Five of Scotland's most promising young journalists have secured a place at a leading international media conference. All currently students at Scottish universities, they will take part in the British Council's Future News Worldwide programme at Thomson Reuters Headquarters in London this week (July 15-17).
Michael Conway (University of Stirling), Amy Duffy (Glasgow Clyde College), Titilayo Farukuoye (University of Strathclyde), Joshua Martin (University of Stirling) and Sam Ormiston (University of Stirling) were selected from a highly competitive field of more than 3,000 applicants. They will be among 100 conference delegates from 53 countries who will get rare access to the latest insights from current media leaders while building their own international connections.
Future News Worldwide is developed by the British Council in partnership with leading news and digital media organisations to identify, train and connect the next generation of top international journalists.
Delegates will learn from some of the most experienced and respected international editors, broadcasters and reporters, including Christina Lamb from the Sunday Times and Channel 4's Jon Snow, and take part in workshops with Google News and Facebook.
Three of the conference sessions will be streamed on Facebook Live via the British Council’s page, allowing anyone in the world to take part for free.
As the media itself is increasingly the subject of news headlines, the event presents a timely opportunity to focus on the universal values of objectivity, balance and evidence that underpin the profession. Topics under the lens will include media freedom and responsibility; truth and transparency; empowering audiences and challenging cynicism.
The event folllows last week’s signing in London of a global pledge to defend media freedom as a result of the UK and Canadian government’s working togehter to improve the safety of journalsists around the world.