Dr Richard Danbury

Overview

Dr Danbury is an academic lawyer, a journalist and a former practicing barrister. He directs the MA in investigative journalism and oversees the teaching of media law for postgraduate journalism courses at City St George's.

He is the incoming Director of the Wolfson Press Fellowship at Cambridge University, and has been elected a fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge.

A long while ago, he practised -- briefly -- as a criminal barrister, before joining the BBC, where he worked for about a decade. He was based in news and current affairs, and specialised in interviews and investigations. He spent extended periods on programmes such as Newsnight and Panorama. His first job was as a researcher on the investigative documentary series Rough Justice, and his last staff job was as Deputy Editor of the 2010 BBC Prime Ministerial Debate. While at the BBC, he was part of teams that won two Royal Television Society Awards and a New York Festivals medal. He then went freelance, and has worked for Channel 4, Sky and ITN. Up until Sir Keir Starmer's leadership of Labour, he had produced interviews with just about every leader of a main UK political party since 2000. He has worked on TV coverage of every general election since 2005.

He is a member of the Scott Trust Review Panel, the organisation that deals with editorial complaints in relation to the Guardian's content. He has been the BBC’s Advanced Legal Trainer for about fifteen years. He coordinated Channel 4’s investigative journalism training scheme for about seven years, 

His undergraduate degree is in philosophy from Cambridge University, and his doctorate in media law is from Oxford University, where his supervisor was the constitutional expert Professor Alison Young, who is now a Law Commissioner. He then undertook post-doctoral research back at Cambridge, into copyright and news, under Professors Lionel Bently (of Cambridge) and Ian Hargreaves (of Cardiff University). He continues to research in the area of international and comparative media law and freedom of speech law. 

He is an expert at Columbia University's Global Freedom of Expression project. He has been a consultant for the Council of Europe and the International Senior Lawyers' Project in relation to teaching international freedom of expression law, to the Thomson Foundation in respect of practical international media law, and to the OSCE and the East-West Management Institute in relation to the teaching of journalism in Albania at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and for the British High Commission in Malta for teaching of journalism in Malta.

Qualifications

• D Phil, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
• M Stud, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
• Barrister, Inns of Court School of Law, United Kingdom
• Diploma in Law, College of Law, United Kingdom
• BA, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Employment

• Senior Lecturer, City, University of London, United Kingdom, September 2019 - present
• Associate Professor, De Montfort University, United Kingdom, January 2017 - August 2019
• Principal Lecturer, De Montfort University, United Kingdom, January 2016 - January 2017
• Research Associate, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, January 2014 - January 2016
• Researcher, Ranking Digital Rights, United States, January 2013 - January 2014
• Coordinator, Dispatches Investigative Journalism Training Scheme, Channel 4 Television, United Kingdom, 2013 - 2020
• Advanced Law Trainer, British Broadcasting Corporation (United Kingdom), United Kingdom, January 2010 - present
• Producer, BBC, January 1999 - January 2010
• Pupil, then barrister (crime), 9-12 Bell Yard, September 1995 - January 1997
• Pupil barrister (general common law, professional negligence, family), 1 Crown Office Row, October 1994 - August 1995

Visiting appointments

• External Examiner, various journalism courses, Leicester University, September 2024 - present
• Associate, Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law, University of Cambridge, 2017 - present
• External Examiner (Freedom of Expression related papers), LLB and LLM, Edinburgh Law School, Edinburgh University, 2016 - 2023
• Visiting Lecturer, Freedom of Information, Information Law Paper, LLM, Cambridge University, 2015 - 2020

Fellowships

• Fellow, Wolfson College Cambridge, October 2026 - present
• Associate Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, University of London, 2015 - September 2025
• Journalist Fellow, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford University, 2007

Memberships of committees

• Advisory Board, Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, Cambridge University, July 2020 - present
• Advisory Committee, Price Moot Court Competition, Oxford University, June 2019 - June 2020
• Panel Member, Scott Trust Review Panel, 2017 - present

Publications by category