Prof Kurt Barling

Professor Kurt Barling (Academic, Broadcaster, Author)

I began my career as an academic at theLondon School of Economics where I was a lecturer and researcher in InternationalRelations.  In 1989 I began a career as aBBC journalist and over a 26-year career I worked in war zones, covered faminesand natural disasters, reporting from dozens of countries worldwide, cheatingdeath on at least one occasion.  Iinterviewed scores of senior politicians including Presidents and Ministers(including the only British interview with President Francois Mitterrand),senior military and business figures as well as some of the most notoriouscriminals in recent British history.  Iam most proud of the number of awards I received for reporting on issues ofdiversity from Africa, the Caribbean, North America and Europe.

I became a journalist after gettingcaught up in the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots, on which subject I reportedregularly over many years including the award-winning ‘Who Killed PC Blakelock?’BBC drama-documentary in 2005.  I waspart of the team responsible for the first BBC documentary made from the formerEast Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and spent 25years working across News and Current Affairs. Most notably I reported and produced for Assignment, The MoneyProgramme, Today, Newsnight, Money Box, Black Britain, The One Show, BBC Newsand finally as the Special Correspondent for BBC London News. 

Since 2015 I have been the Professor ofJournalism at Middlesex University and am now part of the senior leadershipteam as Theme Director for Enterprise and Culture.  I am a multi-award-winning investigativejournalist and documentary-maker who built a reputation for incisive journalismworking on major investigations (sometimes undercover) into terrorism, childabuse in religious institutions, deaths in custody and modern childslavery.  My groundbreakinginvestigations into the Lakanal Fire (2009-13) foreshadowed the work that hasbeen done in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.  I reported more than 2000 stories for theBBC. 

I am the author and editor of 4 booksincluding Darkness over Germany published in Germany (2016), the UK (2017) and theUnited States (2018).   I was twice invitedto present first editions of the German and English versions of this book to HMQueen Elizabeth.  In 2015 I published thebook described by the Times as an "eloquent polemic”, The R Word:Racism andin 2014 a revelatory book on the security services’ role in sheltering AbuHamza from scrutiny in the early noughties, before Hamza was finally deportedand convicted in New York in 2014 for terror related crimes.  

Since 2021 I have been on the board ofPark Theatre in Finsbury Park North London noted as a pioneering venue for hardhitting and challenging theatre.  I am aregular contributor to international TV and Radio News stations commenting oninternational affairs and equality, diversity and inclusion among other subjects.  My latest long-form appearance is on theinternational Franco-German documentary 3-part series for Arte in September2023 Europe: Land of Jihad

I earned a first-class degree inLanguages and Politics (1984) before winning scholarships to study for aMasters degree in Comparative Government (1985) and a PhD in InternationalRelations (1989) from the London School of Economics and Sciences Po(Paris).  I remain fluent in French andGerman.

My current research work looks at theimpact of Artificial Intelligence on the future of journalism and I have been anadviser to a Silicon Valley start-up Knowherenews.com which found a successful exit when itwas acquihired in 2022 by the world’s largest Venture Capital company inAUM, A16z.   I have written on inequality in the media andthe issues of diversity in broadcasting.

I am an active judge on numerous nationalMedia Awards from the RTS, to BAFTA and the Press Gazette Awards, Regional JournalismAwards and the Orwell Prize.  I joined forceswith Robert Peston, at the outset of the latter’s Speaker4Schools programme, and regularly givemotivational talks in comprehensive schools.

Fellow Royal Society of Arts

Trustee, Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, London

Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy