2021 Lecture

Mark Thompson

Former director-general of the BBC and CEO of the New York Times

The 2021 Geddes lecture was delivered by Mark Thompson on the topic of ‘The Lie in the Machine: Truth, Big Tech and the Limits of Free Speech’.

Mark is one of the world’s most prominent and influential media executives. He is the former president and CEO of the New York Times, served as the BBC Director General between 2004 and 2012 and before that was CEO of Channel 4. He began his career as a production trainee at the BBC in the late 1970s, going on to work on cutting edge current affairs shows including Newsnight, Panorama and the Nine O’Clock News.

The Trust are extremely grateful to Mark for taking the time to deliver the lecture and agreeing to do so over Zoom, the first and we hope only Geddes lecture to be delivered virtually.