James Harding, the Editor-in-Chief of The Observer and founder of Tortoise Media, is to deliver this year’s The James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture, the flagship address of the Edinburgh TV Festival.
Harding will deliver the 50th James MacTaggart lecture at a time when the media landscape is changing fast, shaped by global uncertainty, political pressure and the growing power of the tech giants.
In a statement, the Edinburgh TV Festival said that “truth and trust are under strain, public service broadcasters and independent journalism are under threat, and yet have never been more essential. In this moment of reckoning, Harding’s lecture will prove a bold and provocative analysis of a media industry at an inflection moment and suggest dynamic solutions to the industry challenges that lie ahead.”
Harding’s Tortoise Media recently acquired UK broadsheet newspaper The Observer of which he is now Editor-in-Chief.
Harding was previously Director of News and Current Affairs at the BBC from 2012 to 2018 and before that was Editor of The Times from 2007 to 2012, winning Newspaper of the Year in two of the five years he edited the paper.
He was previously The Times’s Business Editor, having joined from The Financial Times where he worked as Washington Bureau Chief, Media Editor, and China Correspondent – opening the paper’s bureau in Shanghai in 1996, the first European newspaper to do so since the 1949 revolution.
Harding is also the author of Alpha Dogs – How Political Spin Became a Global Business and co-presented On Background on the BBC World Service.
Harding said: “Some years ago, I covered the MacTaggart lectures as a reporter and know how important it is for television, journalism and the wider creative industries. I am hugely honoured to be asked to give the lecture in its 50th year. I hope it will be a moment to call out the challenges to truth and trust – and suggest how we can renew the media to meet them.”
Jane Tranter, CEO Bad Wolf and Advisory Chair, Edinburgh TV Festival 2025 said: “James’ demonstrable determination to protect truth and trust in public service broadcasting and the media – coupled with his belief that in order to protect we need to change – makes him the MacTaggart lecturer that we need in this seismic year. In James’ hands, our lecture promises to be a provocative, kick-ass and insightful view from a visionary leader. We couldn’t ask for more.”
Previous MacTaggart speakers include James Graham, Michaela Coel, Dorothy Byrne, Ted Turner, Armando Iannucci, Rupert Murdoch, Dennis Potter, Jon Snow, Elisabeth Murdoch, David Olusoga, Jack Thorne, Emily Maitlis and Louis Theroux.
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