Early career Rusbridger was born in
Lusaka,
Northern Rhodesia, a
British protectorate (now
Zambia). He is the son of B. E. ( Wickham) and G. H. Rusbridger, the director of education of Northern Rhodesia. When Rusbridger was five, the family returned to Britain He left in 1986 to become TV critic of
The Observer, then an entirely separate newspaper, before moving to America to be the Washington editor of the short-lived
London Daily News in 1987. After returning to
The Guardian, he launched the "Weekend" supplement in 1988, followed by the paper's "G2" section. He became features editor in 1994.
Editor of The Guardian Appointment and early years Rusbridger was appointed as the editor of
The Guardian by the
Scott Trust in late January 1995 after a decisive vote of the
National Union of Journalists chapel, management and trustees in an electoral college. As editor, he defended the paper against a number of high-profile defamation suits, including those from the
Police Federation and the Conservative MPs,
Neil Hamilton and
Jonathan Aitken. In the case involving Hamilton and the lobbyist
Ian Greer, he said: "They weren't going to fight us in the court so they tried to do it through the TV studio." Rusbridger countered them by being available for TV interviews over three days to ensure that their version of events did not gain precedence. Seen early in his editorship as a modernising new broom, he commented in June 1997 shortly after the election of
Tony Blair's first
New Labour government that the "old"
Guardian: "opposed lots of things the Tories did which we'd now think weren't terribly bad in retrospect ... I mean, a lot of the trade union stuff doesn't seem as horrendous now as it seemed at the time." From around 1997, he oversaw the launch and development of the newspaper's website,
Berliner, digital and corporate In September 2005,
The Guardian responded to the tabloid re-launches of
The Times and
The Independent by moving from a
broadsheet format to the
"Berliner" format, which is common in the rest of Europe. The print edition of the newspaper still accounted for about 75% of the company's revenue around 2012. In a profile of Rusbridger though, published in the
New Statesman at the end of May 2012, former newspaper editor
Peter Wilby cast doubt on whether Rusbridger's enthusiasm for online journalism, freely available without a paywall, and the large amount of money invested by the group, would ever gain a return or ensure the long-term survival of the newspaper. Until May 2016, he was a member of the board of Guardian News and Media, of the main board of the
Guardian Media Group and of the
Scott Trust, which owns
The Guardian and
The Observer, of which he was executive editor. Rusbridger received £471,000 in pay and benefits in 2008–2009, but then volunteered to a series of pay cuts, bringing his revenue to £395,000 in the fiscal year 2012. and Australian editions.
Publication of Wikileaks and Edward Snowden material As editor-in-chief, in August 2013 Rusbridger took the decision to destroy
hard drives containing information leaked to
The Guardian by
Edward Snowden, rather than comply with a government demand to hand over the data. An alternative action was agreed and in the presence of the authorities the drives were destroyed. Rusbridger described performing the task as "slightly pointless": "Given that there were other copies, I saw no reason not to destroy this material ourselves." Edward Snowden said his actions in leaking the documents that formed the basis of the reporting "would have been meaningless without the dedication, passion, and skill of these newspapers". In its report, the Committee said that Rusbridger gave "open and transparent evidence", while
National Security Adviser and
MI5 officials declined. In the film
The Fifth Estate (2013), about
The Guardians former association with the
WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange, Rusbridger was portrayed by
Peter Capaldi. In
Oliver Stone's 2016 movie,
Snowden, Rusbridger played a cameo part of a TV interviewer.
Resignation In December 2014, Rusbridger announced he would step down as editor of
The Guardian in the summer of 2015. On 20 March 2015,
The Guardian announced
Katharine Viner as Rusbridger's successor. but announced on 13 May 2016 that he would not take up the post. Viner and chief executive David Pemsel were also opposed to Rusbridger becoming chair of the Scott Trust.
Principal of Lady Margaret Hall On 17 December 2014, a week after it was published that Rusbridger was stepping down as editor of
The Guardian, it was announced that Rusbridger had been elected principal of
Lady Margaret Hall (LMH), a constituent college of
Oxford University. He stepped down as principal in 2021.
Foundation Year In January 2016, Rusbridger led Lady Margaret Hall to explore starting a Foundation Year for young people from under-represented backgrounds. It was based on a 20-year project at
Trinity College, Dublin. Announcing the scheme, Rusbridger wrote: "there are groups of young people today who are markedly under-represented at Oxford, even if it is not quite right to call them "excluded". They are as bright, resourceful and determined as anyone who has succeeded in getting here, but many things may have conspired to stop them even considering Oxford as an option." The move was welcomed by the Vice Chancellor of Oxford,
Louise Richardson. She told
The Guardian: "One of the many advantages of the collegiate system is that it allows us to engage in a small scale pilot like this to help us identify innovative ways to recruit under-represented groups. I wish the programme at Lady Margaret Hall every success." The fully funded scheme was launched in October 2016 with the first 10 students, and each year since between 8 and 10 years students have taken part. Cambridge University announced it would be starting its own fully-funded Foundation year scheme. The first 42 students were admitted in October 2022. Oxford University announced it would also be starting a Foundation Year, involving 10 colleges, to start in 2023.
The Times Investigation In April 2022,
The Times released an investigation into Rusbridger's conduct while college Principal. A student said she was made to sign a gagging order contained within a separate agreement by Rusbridger and his administration after she accused another student of sexually assaulting her. Ostensibly outlining precautionary safety arrangements, the agreement also stipulated the student must "not make any information about the allegations, the police investigation or Lady Margaret Hall safeguarding arrangements available to any form of public media" under threat of expulsion from the college. Rusbridger denied it was a gagging order but said the college "asked both parties to refrain from public comment while the case was active". Once the student sought legal help, she said Rusbridger "tried desperately to convince her not to complain". The college, under Rusbridger's successor, later settled the personal injury claim, paying the student's damages and legal costs. In response to the article, the
Charity Commission announced it was in urgent contact with the college over its failure, as a registered charity, to make a "serious incident report" when the original assault was reported.
Michelle Donelan, then
Minister of State for Higher and Further Education, said the college's decision was "morally bankrupt" and Lady Margaret Hall should be "ashamed".
Other activities He is visiting Fellow of
Nuffield College, Oxford, and visiting professor of history at
Queen Mary, University of London. Between 2004 and 2013, he was chair of the
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He is a governor of the
Ditchley Foundation, an organisation which exists to promote international relations, and
10:10, a British climate change campaign for a 10% reduction in carbon emissions in 2010. He is an amateur pianist and performed Chopin's
Ballade No. 1 for the television channel
More4 in "Rusbridger vs Chopin", where he speaks about the difficulties of taking on a piece considered by many professional pianists as daunting. Rusbridger appears in the 2016 film
Snowden, with a cameo role as a meeting moderator. He has written three children's books, as well as being the co-author (with
Ronan Bennett) of a BBC drama,
Fields of Gold. In 2014, he received the Special Award from the
European Press Prize for his leading role in the NSA revelations. In 2020, he joined its panel of judges. In 2020 Rusbridger was appointed to the oversight board of
Meta Platforms, the parent company of prominent social media companies, including
Facebook and
Instagram. On 29 September 2020, the office of the
Irish Taoiseach announced that Rusbridger was to be a member of Ireland's Future of Media Commission, a body to make recommendations about the future of the country's news media.
Máiría Cahill called upon Rusbridger to resign from this position because in October 2014
The Guardian carried an article critical of her claims to have been a victim of sexual abuse by a former
IRA member. The reporter was
Roy Greenslade who, at the time, had not acknowledged that he was an IRA supporter who wrote under the pseudonym 'George King' for the newspaper
An Phoblacht for many years. Rusbringer said: "I did not read this piece either before or after publication" but his company email address had responded to complaints about the article which Rusbringer said was a "managing editor" acting on his behalf; there was no mention of such an editor in a single email from his address. Rusbridger announced his resignation from the commission on 14 March 2021. Rusbridger is played by
Toby Jones in the 2025 ITV drama about the
News International phone hacking scandal,
The Hack.
Personal life and honours In 1982, he married the educationalist Lindsay Mackie, daughter of the politician and farmer
George Mackie, Baron Mackie of Benshie. She helped found the educational charity
FILMCLUB. They have two daughters, including Isabella Rusbridger (born 28 July 1983), a journalist and author, who is known professionally as
Bella Mackie to distinguish herself from her father. Her novel
How to Kill Your Family, released in June 2021, became a
Sunday Times bestseller and sold over a million copies. She is married to
BBC Radio 1 presenter
Greg James. Rusbridger received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the
University of Lincoln in September 2009, from the
University of Kingston in January 2010 and from the
University of Oslo in September 2014. He was one of the 2014 recipients of the
Right Livelihood Award. ==Bibliography==