Richard Ayre

Richard's career as a broadcast journalist culminated in his being in charge of editorial regulation, first at Ofcom and then at the BBC.  He has chaired two charities, the Asian and African-Caribbean Reporters Trust and Article 19-The Global Campaign for Free Expression.

Richard began as a BBC trainee, his first permanent posts being as a TV and radio reporter in Belfast through the worst years of The Troubles in the 1970s.  He then led BBC TV’s team of UK correspondents before becoming Head of BBC Westminster for the final months of the Thatcher administration.  He moved to become Controller of Editorial Policy for the BBC, and deputy chief executive of BBC News. 

He took early retirement in 2000 to be a founder board member of the Food Standards Agency, serving two terms as acting deputy chairman and standing down when he was appointed to the Ofcom Content Board in 2007, then moving to the BBC Trust for seven years.  Simultaneously he was the Law Society’s FoI Adjudicator 2001-2013.

Following the allied invasion of Iraq he chaired the editorial board of Al-Mirbad, the first post-Saddam broadcaster in Mosel.  He has worked on assignment in Iraq, Kuwait, and Israel, and has visited Egypt on three occasions though as a tourist.

Richard lives with his partner of 37 years, the artist Guy Burch, on the Isle of Dogs.