Graef to be acting chair of Media Standards Trust

Roger Graef, the award winning filmmaker, writer, broadcaster and criminologist, has been appointed as the new acting chair of the Media Standards Trust.

It follows the decision by Sir David Bell to suspended his chairmanship of the Trust following his appointment to the Leveson Inquiry on media behaviour and ethics.

Graef said: "I look forward to building on the great work of David and the Trust's Board and team. The Trust has achieved a remarkable amount in the last five years, culminating in some of the achievements of the last 5 weeks."

Graef has made films for both Granada and the BBC as a freelance, he founded his independent production company, Films of Record, in 1979, and has won many awards for films on difficult social issues and criminal justice.

He was given the BAFTA Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement in 2004. In 2006 he was awarded an OBE for services to television. He is the author of, Talking Blues - The Police in their own words, Living Dangerously- Young Offenders in their own words and Why Restorative Justice?.

Graef appears regularly on Radio 4, and writes for the Mail, the Mail on Sunday, the Guardian, the Independent, the Sunday Times, and the Daily and Sunday Telegraph. He was The Times media columnist from 1992-94.

He lectures frequently on media ethics. He was Visiting Professor of Media and Communications at Oxford University, and is now Visiting Professor at the Mannheim Centre for Criminology at the LSE and Visiting Professor at the Media School at Bournemouth University.

Martin Moore, director of the Media Standards Trust, said: "The Media Standards Trust has benefited hugely from Sir David Bell's wisdom and experience. Roger Graef's understanding of the media, the police and current affairs is unparalleled and his insights will be critical in informing the Trust's work over the period of the inquiry."