BBC Alum Emily Maitlis to Deliver MacTaggart Lecture

Award-winning journalist, author, podcaster and broadcaster Emily Maitlis, formerly with the BBC, will deliver the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the 2022 Edinburgh TV Festival.

In her address, Maitlis will cover the complex world of modern journalism, where the threat to reporting the news and holding power to account across the globe includes intimidation and censorship, as well as language normalizing the extraordinary.

Maitlis’s career in news broadcasting has seen her work for multiple news outlets, including NBC Asia, TVB, Channel 4 and Sky. She was part of the BBC’s news team for more than 15 years, covering some of the biggest stories and anchoring its flagship news program, Newsnight. Notably, she spoke exclusively to Prince Andrew about his links to Jeffrey Epstein.

Maitlis is now with Global, where she is building on the success of the Americast podcast. She will team with Jon Sopel for a new project under the Global banner.

Previous James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture speakers include Michaela Coel, Dorothy Byrne, Ted Turner, Armando Iannucci, Rupert Murdoch, Dennis Potter, Jon Snow, Elisabeth Murdoch, David Olusoga and Jack Thorne.

“The list of extraordinary people who have given this lecture before me makes this an honor beyond belief,” Maitlis said. “It is a massive privilege—but also a responsibility to get this right. The need to hold power to account without fear or favor is more urgent than ever before. We are good at documenting censorship and intimidation of journalists around the world. But we are sometimes too slow to recognize how and when it is happening in more subtle ways, closer to home. In many places, the political actors, their style of communication and their relationship with the truth has changed.”

Fatima Salaria, the festival’s executive chair, added, “Emily Maitlis has delivered the news into our living rooms for over 20 years but could never be described as a news reader. Sharper and edgier than was comfortable for her last employer, she is happiest when cracking open a story and not just reporting it. Fans not just of her Prince Andrew encounter but Newsnight, Americast and her best-selling book Airhead will want to hear her take on truth, power and impartiality in what promises to be a challenging and insightful MacTaggart.”