Dorothy Byrne appointed as Visiting Fellow

We are pleased to announce that Dorothy Byrne, Editor at Large at Channel 4, has joined the Reuters Institute as a Visiting Fellow during this term. Dorothy is one of the most senior journalists in the UK and she have just stepped down from her role as Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4.

Dorothy has some familiarity with the institute. She held a seminar for our Journalist Fellows in October. In her talk, she championed the role of BAME (Black and ethnic minority) staff and other marginalised groups stating: “If you want a successful newsroom, it has to be representative of the diversity of your population in terms of gender, sexuality, disability and ethnicity.”

While at the Reuters Institute, she will explore the importance of public service television journalism, the need for plurality of television news programmes and the relationship between television journalists and politicians.

Dorothy began as a journalist on local papers before working on investigative television programmes on ITV, including World in Action. She later moved to Channel 4’s Dispatches series, becoming Head of News and Current Affairs in 2003.

She is an acclaimed figure in British television broadcasting. She won the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Journalism awards in 2018. Programmes that she has worked on have received Emmy, BAFTA and RTS awards.

Meera Selva, the Director of the Journalist Fellowship Programme, welcomed Dorothy to the Reuters Institute: "We are delighted to have Dorothy Byrne as a Visiting Fellow. She has been a clear and impressive voice on the value of public sector broadcasting as well as on the importance of diversity in newsrooms."

If you want to know more... 

• Watch Dorothy Byrne's seminar last October here.  
• Read the transcript of that seminar in this link.