Julian Petley is Professor of Film and Television. His interests span the cinema, television and the press, with a particular emphasis on matters pertaining to policy, regulation and freedom of expression.
He is a member of the editorial boards of the British Journalism Review, Vertigo and fifth-estate-online, and also principal editor of the Journal of British Cinema and Television, the prime site for those interested in publishing cutting-edge research in these areas. His interest in British cinema is also reflected in the edited collection British Horror Cinema.
His interest in horror cinema, and in other disreputable genres, has inevitably led to a strong concern with film and video/DVD censorship. This is an area in which he has published particularly widely, and both editions of the collection Ill Effects: the Media Violence Debate have helped to shift the debate about media influence on to new, and hopefully firmer, ground. His most recent books in this area are Censoring the Word and (with Philip French) Censoring the Moving Image. He has just completed A Beginner’s Guide to Censorship and is in the process of completing Film and Video Censorship in Contemporary Britain. At present he is investigating the growth of measures to control the internet and to subject its users to various forms of surveillance.
The role of the press in helping to whip up moral panics about other media has led him to an increasing interest in the nature and role of contemporary British journalism. A former media journalist, and still an active freelance one, he is actively involved in teaching journalism at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at Brunel. His book Culture Wars: the Media and the British Left (co-written with James Curran and Ivor Gaber) is a detailed study of the role of the press in helping to create and sustain the myth of the 'loony left', and he is exploring further the role of the press in British politics in The Censorious Press and the edited collection Pointing the Finger: Islam and Muslims in the Contemporary UK Media.
The increasing 'deregulation' of British television since the mid-1980s has also been a central focus of interest, and, as Chair of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom he was actively involved in the debates around the 2003 Communications Act. His recent work on this subject has appeared in the Journal of Media Practice, Index on Censorship and The International Encyclopedia of Censorship.
British Film Institute Distribution Library Catalogue (1978)
Capital & Culture: The German Cinema 1933-1945 (BFI 1979)
Media Hits the Pits (Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom 1985)
Researchers' Guide to John Grierson (Grierson Memorial Trust 1990)
Ken Loach: La Mirada Radical (Semana de Cine Valladolid/British Council 1992)
Ill Effects: the Media Violence Debate (co-edited with Martin Barker) (Routledge 1997)
Media: the Impact on Our Lives (Hodder Wayland 2000)
Ill Effects: the Media Violence Debate (second edition, Routledge 2001)
British Horror Cinema (co-edited with Steve Chibnall) (Routledge 2002)
Newspapers and Magazines (Hodder Wayland 2002)
Advertising (Hodder Wayland 2002)
A Young Citizen's Guide to the Media in Politics (Hodder Wayland 2002)
Culture Wars: the Media and the British Left (with James Curran and Ivor Gaber) (Edinburgh University Press 2005)
Freedom of the Word (Index on Censorship/Seagull Books 2007)
Freedom of the Moving Image (with Philip French) (Index on Censorship/Seagull Books 2008)
The Journal of Popular British Cinema, Vol.1, 'Genre and British Cinema', (co- edited with Alan Burton), Flicks Books 1998
The Journal of Popular British Cinema, Vol.2, 'Audiences and Reception in Britain', (review section co-edited with Ian Conrich), Flicks Books 1999.
The Journal of Popular British Cinema, Vol.3, 'Forbidden British Cinema', (co-edited with Ian Conrich), Flicks Books 2000.
Index on Censorship, Vol.29, No.5, 2000, 'Manufacturing Monsters', guest editor.
The Journal of Popular British Cinema, Vol.5, 'New British Cinema' (co-edited with Duncan Petrie), Flicks Books 2002.
The Journal of British Cinema and Television, (principal editor), Edinburgh University Press 2004 et seq.
'A Rossellini Chronology' in Roberto Rossellini (BFI 1981)
'V.D.O'Nasty' in David Cronenberg (BFI 1983)
'Parliament, the Press and "Death of a Princess"' in Drama Documentary (BFI 1984)
'Reaching for the Stars' in British Cinema Now (BFI 1985)
'Cinema and State' and 'The Lost Continent' in All Our Yesterdays (BFI 1986)
Various contributions to the Aurum Encyclopaedia of Horror Films (Aurum 1986)
'Independent Cinema in Britain' in The British Edge (Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Mass. 1987)
Various contributions to the BFI Companion to the Western (Andre Deutsch 1988)
'The Architect as Ubermensch' in Picture This: Media Representations of Visual Art & Artists (John Libbey 1988/1998)
'The Film and Video Workshops in Britain' in Landmarks (British Council 1988)
'Savage De-regulation: The Italian Experience' in Losing the Picture (International Broadcasting Trust 1990)
'Cinema 1989-90 - Distribution' in the British Film Institute Film and Television Handbook 1991
'Intervista a Derek Jarman', in Derek Jarman,(Edizione L'Altra Communicazione, 1990)
'Dennis Hopper' in 1991 Stockholm Film Festival Catalogue
'Cinema 1990-91 - Distribution' in the British Film Institute Film and Television Handbook 1992
'Independent Distribution in the UK: Problems and Proposals' in New Questions of British Cinema (BFI 1992)
'Una burrascosa carriera fra televisione e cinema', 'Intervista' and 'Schede' in Quaderni Della Mediateca: Loach (Mediateca Regionale Toscana1992)
'After the Deluge: Public Service Television in Western Europe' in Channels of Resistance: Global Television and Local Empowerment (BFI 1993)
'Rights to Do' in The Television Book 1993 (Edinburgh International Television Festival)
'Cutters' Way' in The Television Book 1994 (Edinburgh International Television Festival)
'Regulation Overload' in The Television Book 1995 (Edinburgh International Television Festival)
'Perfidious Albion: The Depiction of Great Britain in Films of the Third Reich' in Anglo-German Attitudes (Avebury 1995)
'Censors Working Overtime' in The Television Book 1996 (Edinburgh International Television Festival)
'Killing the Age of Innocence: Newspaper Reporting of the Death of James Bulger' (with Bob Franklin) in Thatcher's Children (Falmer 1996)
Various contributions to The British Film Institute Companion to Horror (BFI 1996)
'Introduction' (with Martin Barker), 'Us and Them', 'Going Public with Children and Violence' in Ill Effects: The Media Violence Debate (Routledge 1997)
'Factual Fictions and Fictional Fallacies: Ken Loach's Documentary Dramas' and 'Ken Loach and Questions of Censorship' in Agent of Challenge and Defiance: the Films of Ken Loach (Flicks Books 1997)
Various contributions to The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers (St James Press 1997)
'Faces for Spaces' in A Journalism Reader (Routledge 1997)
'X Marks the Cut' in The Television Book, (Edinburgh International Television Festival 1997)
'The Monstrous Child' in The Body's Perilous Pleasures (University of Edinburgh 1999)
'Art Cinema' in The Cinema Book (British Film Institute 1999, second edition)
'The Regulation of the Media' in The Media in Britain: Current Debates and Developments (Macmillan 1999)
'The Pilgrim's Regress: the Politics of the Boultings' Films' in The Family Way: The Boulting Brothers and British Film Culture (Flicks Books 2000)
'Snuffed Out: Nightmares in a Trading Standards Officer's Brain' in Unruly Pleasures: the Cult Film and its Critics (FAB Press 2000)
'Introduction' (with Martin Barker), 'Invasion of the Internet Abusers' (with Tom Craig), and 'On the Problems of Being a "Trendy Travesty"' (with Martin Barker) in Ill Effects (Routledge 2001, second edition)
Various contributions to The International Encyclopedia of Censorship (4 volumes) (Fitzroy Dearborn 2001)
'There's Something About Mary ....' in British Stars and Stardom (Manchester University Press 2001)
'Introduction' (with Steve Chibnall) and '"A Crude Sort of Entertainment for a Crude Sort of Audience": the British Critics and Horror Cinema', in British Horror Cinema (Routledge 2002)
'Film Policy in the Third Reich', in The German Cinema Book (British Film Institute 2002)
'Video Violence: How Far Can You Go', in Criminal Visions (Willan 2003)
‘Let the Atrocious Images Haunt Us’, in Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq (Pluto Press 2004)
Various contributions to The Encyclopedia of British Film (Methuen/BFI 2003)
‘Still No Redress from the PCC’, in Muslims and the News Media (I.B. Tauris 2006)
‘Public Service Broadcasting’ and ‘Censorship Regimes and Content Parameters – UK’, in Television Industries (BFI 2006).
‘The Unfilmable? H.P. Lovecraft and the Cinema, in Monstrous Adaptations (Manchester University Press 2008).
‘What Fourth Estate?’, in Narrating Media History (Routledge 2008).
A Nasty Story', in Screen, March 1984, Vol 25, No 2
'Future Film Policy' (with Vincent Porter), in Sight and Sound, Spring 1987, Vol.56 No.2
'Over the Top' (on The Monocled Mutineer), in Sight and Sound, Spring 1987, Vol.56, No.2
'Independent Access', in Sight and Sound, Autumn 1987, Vol.56, No.4
'Sirk in Germany', in Sight and Sound, Winter 1987/8, Vol 57, No 1
'The Price of Portraying a Less Than Perfect Britain', in The Listener, 21 January 1988
'A Very British Coup', in Sight and Sound, Spring 1988, Vol.57, No.2
'Rural Retreats', in New Statesman and Society, September 2, 1988
'Dish Up: the Prospect for Britain', in Sight and Sound, Winter 1988/89, Vol.58, No.1
'Movie Money', in Sight and Sound, Summer 1989, Vol.58, No.3
'Where Have the Foreign Films Gone?', in Sight and Sound, Autumn 1989,Vol. 58, No. 4
'Codes of Practice: the Video Image', in Sight and Sound, Winter 1989/90, Vol. 59, No. 1
'Rudolph Cartier' in Sight and Sound, Spring 1990, Vol.59, No 2
'Two Years After the Ban', in Index on Censorship, October 1990, Vol 19, No 9
'Taking Flak' in Banned (April 1991). (Special supplement to the New Statesman published to coincide with the Channel 4 'Banned' season. I also worked on this supplement as editorial consultant).
'Reasonably Offensive', in New Statesman and Society, August 5, 1991
'Why Cathy Will Never Come Home Again', in New Statesman and Society, 2 April 1993
'The Enemy in the Brain', in Vertigo, No 1, Spring 1993
'Little Devils', in Index on Censorship, September 1994
'In Defence of "Video Nasties"', in British Journalism Review, Vol 5, No 3, 1994.
Reprinted in The Media Studies Reader, Tim O'Sullivan and Yvonne Jewkes (eds), Edward Arnold 1997
'Henri Storck', in Vertigo, No 4, 1995
'Rag-bag Regulation', in Index on Censorship, Vol 24, No 2, 1995
'Something Nasty in the Newspapers', in Social Science Teacher, Vol 24, No 2, 1995
'Clockwork Crimes', in Index on Censorship, Vol. 24, No.6, 1995
'Savoy Scrapbook', in Index on Censorship, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1996
'Lord Horror's Defence', in New Statesman, 30 August 1996
'Fact Plus Fiction Equals Friction', in Media, Culture and Society, Vol. 18, No. 1, 1996
'It May be Hi-Tech, it Ain't Sense', in Index on Censorship, Vol. 25, No.3, 1996
'The BFI Which Will be 67 in the Year 2000', (with Michael Chanan), in Vertigo, No. 6, Autumn 1996
'The Critic as Censor', in Vertigo, No. 6, Autumn 1996
'The Year of the Bully', in Index on Censorship, Vol.26, No.1, 1997
'Doing Harm', in Index on Censorship, Vol.26, No.2, 1997
'Questions de Censure', in Images Documentaires, Nos.26-7, 1997. (Special issue on Ken Loach)
'A Word in Your Ear, Minister', in Vertigo, No.7. 1997
'Road Rage', (with Mark Kermode), in Sight and Sound, June 1997
'No Redress from the PCC', in British Journalism Review, Vol.8, No.4, 1997
'Another Year Over', in Index on Censorship, Vol.27, No.1., 1998
'The Censor and the State', in Sight and Sound, May 1998
'An Unsavoury Business', in Index on Censorship, Vol.27, No.5, 1998
'Smashed Hits', in Index on Censorship, Vol.27, No.6, 1998
'Quatermass and the Pen' (with Kim Newman), in Video Watchdog, No.47
'SLAPPS and Chills', in Index on Censorship, Vol.28, No.1, 1999
'Dishing the Dirt', in Index on Censorship, Vol.28, No.4 ,1999
'Sex and Censure', in Index on Censorship, Vol.29, No.1, 2000
'Video Victories', in Index on Censorship, Vol.29, No.4, 2000
'Laughs and Sneezes', in Index on Censorship, Vol.29, No.6, 2000
'New Labour versus Horny Catbabe', in Radical Philosophy, No103, 2000
'The Censor and the State: or Why Horny Catbabe Matters', in The Journal of Popular British Cinema, Vol.3, 2000
'A Case of Mistaken Identity', in Index on Censorship, Vol.30, No.3, 2001
'Raising the Bar', in Sight and Sound, December 2001
'From Brit-Flicks to Shit-Flicks', in The Journal of Popular British Cinema , Vol.5, 2002
'Witch Hunt', the Dark Side 104, 2003
‘The Re-regulation of Broadcasting: or the Mill Owners’ Triumph’, in the Journal of Media Practice, Vol.3, No.3, 2003
‘Anyone for Free Expression?’, in Index on Censorship, Vol.32, No.4, 2003
‘War Without Death: Responses to Distant Suffering’, in The Journal for Crime, Conflict and the Media’, Vol.1, No.1, 2003
‘Balancing the Books’, in British Journalism Review, Vol.15, No.1, 2004
‘Time to Get Real’ and ‘Is There a British Cinema?’, in the Journal of British Cinema and Television, Vol.1, No.1, 2004
‘Appearance and Reality’, in Index on Censorship, Vol.35, No.1, 2006
‘Nonsense on Stilts’, in Index on Censorship, Vol.35, No.3, 2006
‘The Retreat of Reason’, in Index on Censorship, Vol.35, No.4, 2006
‘Podsnappery: Or Why British Newspapers Support Fagging’, in Ethical Space, Vol.3, Nos.2-3, 2006
‘New Labour, Old Morality, in Index on Censorship, Vol.36, No.2, 2007
| FILM, RADIO AND TELEVISION WORK |
Open Space: Loony Tunes (BBC2) (member of production team)
Sid & Nancy: Love Kills. Unit publicist
Moving Pictures (BBC 2). Script and commentary for item on Babelsberg Studios
Free For All (Channel 4). Script for item on access television
The Late Show (BBC 2). Consultant on item on Rudolph Cartier
Also various contributions to Newsnight (BBC2), Today (Radio 4), The Message (Radio 4), You and Yours (Radio 4), Nightwaves (Radio 3), Lebrecht Live (Radio 3), News 24 (BBC), Sex and Shopping (Channel 5), The Money Programme (BBC2), Sex on Television (Channel 4), Back Row (Radio 4) as well as to numerous local radio stations.
St James Press (for their International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers)
Screen (1984-94)
British Journalism Review (1989- )
Vertigo (1992- )
Journal of Popular British Cinema (1996- )
BFI Independent Achievement Award 1990
Karlovy Vary 1990 (FIPRESCI - International Federation of Film Critics)
BFI Archival Achievement Award 1991
Krakow 1991 (FIPRESCI)
Grierson Award 1992
Oberhausen (Chairman) 1994 (FIPRESCI)
Prague (Chairman) 1996 (FIPRESCI)
Karlovy Vary 1996 (FIPRESCI)
Ghent 1996 (FIPRESCI)
Cottbus (Chairman) 1997 (FIPRESCI)
Cottbus (Chairman) 2001 (FIPRESCI)
Goethe Institute, London (seasons on Douglas Sirk and Jean-Marie Straub)
National Film Theatre (seasons on Third Reich cinema, censorship, Fritz Lang and Rudolph Cartier)
Tate Gallery (season on German Cinema and Neue Sachlichkeit)
Project Arts Centre, Dublin (season on history and cinema)
Challenging the Effects Tradition, Brunel University and the University of the West of England, 1994 (with Martin Barker)
BA in Communications, University of London Goldsmiths College (1994-7)
BA in Information and Media Studies, University of Brighton (1994-9)
MA in Scriptwriting, Leeds Metropolitan University (1995-8)
BA in Film Studies, University of North London (1998-2001)
BA in Media Studies, University of the South Bank (1999- )
Trustee of PressWise
Chair of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom
Member of the Critics Circle
