How to save public service journalism
Fri 17 April 2026
11:30
Free
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Mounting political pressure, competition from a largely unregulated technology industry and a decline in public trust - the challenges for Public Service Journalism are great. Yet, despite a White House ready to attack journalists at home and abroad, declining revenues decimated by online platforms and a younger generation more likely to consume and believe online content creators, the world needs fact-based trusted journalism more than ever. What can be done? This panel is designed to help come up with practical solutions as well as perspectives from people who have been or still are on the front line.
Moderated by Jane Martinson.
Modified more than a month ago
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Branko Brkic
Branko Brkic is Editor-in-Chief of Daily Maverick. Branko started his career by publishing science fiction books in 1984, in what was then Yugoslavia. In the following seven years he went from a project-based book publisher to starting what became Yugoslavia’s biggest privately-owned publishing house. He published in total 62 books, among them The complete works of William Shakespeare, Complete Greek Tragedies and Miroslav’s Gospel, the Serbian nation’s holiest book. He arrived to South Africa in 1991 where he started off in the reproduction business before working his way back to publishing, this time in magazines. In 1998 he launched Timbila, the South African National Parks magazine. In 2001 he launched Brainstorm, the magazine which still dominates the South African IT scene. In 2003 he left ITWeb to pursue other interests and in 2005 he launched the iconic Maverick magazine. In November 2007 he launched his fourth and final magazine, Empire, a media, arts and culture magazine....
Liz Corbin
Liz Corbin is Director of News at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), a career public service journalist and a leading advocate for trusted, high-quality journalism. Her tenure at the EBU has coincided with one of the most demanding periods for global news. She has overseen the radical expansion of the Eurovision News Exchange and led operations covering major global events, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the deaths of Queen Elizabeth II and Pope Francis, and two US presidential elections. Liz has driven a focused culture of innovation in the EBU newsroom. She launched an AI-powered exchange of online news content called A European Perspective; developed the EBU Investigative Journalism Network; strengthened the Eurovision News Events service for major stories where they happen; and commissioned influential EBU News reports on climate journalism and the impacts of generative AI on trusted news. In partnership with WAN-IFRA, Liz co-founded the News Integrity in the Age of AI initiative and its FACTS IN : FACTS OUT advocacy campaign, calling for AI tools that process news content fairly, transparently and accurately. Before joining the EBU, Liz spent 18 years at the BBC, most recently as Head of News at BBC World News. She also served as Editor of BBC Reality Check, leading a major team expansion, and as BBC Singapore Bureau Editor, where she built an integrated, multi-platform newsroom.
Liz Gibbons
Liz Gibbons is acting Controller of Global Journalism at the BBC World Service and Executive Editor of the BBC World Service’s Long Form and Investigations Department. Her teams produce the BBC Eye investigations strand, Global Eye on BBC Two, as well as a range of other documentaries and podcasts, and short form digital investigations focused on exposing disinformation campaigns across the globe. Previously Liz ran the BBC’s World News TV channel and is a former Deputy Editor of BBC Newsnight.
Jane Martinson
Jane Martinson is an author, academic and journalist. Her book on the secretive Barclay brothers, You May Never See Us Again – the Barclay Dynasty: A story of Survival, Secrecy and Succession, was published in October 2023 and selected as an FT business book of the year and Guardian book of the week. Her work has been shortlisted for a British Journalism Award, the Wincott financial journalist of the year award and the Rosemary Goodchild award. She is Professor of Financial Journalism at City, University of London, and a regular columnist for the Guardian. She also appears widely on radio and television talking about the media, business and women. A member of several journalism boards, she was for many years chair of Women in Journalism and still sits on the advisory board.
Alan Rusbridger
Alan Rusbridger is the editor of Prospect Magazine. Previously he was the editor-in-chief of The Guardian from 1995 to 2015 and the Principal of Lady Margaret Hall at the University of Oxford. He also chairs the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and sits on the Meta Oversight Board. In 2014 he received the Right Livelihood Award in Stockholm, the European Press Prize and the Ortega y Gasset Award in Madrid and led the Guardian to the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, shared with the Washington Post.