Emily Maitlis, one of the most respected British news broadcasters of the past two decades and the notorious Prince Andrew Newsnight interviewer, is to deliver this year’s prestigious James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival.Former Newsnight host Maitlis’ address, which will focus on the role TV has to play in speaking truth to power, will be her first since leaving the BBC as she prepares to front a Global podcast with former BBC North America Correspondent Jon Sopel.The multi-award-winning Maitlis is one of the most established British TV news faces of the past two decades, working for a number of networks, mainly the BBC, fronting popular podcasts and interviewing presidents, prime ministers, Hollywood A-listers and business leaders.She is known for her thorough interviewing style and an in-depth knowledge of a whole range of issues.
Perhaps her best moment came during the 2019 Prince Andrew interview over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal for Newsnight, which left the Prince in disgrace.Two projects are currently in the making about the interview, one from Maitlis herself with A Very English Scandal producer Blueprint Pictures and the other a feature adaptation of a chapter in former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister’s Scoop, revealed last month by Deadline.Maitlis described the MacTaggart news as an “honor beyond belief,” a “massive privilege but also a responsibility.”In a teaser of what’s to come, she added: “The need to hold power to account without fear or favour 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 recognise how and when it is happening in more subtle ways, closer to home.
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