Product Code Database
Alan Charles Rusbridger (born 29 December 1953) is a British journalist and editor of Prospect magazine. He was formerly editor-in-chief of The Guardian and then principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
Rusbridger became editor-in-chief of The Guardian in 1995, having been a reporter and columnist earlier in his career. Rusbridger stood down from the post at the end of May 2015 and was succeeded by Katharine Viner.
From 2015 to 2021, Rusbridger was principal of Lady Margaret Hall in the University of Oxford. He was appointed chair of the university's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in 2016. In 2020, Rusbridger was announced as one of the first members of the Oversight Board created by Facebook, with his appointment as the incoming editor of Prospect magazine announced in July 2021. He is an amateur pianist and published Play It Again, a book about his story of rediscovering the joy of performing Chopin Ballade No. 1 later in his life.
He then joined The Guardian as a reporter, and subsequently wrote the paper's diary column and later became a feature writer. In November 1985, Rusbridger had a brief stint as a Royal reporter following the Prince and Princess of Wales around Melbourne. Fascinated by gadgets, at this stage he was already using a Tandy word processor and an early (slow) modem to file stories back to London.Alan Rusbridger "Alan Rusbridger – Editor, The Guardian" , Press Gazette, 23 November 2005. He left in 1986 to become TV critic of The Observer, then an entirely separate newspaper, before moving to America to be the Washington editor of the short-lived London Daily News in 1987.
After returning to The Guardian, he launched the "Weekend" supplement in 1988, followed by the paper's "G2" section. He became features editor in 1994.Stephen Armstrong "MEDIA: PROFILE; Guardian of journalistic integrity: Alan Rusbridger, Editor, the Guardian", PR Week, 11 October 1996.
As editor, he defended the paper against a number of high-profile defamation suits, including those from the Police Federation and the Conservative MPs, Neil Hamilton and Jonathan Aitken. In the case involving Hamilton and the lobbyist Ian Greer, he said: "They weren't going to fight us in the court so they tried to do it through the TV studio." Rusbridger countered them by being available for TV interviews over three days to ensure that their version of events did not gain precedence. Hamilton's case collapsed shortly before a court hearing, while Aitken was demonstrated to have perjured himself, and served a prison sentence as a result.Alan Rusbridger "The long, slow road to libel reform". The Guardian, 10 May 2011.
Seen early in his editorship as a modernising new broom, he commented in June 1997 shortly after the election of Tony Blair's first New Labour government that the "old" Guardian: "opposed lots of things the Tories did which we'd now think weren't terribly bad in retrospect ... I mean, a lot of the trade union stuff doesn't seem as horrendous now as it seemed at the time."Rob Brown "New Government! New Guardian! Alan Rusbridger is shaking up his staff with Blairite conviction". The Independent, 2 June 1997. From around 1997, he oversaw the launch and development of the newspaper's website, initially known as Guardian Unlimited.
Until May 2016, he was a member of the board of Guardian News and Media, of the main board of the Guardian Media Group and of the Scott Trust, which owns The Guardian and The Observer, of which he was executive editor. Rusbridger received £471,000 in pay and benefits in 2008–2009, but then volunteered to a series of pay cuts, bringing his revenue to £395,000 in fiscal year 2012.
He expanded the publishing bases of the paper, opening American and Australian editions.
The Guardian shared the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service with The Washington Post. The Pulitzer committee praised The Guardian for its "revelation of widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency, helping through aggressive reporting to spark a debate about the relationship between the government and the public over issues of security and privacy". Edward Snowden said his actions in leaking the documents that formed the basis of the reporting "would have been meaningless without the dedication, passion, and skill of these newspapers".
On 3 December 2013, Rusbridger gave evidence before a Home Affairs Select Committee hearing on counterterrorism at the UK Parliament with regard to the publication of information leaked by Snowden. In its report, the Committee said that Rusbridger gave "open and transparent evidence", while National Security Adviser and MI5 officials declined.
In the film The Fifth Estate (2013), about The Guardians former association with the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Rusbridger was portrayed by Peter Capaldi. In Oliver Stone's 2016 movie, Snowden, Rusbridger played a cameo part of a TV interviewer.
Rusbridger was to have succeeded Liz Forgan as chair of the Scott Trust in September 2016, "Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger to step down next summer", telegraph.co.uk, 10 December 2014Media Mole "Alan Rusbridger stepping down as Guardian editor-in-chief", New Statesman website, 10 December 2014 but announced on 13 May 2016 that he would not take up the post. The expansion in the later years of Rusbridger's editorship led to unsustainable losses and several hundred job cuts were planned. According to a report in The Times in April 2016, staff were opposed to Rusbridger returning. Viner and chief executive David Pemsel were also opposed to Rusbridger becoming chair of the Scott Trust.
Announcing the scheme, Rusbridger wrote: "there are groups of young people today who are markedly under-represented at Oxford, even if it is not quite right to call them "excluded". They are as bright, resourceful and determined as anyone who has succeeded in getting here, but many things may have conspired to stop them even considering Oxford as an option."
The move was welcomed by the Vice Chancellor of Oxford, Louise Richardson. She told The Guardian: "One of the many advantages of the collegiate system is that it allows us to engage in a small scale pilot like this to help us identify innovative ways to recruit under-represented groups. I wish the programme at Lady Margaret Hall every success."
The fully funded scheme was launched in October 2016 with the first 10 students, and each year since between 8 and 10 years students have taken part.
Cambridge University announced it would be starting its own fully-funded Foundation year scheme. The first 42 students were admitted in October 2022. Oxford University announced it would also be starting a Foundation Year, involving 10 colleges, to start in 2023.
The Times article also details the accounts of eight other students whose experiences corroborate that of the original student. Repeated failures are detailed by the students who felt let down by the college's welfare and safeguarding systems and the responses of staff to allegations of sexual assault while Rusbridger was Principal.
The-then Acting Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Christine Gerrard, said "LMH has recognised that there is scope for improvement in our non-academic disciplinary procedures, which includes how the college deals with allegations of sexual assault and harassment. We have established a working party, with external members, which is currently reviewing these procedures" and agreed to become the first Oxford University college to sign the government backed Can't Buy My Silence pledge to not use non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
In response to the article, the Charity Commission announced it was in urgent contact with the college over its failure, as a registered charity, to make a "serious incident report" when the original assault was reported. Michelle Donelan, then Minister of State for Higher and Further Education, said the college's decision was "morally bankrupt" and Lady Margaret Hall should be "ashamed".
He is an amateur pianist and performed Chopin's Ballade No. 1 for the television channel More4 in "Rusbridger vs Chopin", where he speaks about the difficulties of taking on a piece considered by many professional pianists as daunting.
Rusbridger appears in the 2016 film Snowden, with a cameo role as a meeting moderator.
He has written three children's books, as well as being the co-author (with Ronan Bennett) of a BBC drama, Fields of Gold.
In 2014, he received the Special Award from the European Press Prize for his leading role in the NSA revelations. "Guardian editor receives European Press award for Edward Snowden story", The Guardian, 17 March 2014. In 2020, he joined its panel of judges.
On 29 September 2020, the office of the Irish Taoiseach announced that Rusbridger was to be a member of Ireland's Future of Media Commission, a body to make recommendations about the future of the country's news media. Máiría Cahill called upon Rusbridger to resign from this position because in October 2014 The Guardian carried an article critical of her claims to have been a victim of sexual abuse by a former IRA member. The reporter was Roy Greenslade who, at the time, had not acknowledged that he was an IRA supporter who wrote under the pseudonym 'George King' for the newspaper An Phoblacht for many years. Rusbringer said: "I did not read this piece either before or after publication" but his company email address had responded to complaints about the article which Rusbringer said was a "managing editor" acting on his behalf; there was no mention of such an editor in a single email from his address. Rusbridger announced his resignation from the commission on 14 March 2021.
Rusbridger is to be played by Toby Jones in an upcoming ITV drama about the News International phone hacking scandal, The Hack, by the team which made Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
Isabella is a journalist and author, known professionally as Bella Mackie to distinguish herself from her father. Her novel How to Kill Your Family, released in June 2021, became a Sunday Times bestseller and sold over a million copies. She is married to BBC Radio 1 presenter Greg James.
Rusbridger received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Lincoln in September 2009, from the University of Kingston in January 2010 and from the University of Oslo in September 2014.
He was one of the 2014 recipients of the Right Livelihood Award.
|
|
