Dorothy Byrne

Last updated

Dorothy Byrne
Dorothy Byrne.jpg
Born1953 (age 7071)
Nationality British
Alma mater Manchester University
Occupation President of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge
Known forHead of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4 Television

Dorothy Byrne, FRTS (born 1953, Scotland), [1] serves as President of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, since 2021.

Contents

Previously Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4 Television for 15 years, [2] during which time her programmes won numerous Royal Television Society, BAFTA and Emmy awards, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Television Society for her outstanding contribution to television and has won several major television awards including the RTS Journalism Award. In 2019, Byrne delivered the prestigious MacTaggart Lecture [3] at the Edinburgh Television Festival in which she criticised politicians for lying and failing to be held to account.

Background

The daughter of Charles and Agnes Byrne, [4] she was educated at Layton Hill Convent, Blackpool, [5] before going up to read philosophy at Manchester University (BA Hons), then business studies at Sheffield University (Diploma). [4] [6]

Career

Byrne was producer of World in Action (ITV), 1992–95, and editor of The Big Story (ITV), 1995–98. In 1998 she was appointed Commissioning Editor of Current Affairs and editor of Dispatches at Channel 4. In 2003 she was appointed Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4. She stepped down in 2020 and was appointed Editor-at-Large of Channel 4 Television. [4]

From 2005 to 2016, she was a Visiting Professor at the School of Journalism of the University of Lincoln. [4] Since 2016, she has been a Visiting Professor at De Montfort University. [4] In 2019, she delivered both the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival and the Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture at the University of Manchester. [7] In 2020, she was elected a Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford. [8]

In December 2020, Byrne was elected as the sixth President of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. [5] She took up the appointment on 17 September 2021, following the retirement of Dame Barbara Stocking. [9]

Byrne has received honorary doctorates from her almae matres  : Hon. LittD (University of Sheffield ) in 2018 and Hon. LittD (University of Manchester) in 2021. [10] She also received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University from the University of the West of Scotland in 2022, [11] and is an Honorary Graduate of the University of Portsmouth.

In November 2019, Byrne published Trust Me, I'm Not a Politician, an essay asking how our trust in democracy and public life can be regained.

On 2 June 2024 Byrne was interviewed on BBC Radio 3's progamme Private Passions, with her choice of music that has been significant in her life, many details of her personal biography, and her concern over the lack of women in high office:"we need more old women everywhere." (available as a podcast). [12]

Ahmadinejad's alternative Christmas message

In a statement of December 2008, Byrne defended Channel 4's invitation to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, to deliver the channel's "alternative Christmas message": "As the leader of one of the most powerful states in the Middle East, President Ahmadinejad's views are enormously influential. ... we are offering our viewers an insight into an alternative world view". [13] The Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, said: "In Iran, converts to Christianity face the death penalty. It is perverse that this despot is allowed to speculate on the views of Jesus, while his government leads Christ's followers to the gallows." [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colleges of the University of Cambridge</span>

The University of Cambridge is composed of 31 colleges in addition to the academic departments and administration of the central university. Until the mid-19th century, both Cambridge and Oxford comprised a group of colleges with a small central university administration, rather than universities in the common sense. Cambridge's colleges are communities of students, academics and staff – an environment in which generations and academic disciplines are able to mix, with both students and fellows experiencing "the breadth and excellence of a top University at an intimate level".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest Walton</span> Irish physicist (1903–1995)

Ernest Thomas Sinton WaltonMRIA was an Irish physicist and Nobel laureate who first split the atom. He is best known for his work with John Cockcroft to construct one of the earliest types of particle accelerator, the Cockcroft–Walton generator. In experiments performed at Cambridge University in the early 1930s using the generator, Walton and Cockcroft became the first team to use a particle beam to transform one element to another. According to their Nobel Prize citation: "Thus, for the first time, a nuclear transmutation was produced by means entirely under human control".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiona Mactaggart</span> British politician

Fiona Margaret Mactaggart is a British politician and former primary school teacher who has been chair of the Fawcett Society since 2018. A member of the Labour Party, she was member of parliament (MP) for Slough from 1997 to 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws</span> Scottish barrister, broadcaster, and politician (born 1950)

Helena Ann Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws,, is a Scottish barrister, broadcaster, and Labour member of the House of Lords. She was Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, from 2011 to 2018. A Bencher of Gray's Inn, an Honorary Writer to the Signet and the recipient of 42 Honorary Degrees from many universities including those of Glasgow and Edinburgh in recognition of work on women and the law and on widening participation in higher education. She is President of Justice, the law reform think tank and currently is director of the International Bar Association's Institute of Human Rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Onora O'Neill</span> British philosopher & college principal

Onora Sylvia O'Neill, Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve, is a British philosopher and a crossbench member of the House of Lords.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murray Edwards College, Cambridge</span> College of the University of Cambridge

Murray Edwards College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1954 as New Hall and renamed in 2008. The name honours a gift of £30 million by alumna Ros Edwards and her husband Steve, and the first President and woman Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Rosemary Murray.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond</span> British judge (born 1945)

Brenda Marjorie Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond,, is a British judge who served as President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from 2017 until her retirement in 2020.

Dame Linda Jane Colley, is an expert on British, imperial and global history from 1700. She is currently Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University and a long-term fellow in history at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala. She previously held chairs at Yale University and at the London School of Economics. Her work frequently approaches the past from inter-disciplinary perspectives.

The Edinburgh International Television Festival is an annual media event held in the United Kingdom each August which brings together delegates from the television and digital world to debate the major issues facing the industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Maitlis</span> British journalist (born 1970)

Emily Maitlis is a British journalist and former newsreader for the BBC. She was the lead anchor of the BBC Two news and current affairs programme Newsnight until the end of 2021, and is currently a presenter of the daily podcast The News Agents on LBC Radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Murray, Baron Murray of Newhaven</span> British academic (1903–1993)

Keith Anderson Hope Murray, Baron Murray of Newhaven, KCB was a British academic and Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.

Eileen Cooper is a British artist, known primarily as a painter and printmaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Henderson (biologist)</span> British biologist

Richard Henderson is a British molecular biologist and biophysicist and pioneer in the field of electron microscopy of biological molecules. Henderson shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017 with Jacques Dubochet and Joachim Frank. "Thanks to his work, we can look at individual atoms of living nature, thanks to cryo-electron microscopes we can see details without destroying samples, and for this he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry."

John Joseph Haldane is a British philosopher, commentator and broadcaster. He is a former papal adviser to the Vatican. He is credited with coining the term 'analytical Thomism' and is himself a Thomist in the analytic tradition. Haldane is associated with The Veritas Forum and is the current chair of the Royal Institute of Philosophy.

Jean Duthie Beggs CBE FRS FRSE DSc is a Scottish geneticist. She is the Royal Society Darwin Trust Professor in the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh.

Julia Mary Howard Smith, is Chichele Professor of Medieval History at All Souls College, Oxford. She was formerly Edwards Professor of Medieval History at the University of Glasgow.

Sarah Corp was a British television producer who worked for ITN's Channel 4 News. She specialised in foreign affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Tarrant</span> British classical scholar

Dorothy Tarrant (1885–1973) was a British classical scholar, specialising in Plato. She was the first female Professor of Greek in the United Kingdom, teaching at Bedford College, London from 1909 to 1950. She researched the work of Plato, pioneering the use of stylistic analysis to conclude that he had not written all the work previously attributed to him. She was active in the Classical Association and became its first woman president in 1958. She was also an active Unitarian and campaigned especially against alcohol, becoming the president of the Unitarian Temperance Association, the Unitarian Assembly and the Unitarian College.

April Mary Scott McMahon is a British academic administrator and linguist, who is Vice President for Teaching, Learning and Students at the University of Manchester.

References

  1. "Age shall not weary Dorothy Byrne's wisdom... or her sharp tongue | Vanessa Thorpe". the Guardian. 24 August 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  2. Owen Gibson, "Outraged of Horseferry Road", The Guardian , 12 March 2007.
  3. The Mactaggart Lecture, Edinburgh Television Festival 2019. "The Mactaggart Lecture". Edinburgh TV Festival, YouTube.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Byrne, Dorothy, Head of News and Current Affairs, Channel 4 Television, since 2004". Who's Who 2021 . Oxford University Press. 1 December 2020. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U245246 . Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  5. 1 2 Murray Edwards College: "Dorothy Byrne elected as next President" 16 December 2020
  6. "Ms Dorothy Byrne". Murray Edwards College. University of Cambridge. 27 August 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  7. "Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture 2019: Trust me, I'm not a politician". StaffNet. The University of Manchester. 21 May 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  8. "Dorothy Byrne appointed as Visiting Fellow". Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. University of Oxford. 12 May 2020. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  9. "Dorothy Byrne admitted as President of Murray Edwards College". Murray Edwards College. University of Cambridge. 16 September 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  10. www.manchester.ac.uk
  11. www.uws.ac.uk
  12. Radio Times 1-7 June 2024 page 12
  13. "President of Iran to give message this Christmas". Channel 4. 24 December 2008. Archived from the original on 27 December 2008.
  14. "Anger at Iran president's Channel 4 broadcast". The Irish Times. 25 December 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
Academic offices
Preceded by President,
Murray Edwards College, Cambridge

2021present
Incumbent