Steven Barnett is Professor of Communications at the University of Westminster and a writer and commentator on media issues, specialising in media policy, regulation and journalism. He was special adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications for its inquiry into News and Media Ownership, published in June 2008, and is currently advising the same committee for its inquiry into the UK film and TV industries. He is also an adviser to the Media Standards Trust for its current inquiry into the future of press regulation.

He was for many years an Observer columnist and writes frequently on broadcasting for the national and specialist press.

He is the author or co-author of a number of books and book chapters, including books on TV and sport, on the BBC, on public service broadcasting and on the current state of political journalism.

His new book on television journalism will be published next year. He is also an editorial board member of the 'British Journalism Review'.

He has just been granted an AHRC award to examine the contemporary policy issues around media ownership, journalism and diversity.

Tamasin Cave writes and campaigns for SpinWatch, a non-profit organisation which monitors and reports on the role of public relations, lobbying and government spin in society. Tamasin also coordinates the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency (ALT), a coalition of civil society groups campaigning for the introduction of lobbying transparency regulations in the UK, namely a statutory register of lobbyists. Current members of ALT include CPBF, National Union of Journalists, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Unlock Democracy, SpinWatch and others. She has previously written and campaigned on environmental and food and farming issues.

SpinWatch
The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency (ALT)

Natalie Fenton is a Reader in Media and Communications in the Department of Media and Communication, Goldsmiths, University of London where she is also Co-Director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre: Spaces, Connections, Control, and Co-Director of Goldsmiths Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy. She has published widely on issues relating to media, politics and new media and is particularly interested in rethinking understandings of public culture, the public sphere and democracy. Her most recent book, (ed.) (2009) New Media, Old News: Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age, is published by Sage and is the first of three books from a large scale research project looking at new media and the news in the UK. She is also a trade union activist and teaches on an MA in Political Communications at Goldsmiths.

Bob Franklin is Professor of Journalism Studies, Cardiff University, UK. He is the Editor of 'Journalism Studies and Journalism Practice' and co-editor of a new series 'Journalism Studies: Key Texts' published by Sage. He has authored/edited 20 books including The Future of Newspapers (2009), Pulling Newspapers Apart; Analysing Print Journalism (2008) and Local Journalism and Local Media; Making the Local News (2006). Bob is a Trustee of the George Viner Trust (For Journalism trainees from Ethnic Minorities) and was Visiting Professor at the Manship School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Louisiana State University, in Spring 2008.

Dr Alison Harcourt is Jean Monnet Chair in the Information Society at the University of Exeter. She was appointed to the University of Exeter in 2004 before which she held positions at the European University Institute, the University of Oxford and the University of Manchester. She is a specialist in European communications policies and has published on the regulation of traditional and new media markets at European and EU Member State levels. Recently, she published a special issue on 'Ownership Policy, Regulation, and Business' in the Journal of Media Business Studies. Alison also runs a seminar series on the information society in the context of the Centre for European Governance.

Joy Johnson is a professional political communicator who has worked at a senior level in the BBC as a political news editor and editor of live political programmes. She brings political insights from her year at the heart of the New Labour Machine, and was Director of Media and Marketing for the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone from 2001 - 2008.

Since leaving the Greater London Authority she has lectured in journalism and political campaigning. She writes a column for Tribune, blogs for the Compass website and is on the board of, and contributor for, the British Journalism Review.

Arun Kundnani is the editor of Race & Class, a quarterly journal published by the Institute of Race Relations (link below), and the author of The End of Tolerance: Racism in 21st century Britain (link below). He is also a research fellow at London Metropolitan University.

Institute of Race Relations
The End of Tolerance

Paul Lewis is a reporter for the Guardian. His investigations into the death of a newspaper-vendor, Ian Tomlinson, at the G20 demonstrations led to the ongoing criminal investigation into his death. His coverage of alleged brutality at the demonstrations was credited with prompting two parliamentary inquiries and a national review of policing tactics by the government inspectorate.

In 2007 he was nominated Young Journalist of the Year for investigations into suspected terrorist networks in east London and people trafficking routes from Vietnam. He also worked for the Washington Post as the Stern Fellow. He was educated at Cambridge University and Harvard University.

Graham Murdock is well known internationally for his role in developing a critical political economy of communication and for his research and writing on the changing organisation of the media industries. He has held visiting professorships at the universities of California at San Diego, Stockholm, Bergen, Brussels, and Mexico City.

His last book was Media in the Age of Marketization (Hampton Press 2007). He is currently co-editing the Blackwell Companion to the Political Economy of Communication and a four volume collection on debates around the Public Sphere.

John Nichols writes about politics for The Nation magazine as its Washington correspondent. He is a contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times and the associate editor of the Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and dozens of other newspapers. We're pleased to welcome him as a keynote speaker at the Media For All conference.

Nichols is a frequent guest on radio and television programs as a commentator on politics and media issues. He was featured in Robert Greenwald's documentary, "Outfoxed," and in the documentaries Joan Sekler's "Unprecedented," Matt Kohn's "Call It Democracy" and Robert Pappas's "Orwell Rolls in his Grave."

The keynote speaker at the 2004 Congress of the International Federation of Journalists in Athens, Nichols has been a featured presenter at conventions, conferences and public forums on media issues sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Consumers International, the Future of Music Coalition, the AFL-CIO, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Newspaper Guild [CWA] and dozens of other organisations.

Nichols is the author of the upcoming book The Genius of Impeachment (The New Press), as well as a critically-acclaimed analysis of the Florida recount fight of 2000, Jews for Buchanan (The New Press) and a best-selling biography of Vice President Dick Cheney, Dick: The Man Who is President (The New Press), which has recently been published in French and Arabic.

He edited Against the Beast: A Documentary History of American Opposition to Empire (Nation Books), of which historian Howard Zinn said: "At exactly the time when we need it most, John Nichols gives us a special gift--a collection of writings, speeches, poems, and songs from throughout American history--that reminds us that our revulsion to war and empire has a long and noble tradition in this country."

With Robert W. McChesney, Nichols has co-authored the books, It's the Media, Stupid! (Seven Stories), Our Media, Not Theirs (Seven Stories) and Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy (The New Press). McChesney and Nichols are the co-founders of Free Press, the nation's media-reform network, which organized the 2003 and 2005 National Conferences on Media Reform.

Of Nichols, author Gore Vidal says: "Of all the giant slayers now afoot in the great American desert, John Nichols's sword is the sharpest."

Tom O'Malley is Professor of Media Studies at Aberystwyth University. He worked for the CPBF in the 1980s and has since remained a member of the National Council He has been involved in the Campaign's work around changes in broadcasting policy since the 1980s and debates over the Right of Reply. His published work includes: Closedown? The BBC and Government Broadcasting Policy 1979-81 (Pluto 1994); with Clive Soley, Regulating The Press (Pluto, 2000); and , has edited, with Janet Jones, The Peacock Committee and UK Broadcasting Policy (Palgrave, 2009). He co-edits the journal 'Media History' (Routledge).

Dr Katharine Sarikakis is Senior Lecturer in Communications Policy and the immediate past Director of the Centre for International Communications Research at the University of Leeds. She is the inaugural Gustaf and Anne-Marie Ander Foundation Visiting Professor in Global Media Studies at Karlstad University in 2009. She is the founding co-editor of the International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, and the author of articles and books on media and cultural policy and international communications, including Media and Cultural Policy in the European Union (European Studies 24, Rodopi, 2007) Feminist Interventions in International Communication (Rowman and Littlefield 2008), Media Policy and Globalisation (Edinburgh University Press 2006). She is the Chair of the Communications Law and Policy Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA); Honorary Research Fellow at the Hainan University, China and Scientific Advisor to the Institute for Applied Communications Research in Cyprus. She has served as elected Vice-President at the International Association of Media and Communication Researchers, where she is currently serving as an elected Member of the International Council.

Alexander Stille is the San Paolo Professor of International Journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism of Columbia University. His books include Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian-Jewish Families Under Fascism, The Future of the Past, and The Sack of Rome: Media + Money + Celebrity = Power = Silvio Berlusconi. Among the publications to which Stille has contributed are: 'The New York Review of Books', 'The New Yorker', 'The London Review of Books' and 'The New York Times'. Both The Future of the Past and The Sack of Rome, while very different, consider the impact of changes in technology and media on culture and politics.

Keith Stokes is Chair of BECTU's Independent Broadcasting Division, Deputy Chair of the ITV Unions' Committee and Shop Steward of BECTU's ITV Anglia branch in Norwich. He first worked for Anglia Television in Norwich in 1984, having previously worked in the film industry at Elstree Studios. He left Anglia in 1984 and returned in 1991.

He is currently employed as a Senior Graphic Designer working for ITV News Group (ING) and has worked exclusively on regional news and current affairs for the last 10 years.He is married and has two grown-up children.

Carole is Chair of the UK Coalition for Cultural Diversity which campaigns for the implementation of the 2005 Unesco Convention on the promotion and protection of cultural diversity of expression, including public service broadcasting.

Carole is an Associate Director for Sovereign Strategy. Her issues management experience includes: media and communications policies; cultural strategies; transport; sustainable strategies; waste management; financial services.

Previously Carole was an elected Member of the European Parliament from 1984 - 1999. She was elected Deputy Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party from 1989-1991. She was a Parliament spokesperson on the car industry and on public service broadcasting with major reports adopted by the Parliament in those fields. Her report, The Future of Public Service Broadcasting in the Digital Age, adopted by the EP in 1996 led to the incorporation of a Protocol protecting public service broadcasting in the EU Treaties.

Carole chaired the Parliamentís cross party audiovisual/cinema intergroup from 1997-99. In 2005, Carole was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Lincoln for services to public service broadcasting. She is Vice Chair of the Couper Art Collection.

Carole also sits on the National Unesco Committee on Communication and Information. She is a Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Commerce and Manufacture.

Janice Turner is Editor of 'Stage Screen & Radio' magazine, the award-winning journal of BECTU, the media and entertainment union. She is also the unionπs diversity officer and since 2007 has been chair of the Federation of Entertainment Unionsπ Equalities Committee. Janice's early career in the eighties was as a journalist at 'South Magazine', the international Third World magazine, where she covered a wide range of issues from arts and broadcasting to war reporting in the Middle East and North Africa. A life-long campaigner against racism and apartheid, Janice worked with BECTU's Black Members' Committee to set up the Move on Up diversity initiative in the film and broadcasting industry, set up the Radio Industry Diversity Group and bring about major developments in relation to diversity within the union.

Marc Vallée is an award-winning freelance photojournalist who is currently working on a long-term project to document political protest and dissent in modern Britain. Marc is also a freelance investigative journalist who has worked on major investigations on police surveillance of protesters and journalists as well as covert state targeting of environmental activists for The Guardian. Marc also writes regularly on press freedom and photographers' rights for The Guardian's 'Liberty Central'.

Marc's protest page.

Granville Williams has been a member of the Campaign for Press & Broadcasting Freedom since its establishment in 1979. He is a member of the CPBF National Council. His research interests include media ownership: Britain's Media: How They Are Related (CPBF: 1993, 1996), European Media Ownership: Threats on the Landscape: A survey of who owns what in Europe (EFJ: 2002), Eastern Empires: Foreign Ownership in Central and Eastern European Media (EFJ; 2003).

He is also interested in the role of corporate lobbying in the formation of media policies in the UK, Europe and the USA.

His most recent publication was as editor of Shafted: The Media, the MIners' Strike and the Aftermath (CPBF: 2009) and he has a long- standing interest in the way the media reports trades unions, our working lives and strikes.