This year’s Steve Hewlett Memorial Lecture was delivered by Channel 4 Presenter and Europe Editor Matt Frei at Westminster’s historic Little Titchfield Street building. Organised by the Royal Television Society (RTS) and The Media Society, the lecture takes place each year to raise funds for the Steve Hewlett Scholarship Fund, providing financial assistance to journalism students from low-income backgrounds.
On 22 October, students, colleagues and professionals from across the media industry visited the University of Westminster to hear Matt Frei deliver the 2025 Steve Hewlett Memorial Lecture, titled Who Gets to Tell the Story? World at War Over Competing Narratives.
Frei has presented and reported for Channel 4 News since 2011, after several years at the BBC as a foreign correspondent. Throughout his career, he has reported from all over the world on generation-defining moments such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of populism and the crises that test democracies. In 2022, Frei received the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcast Journalism, co-hosted each year by the University of Westminster at its Regent Street Cinema.
Matt Frei interviewing now-US President Donald Trump in 2013. Photo credit: Liubov Sliusareva
The net proceeds of the event go to the Steve Hewlett Scholarship Fund, which provides financial assistance to journalism and TV production students from low-income backgrounds. The Scholarship is presented each year to one recipient studying an undergraduate broadcast journalism course in the UK.
Steve Hewlett was a print and radio journalist who shared candid accounts of his fight against cancer through his columns in The Observer and his interviews with Eddie Mair on BBC Radio 4. The scholarship recognises his commitment to improving access to careers in the media for all and improving social mobility.
The event was introduced by Jon Cope, Assistant Head of School and Director of Global Engagement for Westminster’s School of Media and Communications, who explained how the University’s media courses reflect Frei’s curiosity, courage and commitment to shining light on the truth. He highlighted how the Multimedia Journalism MA programme has been re-designed for a new media landscape that values truth and creativity in equal measure, while the Digital Media and Journalism BA Honours pathway is thriving, giving undergraduates the tools and tenacity to find and tell their own stories.
Following the lecture, attendees participated in an interactive Q&A session with Frei. Several Westminster journalism students had the opportunity to ask Frei a question, gaining first-hand insight into the industry ahead of their future careers.
Students with Matt Frei. Photo credit: Liubov Sliusareva
About the event Cope said: “This year, Westminster celebrates 50 years of teaching media studies, since launching the UK’s very first Media Studies degree in 1975. Half a century of asking difficult questions, decoding headline and teaching generations of students how to hold power to account, whether that power sits in Parliament, Silicon Valley or social media algorithms. So, it feels fitting to welcome to Westminster a speaker who has also been doing just that for decades, with skill, wit and an occasional raised eyebrow: admired journalist Matt Frei.”
Westminster’s collaboration with RTS and The Media Society showcases the University’s strategic commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By spotlighting the importance of journalism in amplifying voices, informing the public and holding power to account, the University is helping drive forward SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and 17: Partnerships for the Goals.
Find out more about Media and Communication courses at the University of Westminster.
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