Media Democracy Festival 2025 will see Sangita Myska, Zack Polanski, and others take on the MSM

On Saturday 31 May at London’s Fyvie Hall, leading commentators from UK media and politics will take the fight to Big Tech billionaires, expose the roots of disinformation and online toxicity, blow open the doors on revolutionising the BBC, and build the movement for a better media for all.

The Media Democracy Festival is an annual free public event that brings together journalists, activists, researchers and members of the public to debate how to collectively transform the media into a more independent, accountable, and democratic system that serves the public interest.

The Media Democracy Festival: a prestigious line-up

Ava Evans of PoliticsJOE, former BBC newsreader Karishma Patel, former Spectator editor Peter Oborne, Byline Times editor Hardeep Matharu, Declassified UK’s Mark Curtis, Novara Media’s Aaron Bastani, and Bristol Cable journalist Priyanka Raval are just some of the highlights in a prestigious line-up from UK journalism, politics, and activism.

This year’s Festival programme features radical and challenging discussions on:

• Big Tech vs. The People
• The wars you don’t see: the media’s failures on global conflict
• The state and the media: Resisting the new McCarthyism
• Oligarchs Inc: Who owns the UK media?
• Fighting isolation & bitterness in the online world
• Take back control: Building a media commons
• As well as workshops and training sessions on ethical journalism, media activism, and fighting the far-right hosted by Red Pepper Mag, shado and News Club UK.

Britain’s broken media: fighting back against Big Tech billionaires and broadcasting barons

Broadcaster and journalist Sangita Myska, who will provide the Festival’s opening keynote address, said:

I’m absolutely thrilled to be speaking at this year’s Media Democracy Festival to discuss Britain’s broken media and what we can do to fix it.

This is a dangerous moment for our democracy, with so much of the UK’s media dominated by Big Tech billionaires, unaccountable press and broadcasting barons, and online influencers spreading hate and disinformation.

We urgently need to confront the undemocratic concentrations of power that are distorting our media system, dividing our communities and harming the public interest.

The Media Democracy Festival will be an important event for exposing the biases and failures in the media, as well as a space for bringing people together to build a truly independent and trustworthy media that will hold the powerful to account.

The Media Democracy Festival is organised by the Media Reform Coalition, the UK’s leading campaign group for building a more independent, accountable, and democratic media. Previous Festival speakers include Jeremy Corbyn MP, Ash Sarkar, Michael Crick, Zarah Sultana MP, Owen Jones, Clive Lewis MP, the NUJ, Impress, the Public Interest News Foundation, and openDemocracy.

The Media Democracy Festival is organised in collaboration with University of Westminster’s Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), with support from Impress Media Services.

You can book your tickets for the event here.