Global leaders in journalism gathered for an annual summit in honour of the late, great Durham University graduate Sir Harry Evans.
The third Sir Harry Evans Investigative Journalism Summit was held at the Royal Institute of British Architects, in London, on Wednesday 7 May.
The annual meeting is part of a partnership between Sir Harry’s widow Tina Brown CBE and her family, the news agency Reuters, and ourselves.
The Sir Harry Evans Memorial Fund also includes a prestigious Fellowship in Investigative Journalism, this year held by New Zealand-based journalist Pete McKenzie.
Sir Harry was famous for his campaigning journalism, including as editor of The Times and Sunday Times. In 2002, he was voted by his peers as the greatest newspaper editor of all time. He died in 2020, aged 92.
This year’s Global Summit, known as Truth Tellers, featured: Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the late Russian opposition leader; Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, who was inadvertently added to a group chat with US Government officials discussing air strikes in Yemen; and senior representatives of the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Guardian, Sky News and others.
Our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Karen O’Brien, spoke of the relationship between academia and investigative journalism as one of truth keepers and truth tellers. Higher education, she said, is under attack – whether through “law-fare, regulation-fare or vindictive defunding”.
If we have not done so sufficiently, now is the time for the world’s responsible and courageous truth seekers to make ourselves clear and heard. So let’s begin.
She highlighted that more than 650 US college and university presidents had written to President Trump to ask for constructive engagement and respect for, in their words: “the pursuit of truth… without fear of retribution, censorship or deportation”, but to no avail.
Asking how the higher education had reached such a position, Professor O’Brien said the sector had too often talked to itself, in idioms that many do not share, and the sector had much to learn from the Truth Tellers community with its vibrant spirit of common purpose, mutual support and constantly adaptive quest for audiences, meaningfully engaged in new ways.
Reminding her audience or Sir Harry’s question and book title ‘Do I make myself clear?’, she concluded: “If we have not done so sufficiently, now is the time for the world’s responsible and courageous truth seekers to make ourselves clear and heard. So let’s begin.”
Professor Karen O'Brien, Vice-Chancellor.
From left: Alessandra Galloni, Editor-in-Chief, Reuters; Tina Brown CBE, Editor, author and widow of Sir Harry Evans; Pete McKenzie, 2025 Sir Harry Evans Global Fellow in Investigative Journalism; and Professor Karen O'Brien, Vice-Chancellor of Durham University.
Tina Brown CBE, speaking at the Truth Tellers Summit.
Alessandra Galloni, Editor-in-Chief, Reuters, speaking at the Truth Tellers Summit.
Jeffrey Goldberhg, Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, in discussion with Tina Brown CBE at the Truth Tellers Summit.
Professor Karen O'Brien, Vice-Chancellor (second right), with from left: Isla Mustin and William Milne, co-editors of the Durham student newspaper Palatinate; Alexandra McNinch, and professors Tim Luckhurst, Claire O'Malley, Lucian Hudson, and Gretchen Larsen.
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