was announced by Tina Brown at the Sir Harry Evans Summit in London.

The award will provide a full salary for the course of the fellowship and offer guidance and mentoring by Reuters and Canada’s Globe and Mail.

Applicants must be in the early stages of their career and propose a deep dive project.

The photojournalism fellowship is the second programme offered in Sir Harry’s memory, with the Global Fellowship in Investigative Journalism having run since 2022. The latter offers a monthly salary of c. £4,444 per month, a £1,250 per month living stipend and a one-off expenses payment of £1,800.

Renowned war photographer Don McCullin has agreed to be a judge in the fellow selection process.

Sir Harry’s widow and former New Yorker and Daily Beast editor, Tina Brown, introduced the Sir Harry Evans Memorial Fund (which encompasses both fellowships).

Brown told Press Gazette: “Organisations don’t send photographers to warzones anymore and frequently you find that photojournalists are going there on their own dime and without any backup.

“So, to have the affiliation with Reuters and Globe and Mail not only gives them the financial capacity to do this work, but also gives them the protection of those organisations.”

The fellowship is funded by David Thomson, chairman of Thomson Reuters, who shared a strong friendship with Sir Harry Evans, both of whom appreciated the power of photojournalism.

Brown said: “David cares very much about keeping photojournalism vibrant and alive, and about supporting, if there is such a thing, the young Don McCullins.”

Speaking at the Sir Harry Summit, McCullin expressed his concerns about the future of photojournalism in a media world which seems obsessed with images of the same celebrities. He asked where are the pictures from Gaza and other conflict zones.

Sir Harry Evans (1928-2020) was voted the Greatest British Newspaper Editor by his media peers. He was instrumental in highlighting the Thalidomide scandal and exposing Britain’s cover up of double agent Kim Philby.

He was one of the first trustees of London’s Photographers’ Gallery. He received the Hood Medal of the Royal Photographic Society and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Centre for Photography for his teaching of and dedication to photojournalism.

Out of his 17 books, six of them were about photography and its ethics. His 1978 book Pictures on a Page remains the definitive source about editing and presentation of photographs in the media.

Brown told Press Gazette: “I sometimes see the most amazing pictures used the size of a postage stamp in the New York Times and I think my god, if Harry had been the editor, that picture would have been across the page with a killer heading.”

Asked about her attitude to AI-generated photography, Brown said: “AI may be a good research tool but it’s never going to replace human intelligence or insights.

“An image can lie just as much as prose can.”

The up and running Global Fellowship in Investigative Journalism receives between 400-450 applicants each year from across the world. Brown hopes that it will be a similar case for the photojournalism fellowship.

Durham University, where Sir Harry Evans attended, will exhibit the fellow’s work at the end of the programme.

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