Tim Dean
Tim Dean is Director of the World Media Trust. In a voluntary capacity he is Executive Secretary of First Step Forum, and a priest working in the Church of England parish of Godalming.
For twelve years until 2002 he was a senior manager with one of the world's leading international and multi-cultural institutions, the BBC World Service. As a Commissioning Editor for English Programming he was responsible for the major program seasons marking key international events; the planning and commissioning all the major "landmark" documentary and feature series; and developing the policy and strategy for all religious programming. He is an award-winning radio producer, collecting a New York Radio Festival award for a program from Moscow, and a Sanford St Martin award ("for excellence in religious broadcasting") for the documentary series, Daughters of Abraham, about women and religion in the Middle East.
In 2003 Dean was appointed Director of the World Media Trust which works with media professionals and aspiring practitioners outside the UK. The Trust is committed to assist media professionals and aspiring media practitioners outside the UK. Working in partnership with local agencies and institutions, the Trust seeks to help the development of a vibrant and responsible independent media. It is primarily concerned with broadcasting and the press—and will provide training in areas such as: institutional values, identity, and ethos; media management; journalism; media ethics; codes of practice; and editorial, intellectual, practical, technical, and craft skills.
He has been working in Plateau State in Nigeria on a joint WMT/Nigerian Union of Journalists project initiated by Coventry Cathedral's International Centre of Reconciliation. The project involves training workshops for Christian and Muslim journalists against a background of bloody inter-communal violence. He has also worked on projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Norway, Pakistan, Uganda, Ukraine and the USA.
Dean is a member of the First Step Forum—an international network of former Prime Ministers, Foreign Affairs Ministers, Ambassadors, Members of Parliaments, and others engaged in private, independent diplomacy for religious freedom and human rights.
He is currently part of the interlinked Bishop's Christian-Muslim Leaders Forum/Diocesan "Presence & Engagement" group in the Diocese of Guildford. His professional life has led to increasing contact and engagement with Muslims, through WMT and FSF in Nigeria, Morocco, Pakistan, Turkey, Western Sahara and Western Thrace.
He was the Editor of the journal Third Way for eight years in the 1980s, and has been on the governing bodies of a number of Christian organizations and agencies in the UK including: Arts Centre Group, London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, Scripture Union, and the Shaftesbury Project.
Dean is a British citizen living in the UK. He is married to the Rev. Margaret Dean and is the subject of a biography, Not Once, But Twice (1987) documenting his two life—threatening encounters with cancer—with a new updated edition published in Chinese in 2001.