Mike Jempson Advisor

Mike Jempson is  a journalist with more than 40 years experience in print, broadcasting and public relations, is Director of The MediaWise Trust, the journalism ethics charity he co-founded with ‘victims of media abuse’ in 1993.

From 2007-17 he was a Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England developing and delivering undergraduate and Masters courses, and Visiting Professor in Media Ethics at Lincoln University from 2006-12. Mike was the UK lead on a 14-nation study of Media Accountability & Transparency from 2010-13.

Working with UN agencies, the International Federation of Journalists, the OSCE and the Europe Commission, he has devised and delivered innovative training for journalists and NGOs in more than 40 African, Asian and European countries, on coverage of children, diversity, health, human rights, refugees and suicide, and on media regulation, press freedom and development of journalists’ unions.

He has produced guidelines endorsed by journalists’ unions and UN agencies for health correspondents, for reporting suicide, and coverage of refugees and asylum-seekers, as well as guides for reporting on children in crisis, and to help young people deal with the media.

Mike set up and managed the influential Refugees, Asylum-seekers and the Media Project (1999-2005) selected by the EU as one of the 30 best examples of good practice in media diversity. The RAM Project gave rise to the Exiled Journalists’ Network on whose board he served as Treasurer for three years.

He has been Vice Chair of the Ethics Council of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ, UK & Ireland) since 2006, and served on the NUJ Professional Training Committee and the Editorial Board of The Journalist. He was awarded the union’s Gold Badge in 2005 for his work on journalistic ethics. He was the longest-serving member of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom Council whose journal Free Press he edited for three years.

In 1981 Mike was co-founder and editor of East End News, a weekly local paper run as a co-operative that gave birth to The Voice, Britain’s most successful black national newspaper. More recently he edited The Bristol Globe diversity magazine, and has served on the board of The Bristol Cable, an investigative magazine run as a readers and writers co-operative.

He has contributed chapters to

• European Handbook of Media Accountability (Eberwein, Fengler et al, Routledge, 2018)
• Journalists and Media Accountability: An International Study of News People in the Digital Age (Fengler, Eberwein et al, Peter Lang, New York, 2014)
• Media accountability goes online – A transnational study (Heikkilä, Domingo, et al, MediaAcT 2012)
• Mapping Media Accountability – in Europe and Beyond.(Eberwein, Fengler, et al, Herbert von Halem Verlag, Koln, 2011)
• Media Accountability Today and Tomorrow: Updating the concept in theory and practice. (von Krogh T, Nordicom, 2008)
• Ethics and Media Culture: Practices and Representations, (Berry, D, Focal Press, 2000)
• A Glimpse of Hell: Reports of Torture World-wide (Forrest D, Cassells/Amnesty, 1996)

His other publications (as author, co-author or editor) include:

• All the Voices: Diversity and the media (SOS Racismo, Portugal 2015)
• The Media and Children’s Rights (3 editions, UNICEF, 2000, 2005, 2010)
• Reporting Difference in Dungannon (MediaWise, 2009)
• Belarus: The struggle for press freedom (BAJ/IFJ,2008)
• Sensitive Coverage Saves Lives: Improving media portrayal of suicidal behaviour (NIMHE/CSIP/Shift, 2007)
• Exiled Journalists in Europe (MediaWise, 2006)
• Working with the Media: Health and Environment Communication (WHCA/ EPHA 2005)
• The RAM Report: Campaigning for fair and accurate coverage of refugees and asylum-seekers (2005)
• Satisfaction Guaranteed? Press complaints systems under scrutiny (MediaWise,2004)
• Journalism and Public Trust (MediaWise/NUJ, 2004, )
• Reporting Children in Africa: A handbook for media professionals (IFJ, 2003)
• From the Margins to the mainstream: Putting public health in the spotlight (WHO, 2003)
• Access to the Information Society (PressWise/EU, 1998)
• Telling like it is: Ethnic Minorities and the Media (PressWise, 1998)
• Child Exploitation and the Media (PressWise/ACHE, 1997)
• Interference on the Airwaves: Ireland, the Media & the Broadcasting Ban (CPBF, 1993)
• Centenary Celebration: An illustrated history of the Musicians’ Union (Crantock/MU,1993)
• Human Rights in the UK: The challenge for government (Amnesty/Crantock/1993)
• Freedom and responsibility fo the press: Special Parliamentary Hearings (Crantock, 1992)
• Working Together: Trades unions and worker co-operatives (GLEB, 1986)
• A Strategy for Co-operation: Worker co-ops in London (GLEB,1985)
• Saving jobs… shaping the future: An introduction to Enterprise Planning (GLEB,1984)