Prof Kurt Barling

Biography

Professor Kurt Barling (Academic, Broadcaster, Author)

I began my career as an academic at the London School of Economics where I was a lecturer and researcher in International Relations.  In 1989 I began a career as a BBC journalist and over a 26-year career I worked in war zones, covered famines and natural disasters, reporting from dozens of countries worldwide, cheating death on at least one occasion.  I interviewed 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 notorious criminals in recent British history.  I am most proud of the number of awards I received for reporting on issues of diversity from Africa, the Caribbean, North America and Europe.

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

Since 2015 I have been the Professor of Journalism at Middlesex University and am now part of the senior leadership team as Theme Director for Enterprise and Culture.  I am a multi-award-winning investigative journalist and documentary-maker who built a reputation for incisive journalism working on major investigations (sometimes undercover) into terrorism, child abuse in religious institutions, deaths in custody and modern child slavery.  My groundbreaking investigations into the Lakanal Fire (2009-13) foreshadowed the work that has been done in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.  I reported more than 2000 stories for the BBC. 

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

Since 2021 I have been on the board of Park Theatre in Finsbury Park North London noted as a pioneering venue for hard hitting and challenging theatre.  I am a regular contributor to international TV and Radio News stations commenting on international affairs and equality, diversity and inclusion among other subjects.  My latest long-form appearance is on the international Franco-German documentary 3-part series for Arte in September 2023 Europe: Land of Jihad

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

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

I am an active judge on numerous national Media Awards from the RTS, to BAFTA and the Press Gazette Awards, Regional Journalism Awards and the Orwell Prize.  I joined forces with Robert Peston, at the outset of the latter’s Speaker4Schools programme, and regularly give motivational talks in comprehensive schools.

Fellow Royal Society of Arts

Trustee, Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, London

Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy

Teaching

PhD Supervision - Digital Transformations in The Media Landscape

MSc Digital Journalism. JCM4003 Technological Advance, Trends and Innovation in an Age of Digital Disruption

BA Creative Writing & Journalism