Link Media Festival, Trieste calling

Trieste is calling, London will answer. The Link Media Festival will focus its attention on the times we are living, the most challenging times of our era, as we once again move toward a “Darkest Hour.” The programme features leading voices from the United Kingdom: former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson; historian, essayist, and journalist Owen Matthews; Ft columnist Andrew Hill; Philip Baglini, founder of London One Radio.

From April 10 to 12, the festival will take place in one of Italy’s most iconic locations, Piazza Unità — the largest seafront square in Europe, overlooking the northern Adriatic.

TRIESTE – Interpreting the world in these intense weeks of upheaval and understanding the new global (dis)order: this is the ambition of the 12th edition of the Link Media Festival, the forum for high-qualit journalism which returns to the Link Arena in the heart of Trieste, set against one of Italy’s most evocative backdrops, Piazza Unità.

Promoted and organised by NEM Nord-Est Multimedia, the Link Media Festival will bring together more than 70 Italian and international voices from journalism, investigative reporting, science, economics, television, and geopolitics — three days dedicated to an in-depth exploration of the defining global challenges of our time.

While the world once again appears to be edging toward a “Darkest Hour,” the echo of Winston Churchill’s voice will resonate throughout the festival, as contemporary British voices engage in dialogue. Among them is Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the crucial years of Brexit and the pandemic (2019–2022).

On Saturday, April 11 at 12:00, at the Politeama Rossetti in Trieste, his talk — “THE DARKEST HOUR. THE MOST DIFFICULT TIMES” — will address these critical issues in conversation with NEM Group columnist Marco Zatterin.

This comes at a time when the global order as we knew it is collapsing. The war in the Middle East compounds Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, raising pressing questions about global stability and peace. The event will be introduced by Marco Varvello, scientific advisor at IAI and long-time RAI correspondent in London, and will be preceded by an address by the President of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Massimiliano Fedriga.

The festival offers a rare opportunity to hear directly from Boris Johnson, the leader who took the United Kingdom out of the European Union, at a time when Europe is searching for its place in a rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape — caught between Trump’s America, pursuing a renewed bipolar balance with China, and a Russia driven by imperial ambitions. Meanwhile, tensions in Iran are pushing up oil prices and fuelling concerns about a possible recession.

What has happened? Where did we go wrong? What can we do? Who can we trust — and who are our adversaries? Marco Zatterin will put these questions to Boris Johnson, drawing on their shared experience as correspondents in Brussels for five years.

The Link Media Festival, organised in collaboration with the Ordine dei Giornalisti and the Regional Council of Friuli Venezia Giulia, and under the artistic direction of Francesca Fresa, will also feature a series of panels with speakers from the United Kingdom. Attention to international affairs lies at the heart of the festival’s identity and reflects Europe’s role at a time of profound change and uncertainty, as geopolitical balances continue to shift.

On Saturday, April 11 at 3:30 pm in the Link Arena, Andrew Hill, senior business writer at the Financial Times and consulting editor of FT Live, will take part in a conversation with Eric Jozsef, correspondent for Libération, Gabriele Segre, columnist for La Stampa, and Carlotta Macerollo, reporter for Rai News 24.

Andrew Hill is the author of Leadership in the Headlines, a collection of his articles, and Ruskinland, on the lasting influence of the Victorian thinker John Ruskin. A new essay for Profile Books is forthcoming. He was named Economic Commentator of the Year at the Comment Awards (2016) and Commentator of the Year at the Business Journalist of the Year Awards (2009), and he serves on the advisory board of the Institute of Business Ethics.

Also at the festival, English writer and journalist Owen Matthews — a columnist for the Daily Telegraph, former reporter for The Moscow Times, and former Moscow bureau chief for Newsweek — will speak on Sunday, April 12 at 3:30 pm about the remarkable spy Richard Sorge. Drawing on direct access to Soviet archives and testimonies from those who worked with him, Matthews reconstructs Sorge’s story in his recent book, The Perfect Spy: The Life and Death of Richard Sorge (Edizioni Settecolori), widely regarded as the most complete and definitive portrait of the spy who was executed in 1944 and whom Ian Fleming described as “the most formidable in history.”

Meanwhile, the panel dedicated to “Voices from the Territory” will focus on local media as an essential bridge between citizens and their communities — capturing needs and stories often overlooked by major networks. Among the speakers will be Philip Baglini, CEO and founder of London One Radio, on Saturday, April 11 at 3:30 pm. London One Radio is the first official 24-hour national radio station in the UK and today serves as a key reference point for Italians living in the UK and beyond. In February 2026, Baglini received the international Brand Ambassador Award at the Italian Chamber of Deputies. He will join Alberto Bollis, deputy editor-in chief of Il Piccolo (NEM Group), Monika Bertok, editor-in-chief of Tele Capodistria, and Igor Devetak, editor-in-chief of Primorski Dnevnik.