Prof Kurt Barling

Professor Kurt Barling (Academic, Broadcaster, Author)

I started my career as an academic at theLondon School of Economics where I was a lecturer and researcher in InternationalRelations whilst completing postgraduate studies.  In 1989 I began a career as aBBC journalist and over a 26-year career I worked in war zones, covered faminesand natural disasters, reporting from dozens of countries worldwide, cheatingdeath on at least one occasion.  Iinterviewed 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 notoriouscriminals in recent British history.  Iam most proud of the number of awards I received for reporting on issues ofdiversity from Africa, the Caribbean, North America and Europe.

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

I have won a number of national awards as an investigativejournalist and documentary-maker, building a reputation for incisive journalismworking on major investigations (sometimes undercover) into terrorism, childabuse in religious institutions, deaths in custody and modern childslavery.  My groundbreakinginvestigations into the Lakanal Fire (2009-13) foreshadowed the work that hasbeen done in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.  I reported more than 2000 stories for theBBC. 

Since 2013 I have been Professor ofJournalism (Practice) at Middlesex University and am currently the Deputy Dean (Research & Knowledge Exchange) in the Faculty of Arts & Creative Industries. I am the author and editor of 4 booksincluding Darkness over Germany published in Germany (2016), the UK (2017) and theUnited States (2018).   I was twice invitedto present first editions of the German and English versions of this book to HMQueen Elizabeth.  In 2015 I published thebook described by the Times as an "eloquent polemic”, The R Word:Racism andin 2014 a revelatory book on the security services’ role in sheltering AbuHamza from scrutiny in the late 1990s. Hamza was deported, convicted and sentenced to life in a New York court in 2014 for terror related crimes.  I have published numerous academic articles and chapters on journalism and was on the advisory board of the British Library exhibition Breaking the News in 2022 and contributed to the accompanying edited book.

Since 2021 I have been on the board ofPark Theatre in Finsbury Park North London noted as a pioneering venue for hardhitting and challenging theatre.  I am aregular contributor to international TV and Radio News stations commenting oninternational affairs and equality, diversity and inclusion among other subjects.  I was an anchor interviewee in the 3-part international Franco-German documentary series (Arte, September2023) Europe: Land of Jihad and am an anchor interviewee for a 4-part Netflix series on the 7/7 bombings of the London Underground (2025)

I earned a first-class degree inLanguages and Politics (1984) before winning scholarships to study for an MSc in Comparative Government (1985) and a PhD in InternationalRelations (1989) at the London School of Economics and Sciences Po(Paris).  I remain fluent in French andGerman.

My current research work looks at theimpact of Artificial Intelligence on Media & Communications and the Archive & Heritage sector.

I have been an active judge on numerous nationalMedia Awards: RTS, BAFTA, Press Gazette Awards, Regional JournalismAwards and the Orwell Prize.  I joined forceswith Robert Peston, at the outset of the latter’s Speaker4Schools programme, and regularly givemotivational talks in comprehensive schools.

Fellow Royal Society of Arts

Trustee, Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, London

Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy