“How women shape the news.” As we face a high -stakes election what role does modern media play? STARTS AT 6.30 with Drinks

With confirmed speakers Rachel Corp, WiJ chair and CEO of ITN; Beth Rigby, Sky News Political Editor; Debbie Ramsay, Editor of 5 News, Pippa Crerar, political editor of the Guardian and Channel 4 News Fact Check and Data Editor Georgina Lee.

In an election year, and with constantly breaking news stories, we meet the women responsible for bringing the news into people's home and reporting the events shaping our times.

Beth Rigby is political editor for Sky. She has worked as a political journalist for nearly a decade, covering two general elections, the Scottish independence and EU referendums. She has interviewed the biggest names in British politics, and broken exclusive stories around cabinet reshuffles, splits and the Brexit crisis.

Beth worked as a newspaper journalist for nearly two decades at The Times and Financial Times, where she held a variety of positions including media editor, deputy political editor and consumer industries editor.

A former financial journalist, she won awards for her work as the Financial Times' retail correspondent and hedge fund writer.

Debbie Ramsay worked at the BBC for 16 years. She was an Executive Editor at BBC News in charge of commissioning original journalism, and before that she was Head of Youth Journalism. Debbie had senior editorial roles at Radio 1 and 1Xtra, leading a large team of journalists to provide news for the BBC's flagship multi-platform youth outlets.

She began her career working on local newspapers in the northwest of England, before moving into local radio there and in Birmingham before going on to Capital FM in presenting and breakfast news editor roles. She now works at Channel 5.

Pippa Crerar was previously deputy Political Editor at The Guardian before her promotion to political editor and spent a decade covering London and Westminster politics for the Evening Standard, including the mayoralties of Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan. She was also the Political Editor of the Daily Mirror, based in Parliament.

Before Rachel Corp was appointed CEO of ITN, she was Editor of ITV News, produced by ITN, where she was responsible for the vision, strategy and direction for all of ITV’s national news programmes and digital output, as well as overseeing ITV News London, ITV News-produced Tonight programme episodes, current affairs series On Assignment, and special live programmes such as General Elections and Royal events. Rachel was appointed chair of WiJ in 2023.

This event is sponsored by Walkers & Cision.

Do you dread getting rejected when you pitch? Are you sick of it? Do you ever look at other freelancers and wonder what their secret is - why they get commissioned, and you don’t?

Over the years, this hugely popular masterclass from award-winning freelance journalist Donna Ferguson has helped many freelance print journalists to overcome their fear of rejection and learn how to turn their rejections into commissions.

It offers real life examples of some of the rejections that Donna has endured during her freelance career - and how she has learned, eventually, to turn them into commissions.

You will leave the session empowered not only to deal with all the rejection you face as a freelance print journalist, but all the negative thoughts that come with it, having gained a new perspective on the successes and failures of other freelancers. 

The session host is Donna Ferguson, a multiple award winning freelance journalist who is on the committee of Women in Journalism. Donna is a regular freelance writer for The Guardian and the Observer, writing for a plethora of different sections, including Observer magazine and the newsdesk.

She has won eight awards for her work as a freelance journalist and been shortlisted for 29 others, including most recently freelance journalist of the year 2023 at the inaugural Freelance Journalism awards.

She decided to go freelance ten years ago, after having a baby, and says that getting pregnant was the “best career move she ever made”, thanks to everything she has since achieved as a freelancer. She has never had a staff job on a national and started out with very few contacts, cold pitching all the editors that she now regularly writes for.

WOMEN IN WAR ZONES

2023 was the deadliest year in a decade for journalists working in conflict zones, with killings almost doubling compared to the past three years.

What is causing the increasing risks, and how is it changing the coverage of conflicts? Do female journalists face specific security concerns in hostile environments?

Considering the high number of journalists killed in the Gaza strip and the reporting restriction on that particular war, there couldn't be a more apt time for this discussion.

We'll be joined by Christina Lamb, Senior Foreign Correspondent for the Sunday Times, who has written extensively about the impact of sexual violence against women in war zones; Deborah Haynes, Defence Editor at Sky News and by Hind Hassan, international correspondent for VICE News. The discussion will be moderated by the journalist and broadcaster Barbara Serra and introduced by WiJ chair Rachel Corp.

Barbara Serra is an award-winning journalist, TV presenter, documentary-maker and author. She joined Sky News as a presenter in October 2023.
From 2006 to 2022 she anchored Al Jazeera English’s flagship NewsHour programme from the channel’s European headquarters in London, and reported extensively from Europe and the Middle East.

In 2020 Barbara co-produced, wrote and presented the documentary ‘Fascism in the Family’, which won both the ‘Current Affairs’ and ‘History’ categories at the New York Festival’s Film and Television awards.

Barbara writes a Substack Newsletter called ‘News with a Foreign Accent’, in which she explores the challenges of being second-language English and the impact that English as the global language has on the international media’s perception of world affairs.

Hind Hassan is a multi-Emmy Award winning international correspondent for VICE News, covering conflicts, humanitarian crises, and the most significant developing stories worldwide.

Since joining VICE News, Hassan has reported on wars and uprisings across the globe. Notably, she embedded with the Taliban in Afghanistan just months before the group's takeover of Kabul. She was on the ground in Jerusalem and Gaza, ahead of the military offensive on the Strip in 2021 and her team became the first journalists to independently confirm the use of cluster munitions against civilians in Azerbaijan during the battle over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Most recently, Hassan investigated the deteriorating security situation in the West Bank and covered Russia's war on Ukraine from the frontlines. She also filmed at the epicentre of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and has investigated an attempted prison break by ISIS in northern Syria. In November 2022, Hassan reported live from inside an armed bank raid while covering the economic crisis in Lebanon.

Hassan is a recipient of five News and Documentary Emmys as well as an Edward R. Murrow, Overseas Press Club of America and a Gracie award. She was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy for her work on the VICE on SHOWTIME series. 

Before joining VICE News, Hassan worked at Sky News and Al Jazeera.

Christina Lamb OBE is Chief Foreign Correspondent at The Sunday Times as well as a bestselling author.  

She has reported from most of the world’s hotspots from Afghanistan to Ukraine after an unexpected wedding invitation led her to Karachi in 1987 when she was just 21. She won numerous awards including six times being named Foreign Correspondent of the Year; as well as Europe’s top war reporting prize - the Prix Bayeux, and was recently given the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society of Editors and Outstanding Impact Award by Amnesty International for her work on ISIS camps in Syria.

She has always particularly focused on what happens to women in war and collected accounts of sexual violence in conflict from all over the world for her book Our Bodies, Their Battlefields; described by leading historian Antony Beevor as ‘the most powerful book’ he had ever read and shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, the Bailie Gifford and the Kapuscinski award.  

She has authored ten books including co-writing the global bestseller I Am Malala with Malala Yousafzai. She is a Global Envoy for UN Education Cannot Wait, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, an Honorary Fellow of University College Oxford, on the International Board of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting and an Associate of the Imperial War Museum.

SOLD OUT

Join Leah Boleto and WIJ as we sit for a fireside chat with Ash Sarkar.

The charismatic Ash Sarkar describes herself as anarcho-fabulous and a luxury-communist with the walk of a supermodel. An outspoken commentator on politics and the culture wars, her famous run-in with Piers Morgan went viral. She is contributing editor of Novara media, commentator on Newsnight and Question Time, as well as numerous other print and broadcast outlets. 

We explore what makes her tick, talk about the inspirational women in her family, the importance of humour as well as her love of good kebabs and Tottenham Hotspurs.

Leah Boleto is currently a reporter and presenter for Sky News.

Leah grew up in Tower Hamlets in East London, where she was told in a career chat that she should aim to work at Boots not the BBC. No offence to Boots of course.

Nonetheless Leah became a familiar face on BBC television for almost two decades fronting some of the corporations biggest natural history shows, tracking down the European eel for Autumnwatch to counting down Tim Peak to blast off to the International Space Station from the Science Museum.

Leah’s Journalism journey started with a flagship traineeship with Radio 1 Newsbeat before finding her home with the CBBC Newsround team where she covered presidential inaugurations, Olympic Games and World Cups.

Leah is now a freelance presenter working with Channel 5 News, Sky News and the BBC while managing two toddlers and Yorkshire terrier at home. She’s also one of the lead interviewers at the Henley Literary Festival.

Join us for drinks and networking after the event!

(Online)

In this unmissable masterclass, top print editors and successful freelance journalists share their tips about what editors do and do not want to see in freelance pitches. Aimed at both experienced and inexperienced freelancers, you will learn exactly what you should be including in your pitches and how you can sharpen them up.

(online)

Do you dread getting rejected when you pitch? Do you ever look at other freelancers and wonder what their secret is - why they get commissioned, and you don’t? Over the years, this hugely popular masterclass has helped many freelance print journalists to overcome their fear of rejection and learn how to turn their rejections into commissions.

Alison Gow, former head of digital innovation at Reach publishing, will be chairing our event on AI and the effects it will have on journalism- one of the most important discussions of our times in terms of jobs, ethics, influence and information.

Panellists are:
- Emma Byrne, is a journalist and scientist with a PhD in AI. When she’s not developing intelligent systems, she writes for Forbes, the FT, Wired, and the Guardian. She is co-host and exec-producer of NonFicPod and frequently appears on Sky News and the BBC talking about the future of artificial intelligence and
robotics.
- Charlie Beckett is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the LSE. He is the founding director of Polis, the London School of Economics' International Journalism Institute. He is currently leading the Google DNI Journalism
and AI research project. He was the leader of the 2018 LSE Truth, Trust and Technology Commission.
- Nic Newman is a journalist and digital strategist who played a key role in shaping the BBC's digital and internet services over more than a decade. He is now Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute.
- Marcus Ryder MBE is a leader on the issue of diversity in the UK media industry, backed by a track-record of award-winning news and current affairs productions. He is Head of External Consultancies for the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity

Our annual summer party is here.

Join the Women in Journalism summer celebration on July 11th at ITN to meet fellow members and journalists.

Tickets are £15 and this is a members only event.

Lorraine Candy is an award-winning journalist and editor. A former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, ELLE, and most recently Sunday Times Style, she began her career on The Cornish Times before going on to become Woman’s Editor at The Sun and then Features Editor at The Times. Her first book: Mum What’s Wrong With You: 101 Things Only the Mothers of Teenage Girls Know (published in 2021), is a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller.

She will be her talking about her career across newspapers and magazines, fashion and news. and also how she has reinvented her career in media in midlife, using her journalistic skills and life experience to write two books, create a podcast and become a social commentator.

Lorraine’s second book What’s Wrong With Me – 101 things midlife women need to know is a memoir and tackles career reinvention among other stuff . Her first book, Mum What’s Wrong With You was a Sunday Times best-seller about raising teenage girls.

As a mum of four she has over a decade of experience writing about parenting in national publications, including columns with the Sunday Times Magazine and Femail in the Daily Mail. She also writes for the monthly and weekly fashion and beauty magazines. Lorraine is co-host of the chart-topping lifestyle podcast Postcards from Midlife. She is on the advisory board at Tate Modern and on the Tate gallery membership council.

Lorraine is a champion of educating young girls, working on the media advisory board of the global charity Their World. She’s also an ambassador for the charity Women In Sport and the newly launched Menopause Charity.

Louise Court, WiJ Director of Events will be interviewing Lorraine. Louise's early journalism career included work as an entertainment writer at Express Newspapers, deputy editor of Prima, and assistant editor of Woman's Own. Louise was then deputy editor at Best magazine, becoming editor later, and was also editor of Cosmopolitan UK.