Justin Schlosberg and CAMRI host Media Democracy Festival 2026 at Westminster

The Media Democracy Festival returned to the University of Westminster on Saturday 27 June, bringing more than a day of panels, workshops and assemblies to the Marylebone campus under the theme of the future of public media.

Run annually by the Media Reform Coalition since 2015, the festival gathers academics, activists, journalists and policymakers to take stock of the media landscape and to build the case for a different one. Professor Justin Schlosberg, a former Chair and current member of the coalition’s coordinating committee, played a lead role in organising the event and in bringing it to Westminster for a second consecutive year, working with colleagues across CAMRI and the School of Media and Communication.

The future of public media framed the day at three levels: the opening panel, chaired by Lee Edwards, the afternoon People’s Assembly, and the closing keynote from Rachel Millward, Deputy Leader of the Green Party. The opening panel brought together Jaldeep Katwala, Tom Mills, Hannah Perry, Anna Shea, Liz Pendleton and Tom Chivers. Elsewhere the programme ranged across media ownership and corporate monopoly, the effects of Google and artificial intelligence on distribution, who pays for democratic media, media censorship, and the founding of a new Media Consumer Union. The People’s Assembly, hosted with Media Revolution, Extinction Rebellion, Trust the People and Assemble, was designed to turn the day’s arguments into strategy rather than to close it with a summary.

The 2027 festival is scheduled for Saturday 13 March in London.

Find out more: https://mediademocracyfestival.co.uk/programme/

Photo by Elimende Inagella on Unsplash