Cathy Newman to Deliver the 2025 CIJ Gavin MacFadyen Memorial Lecture

Cathy Newman, Presenter & Investigations Editor at Channel 4 News and Presenter at Times Radio, will deliver this year’s Gavin MacFadyen Memorial Lecture: Follow the Abuser. John Smyth and the Church of England.

The Gavin MacFadyen Memorial lecture was established in 2017 after the death of our founding director, investigative journalist Gavin MacFadyen. The lecture aims to honour his memory by inviting some of the world’s most courageous investigative journalists to talk about their investigations.

In the past these lectures were delivered by a Mexican journalist Anabel Hernández (2017), an Indian investigative journalist Rana Ayyub (2018), a Filipino-American journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa (2019), a Turkish journalist and editor Can Dündar (2020), an investigative journalist from Myanmar, Wa Lone (2021), an Indian journalist and activist Meera Jatav (2022), and a veteran Spanish investigative journalist José María Irujo (2023), Indian investigative journalist Poonam Agarwal (2024).

Cathy Newman

Cathy Newman is the first female main presenter of Channel 4 News. She spent over a decade in Fleet Street, latterly with the Financial Times. Since joining Channel 4 News in 2006 she has broadcast a string of scoops, including an eight year investigation unmasking the most prolific abuser in the Church of England, barrister John Smyth.

Published: 19 Mar 2025