Ben de Pear

“Freelancers cover the stories we can’t or don’t – but often should.”

Ben has been on the Board of the Rory Peck Trust since 2009. In 2022, he set up Basement Films to make revelatory, extraordinary and memorable television. He was executive producer of the Oscar-nominated For Sama and led the investigations into Sri Lanka’s civil war, which culminated in Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields.

He spent 10 years as Editor of Channel 4 News, during which time the programme won an unprecedented number of awards, including 4 BAFTAs, 5 International Emmys and scores of RTS and other awards for its coverage of the war in Syria and exposés like Cambridge Analytica Undercover. It also provoked the ire of the government with investigations into election expenses, the Brexit campaign, and by replacing Prime Minister Boris Johnson with an ice sculpture when he refused to appear in the country’s first-ever political leaders’ climate debate.

“The Rory Peck Trust is a vital organisation helping those who want to find out the truth, but who don’t have the protection and support of a big organisation. There is no other organisation out there doing this vital work.”