Media Democracy Festival
About the Media Democracy Festival
2026 TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE
www.mediademocracyfestival.co.uk
SATURDAY JUNE 27TH 2026 –
WESTMINSTER UNIVERSITY, MARYLEBONE CAMPUS, LONDON
The MRC has been running our annual Media Democracy Festival since 2015. Every year, we bring together academics, activists and decision-makers to understand what’s going on in the media landscape, build connections and strengthen the movement for a different media. Since 2020, the Media Democracy Festival has been run as a mix of online and in-person sessions.
“I can think of nothing more important in this day and age than dealing with the question of media, access to knowledge and how we get ideas across to people. The Media Democracy Festival is very much part of that process and I hope we’re all going to come out more determined to build a real alternative media system, not just in this country but all around the world.”
Jeremy Corbyn
Media Democracy Festival 2025
Last year’s MDF took place on Saturday 31st May at Fyvie Hall, London. More than 150 people joined us to hear inspiring keynotes from broadcaster Sangita Myska and Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski. The full programme of panels and workshops explored debates on Big Tech, building a media commons and challenging the media’s failures in reporting global conflict, featuring Ava Santina from PoliticsJOE, journalist Peter Oborne, ex-BBC newsreader Karishma Patel, Novara’s Aaron Bastani and many more.
Media Democracy Festival 2024
2024’s Media Democracy Festival was held at the University of Sheffield, and featured keynotes from Matt Kennard and Paul Fleming alongside panel debates on the media’s war on Gaza, the rise of GB News and priorities for media reform.
Media Democracy Festival 2023
MDF23 was hosted at Birkbeck, University of London, with keynote speeches from Zarah Sultana MP and Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana.
Media Democracy Festival 2022
We kicked off MDF2022 with five days of international livestreamed panels, all of which are now available in a playlist:
Media Democracy Festival 2021
MDF2021 was a full-scale online festival was held during the third national coronavirus lockdown. In total, 230,000 people tuned into our varied programme of events.
Media Democracy Festival 2020
MDF2020 was an event of 700 people were signed up to attend a whole day of events at Birkbeck – only to see everything cancelled due to the emerging coronavirus pandemic.
