The Inquiry is based at Media and Communications department, Goldsmiths, University of London.

Professor Des Freedman, Project Lead

Des Freedman is Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research focuses mainly on the relationship between media and power together with the political and economic contexts of media policymaking and regulation. Des is the author of 'The Television Policies of the Labour Party 1951 – 2001' (2003),'The Politics of Media Policy' (2008), 'The Contradictions of Media Power' (2014) and is the co-author of 'Misunderstanding the Internet' (with James Curran and Natalie Fenton) (2nd edition, 2016). He is a regular contributor to openDemocracy and is a former chair of the Media Reform Coalition.

Professor James Curran

James Curran is Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is Director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre, supported by a £1.25 million grant from the Leverhulme Trust. He has written or edited 22 books about the media, some in collaboration with others. These include Media and Democracy (2011), Power Without Responsibility (with Jean Seaton), 7th edition, (2010), Media and Society, 5th edition, (2010) and Media and Power (2002) (translated into five languages). His latest book is Misunderstanding the Internet (with Natalie Fenton and Des Freedman) (2012), arising from Leverhulme funded research.

Janie Ironside Wood, Head of Communications

Janie is a Communications consultant of many years standing, specialising in media relations, crisis management, external and internal communications for UK broadcasting organisations. She has worked at the BBC, where she held a number of different roles including Director of Communications for BBC Worldwide; Director of Marketing, Communications & Audiences for BBC News and Head of Communications for the BBC Academy. She has also worked for ITN, GMTV, TV-am and was a director of Namara Cowan PR Agency. She is also a certified executive coach and workplace mediator.

Natasha Cox, Media Manager

Natasha is a television and documentary producer working in London. She has produced documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV arts department - as well as contributing to the award winning film, (Still) The Enemy Within released in 2014. She has written articles for Open Democracy and the Guardian's CIF site about journalism and the media. Natasha's submission to the inquiry about the condition of television's independent sector can be found here: http://futureoftv.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Natasha-Cox.pdf

Dr Vana Goblot, Research Associate

Vana lectures at Goldsmiths, University of London. She worked previously as translator and journalist in the UK, and broadcast journalist in former Yugoslavia. Her PhD, which she completed in 2013, examines issues of quality, cultural value and public service television in the digital, multiplatform age, using the case study of BBC Four.