BBC newsreader George Alagiah to appear in Hackney Debate this Friday

BBC newsreader and Hackney resident, George Alagiah, will make an appearance in De Beauvoir for a debate on phone hacking.

Alagiah, whose new series “Mixed Race Britain” is currently showing on the BBC, will return to St Peter’s Church in De Beauvoir Road for the third annual “Hackney Debate.”

He will join other prominent media moguls like BBC correspondent Nick Higham, Guardian and Mail on Sunday writer Suzanne Moore and former chief production editor at the Sun and News of the World, James Alan Anslow.

The media will be examined in the wake of phone hacking, the closure of the News of the World, and the extraordinary sight of a humbled Rupert Murdoch in the debate called The Media We Deserve?

Questions raised will include, should the media now be more tightly regulated? What should the balance between private and public ownership be? And if Murdoch pulls out of newspapers, could there in fact be worse to come?

Organised by De Beauvoir resident and UCL lecturer Kirsty Norman, the debates have attracted audiences of over 300, and resulted in very heated discussions.

Admission is free to the debate which begins at 7.30pm.