C4 news boss to deliver MacTaggart

The head of news and current affairs at the UK’s Channel 4 will deliver the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at next month’s Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Dorothy Byrne

Dorothy Byrne, one of the longest-serving commissioning heads in the industry, will be the sixth woman to give the event’s keynote speech, named in honour of the Scottish television producer, director and writer who died in 1974. The festival takes place in Scotland’s capital city from between August 21 to 23.

Before taking up her current role, Emmy-, Bafta- and Royal Television Society (RTS) Award-winning journalist Byrne edited commercially funded pubcaster C4’s documentary strand, Dispatches. Prior to that, she was a producer for ITV current affairs show World in Action.

Byrne was made a fellow of the RTS for her “outstanding contribution to television” and received the Outstanding Contribution gong at the RTS Journalism Awards last year.

Byrne’s speech will focus on whats she sees as the failure of television to rise to the challenges of our times and put forward big, controversial ideas about society. She will also reflect on how male behaviour has changed during her time in the industry.

Previous media figures who have delivered the MacTaggart Lecture include News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch, C4 newsreader Jon Snow and actor and writer Michaela Coel.