Michael is a journalist and educator whose assignments have taken him around the globe. His writing has earned him several Pulitzer Awards. Michael is Professor of Journalism a USC.
Michael Parks
Archives: JudgesTTTT
Paul Anderson
Paul is a former Editor of Tribune and former Deputy Editor of New Statesman. He was Director of Undergraduate Journalism at City University London for more than 10 years. He is the author of Orwell in Tribune: As I Please and other writings
Robin Lustig
Robin is a journalist and broadcaster who most notably presented Newshour on BBC World Service and The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4. He has won a number of awards, including the 1998 Sony Silver Award for Talk/News Broadcaster of the Year. In 2013 he received the Charles Wheeler award for outstanding contribution to broadcast journalism.
Robert McCrum
Robert served as literary editor of The Observer for more than ten years. In May 2008 he was appointed Associate Editor of The Observer. He was formerly Editor-in-Chief at Faber & Faber from 1990 to 1996.
Trevor Phillips
Trevor is the former Labour chairman of the London Assembly, former Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, previously a television executive and presenter as well as writer and a journalist. He was awarded and OBE in 1999 for his work highlighting the perceived chasms between ethnic groups.
Sue MacGregor
Sue joined the BBC in 1967 as a reporter for The World At One before going on to host Woman’s Hour for 15 years. She worked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme until 2002 but continued to broadcast for the BBC until 2010, services for which she was awarded her CBE.
Chris Mullin
Chris Mullin is an author, a journalist and a politician. He was MP for Sunderland South for 23 years; a minister in three departments and chairman of the Home Affairs select committee. As a writer Chris’ books include three highly acclaimed volumes of diaries, the latest of which is A walk on part. He has also written three novels. As a journalist he has contributed to all major outlets and many more. Chris is chairman for the Heritage Lottery Fund North East and judged the Man Booker Prize in 2011.
Nicholas Timmins
Nicholas is former Public Policy Editor of the Financial Times and author of The Five Giants; A Biography of the Welfare State He now works with The King’s Fund, an independent charity working to improve health and health care in England. Nicholas is also a senior fellow at the Institute for Government, a senior associate of the Nuffield Trust, and a visiting professor in public management at King’s College London.
Jo Glanville
Jo is the Director of English PEN, the worldwide fellowship of writers promoting free expression and the literature across frontiers. Jo worked as a BBC current affairs editor for eight years and she is the former editor of award winning Index on Censorship
Arifa Akbar
Arifa Akbar is deputy literary editor and arts writer at The Independent where she has worked since 2001. She led the reporting team after the 7 July bombings in London, for which The Independent was shortlisted for a Press Gazette award. Arifa has chaired author interviews at Asia House and the South Asian Literary Festival.
Baroness Joan Bakewell
Joan is a star broadcaster and writer as well as a Labour Party life peer. Working on several programmes Joan has interviewed literary greats including Alan Ginsberg and regularly contributes opinion to many national press outlets. Joan was appointed CBE in 1999 and promoted to DBE in 2008. She is the author of several books including The View from Here: Life at Seventy and her autobiography The Centre of the Bed. Her latest book is She’s Leaving Home. Between 2008 and 2010 Joan acted as a Voice of Older People.
Nikita Lalwani
Nikita is the author of 2008 Desmond Elliot prize winning Gifted. She donated her prize money to human rights organisation Liberty. Her latest book is The Village. Nikita is a guest lecturer of Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Sean Dodson
Sean is a a senior lecturer of Journalism at Leeds Metropolitan University and Worcester University. He has contributed to the Guardian for ten years and recently wrote a chapter of this year’s The Phone Hacking Scandal: Journalism on Trial.
Hopi Sen
Hopi has been shortlisted and longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Blogs. He started working for the Labour Party in 2000 (after ‘escaping a lucrative career in advertising’) as northern region press officer, and later in other roles including head of campaigns for the Parliamentary Labour Party. He now works for a member of the House of Lords.
Ian Hargreaves
Ian is professor of digital economy at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. He worked for the Financial Times for 11 years before joining the BBC as managing editor, and then director, of News and Current Affairs. He rejoined the FT as deputy editor before leaving to edit The Independent in 1994 and the New Statesman in 1996. He conducted the Hargreaves Review of intellectual property and growth, the report, Digital Opportunity, being published in May 2011, and wrote Journalism: A Very Short Introduction (2005).
Brian Cathcart
Brian won the Orwell Prize for Books in 2000 for The Case of Stephen Lawrence. Now the professor in journalism at Kingston University, he was previously deputy editor and foreign editor of the Independent on Sunday and has written for outlets including The Independent, Financial Times, New Statesman,The Big Issue, The Guardian and Index on Censorship. He was specialist adviser to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee’s inquiry into press standards, privacy and libel (2008-10) and is one of the founders of theHacked Off campaign.
Sameer Rahim
Sameer has worked in literary journalism for five years, reviewing both fiction and non-fiction. He currently works as assistant books editor at the Daily Telegraph. He was a judge for the 2011 Forward Prize for poetry.
Helena Kennedy
Helena is a barrister and an expert in human rights law, civil liberties and constitutional issues. She is a member of the House of Lords, chair of Arts and Business, produced the Power Report (2006) and was a founding member of Charter 88 and previously chair of the British Council. She is a board member of the Media Standards Trust, a trustee of the British Museum and the Booker Prize Foundation, and patron of many charities. Her book, Just Law, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2005.