Tim is the founder and chairman of the Doha Debates and the New Arab Debates. He was previously a BBC foreign correspondent, based in Warsaw, Moscow and Washington, and has reported for BBC Television from more than 25 countries over a 30-year period. He is perhaps best known for being the first host of the BBC's flagship interview programme Hardtalk - for which he was twice named Interviewer of the Year by the Royal Television Society. Sebastian has also won the Society's Television Journalist of the Year award, as well as a British Academy award for contributions to factual television. He holds a BA in modern languages from Oxford University and is the author of eight novels and two non-fiction titles.
| 13:00 - 14:00 | Meeting 5 : Independent Media; Illusive Dream or PossibilityHow can financially-independent and objective news reporting exist in a world, even in established Western democracies, where freedom of the press is guaranteed but most editors and journalists remain under the influence of advertisers, governments and media owners with an agenda? This session will look at how new media players are ensuring editorial independence through relying on investigative journalism, small editorial teams, new content and ownership models as well as enough revenue from advertising and circulation. Moderators
Tim Sebastian / United KingdomTim is the founder and chairman of the Doha Debates and the New Arab Debates. He was previously a BBC foreign correspondent, based in Warsaw, Moscow and Washington, and has reported for BBC Television from more than 25 countries over a 30-year period. He is perhaps best known for being the first host of the BBC's flagship interview programme Hardtalk - for which he was twice named Interviewer of the Year by the Royal Television Society. Sebastian has also won the Society's Television Journalist of the Year award, as well as a British Academy award for contributions to factual television. He holds a BA in modern languages from Oxford University and is the author of eight novels and two non-fiction titles. Speakers
Edwy Plenel/FrancePresident and co-founder of Mediapart, France's first fully independent and add-free online investigative and opinion journal created in 2008 by the former chief editor of Le Monde. The website, which has a left leaning stance, has over 80,000 subscribers and is making profit. It consists of two main sections: the journal itself (Le Journal), run by professional journalists, and Le Club, a collaborative forum edited by the subscriber community. In 2011, Mediapart launched FrenchLeaks, a whistleblower website inspired by WikiLeaks. Mediapart has played a central role in the revelation and investigation of several major French political scandals among which: The "Bettencourt Affair" and the "Cahuzac Case" in 2012 compromising Jerome Cahuzac, then Minister of Budget, in a fiscal fraud case. |
