Episode Details

Mary Dejevsky spent decades at the heart of British journalism, including many years as a columnist for The Independent. But in June she stepped down from her weekly column, in part because she had become increasingly frustrated by the shrinking space for dissenting views on Russia and Ukraine in Britain’s mainstream media.

On this episode of Switzerland, she tells Tom Switzer why she believes it has become extraordinarily difficult for British journalists to question the prevailing narrative about the war — and what happened when she suggested the conflict might be more complicated than the conventional wisdom allowed. She says she lost a significant part of her freelance income as a result, while also finding herself in the peculiar position in which writing outside the mainstream could itself be used as evidence that her views were beyond the bounds of respectable debate.

Why has Britain become less tolerant of dissent on Russia and Ukraine than other Western democracies? Is there still greater pluralism in the United States? And what does her experience tell us about the state of journalism, free expression and intellectual debate in Britain?

Mary Dejevsky is a former columnist with The Guardian and The Independent and a former foreign correspondent in Moscow, Paris and Washington.

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Tom Switzer is a journalist and broadcaster who has been a prolific commentator on politics and international affairs. His writing and commentary have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times (international), The Australian, and across ABC and News24 (formerly Sky News), where he has been a regular presenter and panellist. Since 1995, he has worked at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the London-based Spectator magazine, and the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies, which he headed from 2017 to 2025. He is the host of Switzerland, a long-form interview series exploring global politics, modern history, and the ideas shaping the world.