About

About

“The lesson of this remarkable conference that commemorates Harry Evans is about what’s important.”

Legendary Watergate Reporter Carl Bernstein

Celebrate the Truth Tellers

Truth Tellers, the Sir Harry Evans Investigative Journalism Summit, is co-hosted by editor and author Tina Brown CBE, Reuters editor-in-chief Alessandra Galloni, and Durham University vice chancellor Karen O’Brien. The 2024 summit took place in London on 15 May, from 9.30am-6.30pm.

The summit brings together the world’s most dogged and diverse truth-seekers, both seasoned and innovative: unsung reporters who risk their lives and reputations, intrepid war photographers, digital data sleuths, relentless documentarians, and enterprising investigators in podcasting, publishing, TV, and streaming media. What they share is a moral commitment to the truth – not the sanctioned story, the acceptable version or the cosmetic spin – but the unvarnished account of what really happened.

The summit includes a full day of programming followed by a closing dinner. The invitation-only audience is made up of 400 editors, reporters, broadcasters, media leaders, and cultural and political influencers. They will leave the event inspired by the next generation of fearless investigators and enlightened by their new methods, tools, and storytelling innovations.

“I actually think investigative reporting – when it’s right, when it’s true, when it has impact – will help to restore our reputation.”

Dean Baquet
Editor, Local Investigative Fellowship, and former Executive Editor, The New York Times

The purpose of the summit is to deepen the global networks that support fearless inquiry, celebrate the industry’s great practitioners and new trailblazers, and, above all, remind the world why serious journalism is indispensable.

supported by

supported by

The Co-Hosts

  • Tina Brown CBE

    Tina Brown CBE

    Tina Brown Media

  • Alessandra Galloni

    Alessandra Galloni

    Reuters Editor-in-Chief

  • Karen O’Brien

    Karen O’Brien

    Vice Chancellor Durham University

A Truth-telling Legacy

Pioneering British newspaperman Sir Harry Evans (1928-2020) was one of the giants of post-war journalism.

The award-winning work he spearheaded as editor of The Northern Echo, The Sunday Times and The Times set the gold standard for courageous investigative journalism – from his fight to overturn a young Welshman’s wrongful murder conviction that spurred the end of the death penalty in the UK, to his celebrated ten-year campaign to win compensation for Thalidomide children, and his exposure of the cover-up of Soviet spy Kim Philby. In 2002, he was voted the Greatest British Newspaper Editor of all time by his media peers.

Above: The Sunday Times, June 27 1976

Above: The Sunday Times, June 27 1976

For Sir Harry, trust in journalism was essential and he shared the concern of so many that the debasement of fact-based reporting was a serious threat to functioning democracy. To reignite Sir Harry’s values, Truth Tellers champions the work of today’s investigative journalists.

Read more about Sir Harry

Reuters Photojournalism Exhibition

Reuters employs 450 photographers, including award-winning frontline photojournalists, reporting from over 200 locations around the world, and has won six Pulitzer Prizes for photography. In a show specially curated for the Truth Tellers Summit by Reuters Senior editor of Wider Image and Special Projects Maye-E Wong, 2024 summit guests saw examples of Reuters’ remarkable recent photojournalism.

The Venue

The Summit takes place in the Art Deco setting of the prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects in London.

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RIBA Building image

Credit: Philip Vile

Royal Institute of British Architects,
66 Portland Place,
London
W1B 1AD