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About Des Freedman

Des Freedman (@lazebnic) is Professor of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author of ‘The Contradictions of Media Power’ (2014) and co-author (with James Curran and Natalie Fenton) of ‘Misunderstanding the Internet’ (2nd edition, 2016).

Articles by Des Freedman

This week's editor

Mairi Mackay is openDemocracy’s senior editor.

Digital Liberties

How to fight for digital human rights?

European integration

Six countries. Six different paths to EU integration.

No to TTIP

The secretive EU-US trade deal explained

If dissensus is the new normal in Britain, we need a new media

Des Freedman 1 July 2016

An inquiry into the future of public service broadcasting in Britain launched its report days after the Brexit vote. It holds important clues to how we deal with the current breakdown of consensus.

The press didn’t divide us – we were already divided…

Des Freedman 27 June 2016

Britain's divisions weren't invented by the media.

New series: Anti-Austerity and Media Activism

Alejandro Abraham-Hamanoiel, Natalie Fenton, Des Freedman, and Gholam Khiabany 17 May 2016

Today we launch a new series, the latest collaboration between Goldsmiths and openDemocracyUK, exploring the role of media in both supporting austerity and empowering its opponents.

Decoding the BBC White Paper

Des Freedman 12 May 2016

Apocalyptic rumours followed by a row-back and relief. It's an age-old strategy, but what's the reality behind the government's BBC proposals?

This isn’t public policy: the prelude to the BBC White Paper

Des Freedman 4 May 2016

Debate about the BBC’s Charter Review has been dominated by leaks and rumours that ultimately play into the hands of commercial lobbyists. Where are the voices of licence-fee payers?

Be the media, know the media, change the media

Des Freedman 18 February 2016

We need to think bigger if we are to achieve the sort of media that the public want and need.

The growing gap between private and public in European broadcasting

Des Freedman 3 February 2016

We’re told the BBC is ‘too big’. Yet Britain is part of a Europe-wide trend where funding for public service is shrinking, while commercial revenue grows.

A family that plays together stays together: a happy holiday season for the UK’s political-media elite

Des Freedman 23 December 2015

Murdoch, Cameron, Osborne, Brooks - all the old gang met up for a heartwarming Christmas get together.

Paris and Beirut: journalism’s selective compassion

Des Freedman 18 November 2015

Is it editors, journalists or audiences to blame?

Corbyn can afford to sidestep the media but not their power

Des Freedman 17 September 2015

Corbyn needs a strategy to take on the media.

A guided tour through our series on 'liberalism in neoliberal times'

Des Freedman, Gholam Khiabany, Kate Nash, and Julian Petley 14 July 2015

We started the series with the proposition that liberalism is far too important to be left to the ‘liberals'. 38 articles later, what did we find?

Was it ‘the Sun wot won it’? Lessons from the 1992 and 2015 elections

Des Freedman 13 May 2015

Labour abandoned its pledge to tackle media concentration after its 1992 defeat. It should resist the urge to do so now.

Can we afford to ignore what Katie Hopkins says about migrants drowning in the Med?

Des Freedman 20 April 2015

The Sun columnist's violent words about the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean are indefensible. They should be condemned as hate speech.

Break big media monopolies and help new journalism projects—poll

Des Freedman 2 April 2015

Amid saturation media coverage of the coming UK general election, corporate control of big news organisations goes unquestioned. Yet if the public could vote on that, they'd change it.

The wider significance of Oborne’s resignation

Des Freedman 19 February 2015

Oborne's resigation raises multiple issues concerning journalistic integrity at a time when public trust in institutions is virtually non-existent. Will any of the big parties pledge serious media reform in their manifestos?

Charlie Hebdo tragedy: free speech and its broader contexts

Des Freedman 9 January 2015

This was a specific attack designed to sow division. We musn't let it.

Five reasons why Ed Miliband’s flirtation with the Sun was a disaster

Des Freedman 17 June 2014

Ed Miliband's decision to pose with the Sun was a strategic blunder.

Media ownership: the elephant in the room

Des Freedman 24 April 2014

The recent tabloid attacks on foodbanks shows once again why urgent reform of the media is so urgent.

Lords report does little to weaken media barons

Des Freedman 14 February 2014

Despite some positive noises the Lords Communications Committee's recent report does not go nearly far enough to address Britain's dysfunctional media.

Why the universities strikes are about more than just a ‘measly’ pay offer

Des Freedman 5 February 2014

It's not just the money, it's the direction our marketised universities are taking - enormous rewards at the top combined with a race to the bottom approach for all other staff, and a system of fees that is exacerbating inequality. It's wrong and we oppose it.

The press can't decide if they're for press freedom or against it

Des Freedman 18 October 2013

The same press attacking the Guardian for 'treason' are still raging against the press reform charter for encroaching on "press freedom". The hypocrisy aside, the British press should accept the will of parliament, the public and the press' victims.

A tale of two British summers: phone hacking and a royal baby

Des Freedman 23 July 2013

The royal birth is set to be the face of the 2013 summer, but to what extent does this reveal how little the media has changed since the phone hacking scandal in 2011? What happened to media reform?

Media corporations: too big to fail?

Des Freedman 20 December 2012

As with the banking system, Britain needs to shake up the way its media works as a whole: nothing less can tackle the unaccountable power of the industry giants.

Murdoch and the UK culture secretary: we shouldn't be surprised, we should be angry

Des Freedman 25 April 2012

James Murdoch's appearance before the Leveson Inquiry has revealed the complicity between the government and the media empire in pushing for the takeover of satellite broadcaster BSkyB. Independence was thrown to the wind in the gleeful rush towards de-regulation.

If the Sun hates attacks on press freedom, how must it despise itself!

Des Freedman 13 February 2012

The highest-selling daily paper in the UK is under arrest - or at least mounting numbers of its journalists and contacts are. But after colluding for decades in the assault on press freedom and independence, the Sun is in no position to play the victim.

Still hacked off with the media? Come join the campaign for UK media reform

Des Freedman 15 November 2011

The hacking scandal exposed corruption, illegality and immorality at the heart of the British media. A new committee, formed to push for wide-ranging media reform in the wake of the scandal, holds its first public meeting this week.

The BBC is not part of the problem raised by Hackgate

Des Freedman 20 September 2011

A strong, constructive response to Dan Hind's call yesterday for a democratic media policy and not a defense of the BBC - as the debate over Britain's inquiry into the future of its media get's hotter.

Hackgate and the Communications Review: two separate planets?

Des Freedman 11 July 2011

When the government launched its ongoing review of the UK communications sector, 'ethics' was not judged as part of its remit. Yet the hacking scandal has exposed the need for both the content and structure of British media to be radically re-thought

A Radical Manifesto for Higher Education

Des Freedman 3 June 2011

Our universities are under attack, with the Coalition determined to throw them to the mercy of the market. Support is growing for a Manifesto for Higher Education that sets out demands on universities and the government, but will it reignite the student movement?

The BBC Strategy Review: Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre responds

James Curran, Des Freedman, and Natalie Fenton 6 June 2010

Staff at the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre give their verdict on the BBC Strategy Review: its proposals "would lead to a reduction in quality, would signify a shrinking of ambition and would undermine the public space facilitated by the BBC"

Witnessing whose truth?

Des Freedman 26 February 2003

David Loyn’s assault on ‘peace journalism’ misses the target, argues the editor of a new book on war and the media. The real problem is corporate media’s coverage of conflict. Good, diverse reporting will best be ensured not by a clerisy of crusading truth-tellers, but via the sceptical engagement of millions of citizens.