Our panel will discuss the impact of fake news and disinformation on TV journalism.
How can we ensure that citizens get fair, balanced and impartial news?
Broadcast TV news has been founded on these principles but in an age of fake news, partisan news channels and social media, this model appears to be under threat. How do we secure it for the future?
At the latest RTS All-Party Parliamentary Group event, Andrew Marr will quiz Sir David on his life in broadcasting, his work in conservation and his upcoming projects.
Tickets for RTS members are strictly limited, with early booking advised.
The RTS APPG is chaired by Damian Collins MP.
Deborah Turness, the ex-editor of ITV News who now runs Euronews in London as president of NBC News International following a spell as head of NBC News in New York, acknowledged that mainstream news outlets faced a challenge in the era of Trump and Brexit.
On both sides of the Atlantic mainstream media had failed to predict these events. There the parallels between Britain and America ended in terms of their different models of TV news provision.
It’s a rare that two thoroughgoing BBC men are seen smiling, let alone laughing, inside the precincts of the House of Commons. When senior BBC people visit Parliament, they are invariably greeted by sceptical MPs, keen to give them a rough time.
The atmosphere could not have been more different when, last month, the RTS invited Andrew Marr and Sir David Attenborough to hold a conversation at the Commons.
During the event, which took place at the House of Commons, Sir David was also presented with an honourary RTS award for his work in television.
Speaking to the RTS All Party Parliamentary Group in the House of Commons the veteran natural history broadcaster said that today’s BBC commissioners were reluctant to back lengthy documentaries dealing with serious topics.
“One of the things which BBC Two did very well was to make serious programmes on serious subjects – 13 part series. That requires three years. There’s a great reluctance elsewhere to do those sorts of programmes…
“Today there is a tendency to do shorter series” He added to audience laughter: “’Today we present a new two-part series.’”
