5x15 on shame: Jon Ronson, Charlie Gilmour, Max Mosley and Christopher Jeffries

The unscripted, fast-paced format of 5x15 events means the high-profile speakers must talk honestly about their own experiences, passions and ideas. Shame is perhaps the hardest subject to discuss candidly, and this one-off event invites three fascinating men, each of whom has been humiliated and hounded by headlines, to share their stories. Having just written a new book, So You've Been Publicly Shamed, John Ronson will offer his own expertise and insight in curating the discussion. 
Max Mosley presents his ideas
The Mosley family are no strangers to controversy and, in the most salacious of hatchet news stories, former Formula 1 boss Max Mosley was accused by The News of the World of participating in a sex party with neo-Nazi undertones. Mosley took on the tabloid and won -- proving that there was nothing illegal about his actions, but invoking an inevitable tirade of invasive reportage during the high-profile trial. After his victory against the News of the World, Max Mosley was closely involved in the Leveson report. Then he battled the tech giants at Google, suing them for refusing to remove the images from the original news story scandal. 
Charlie Gilmour tells his story 
In 2011 Charlie Gilmour, Cambridge University student, was snapped swinging from the Cenotaph in a protest against tuition fees. The picture was splashed across the papers in a publicity storm fuelled by the fact that his father is Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, and a snarky debate over whether or not the History student was aware of the significance of the war memorial. Throw in a cocktail of drugs and you have a front page news. When Charlie Gilmour was jailed for 16 months opinions were divided: the court ruled that his behaviour was 'outrageous and deeply offensive'; others argued that a young, and at the time vulnerable, student was being unduly punished for a misjudged but non-malicious mistake. From this high-profile scandal comes a tale of redemption: four years on, Gilmour has graduated and is now a writer and vociferous campaigner for prisoners' rights. 
Christopher Jefferies gives his perspective 
Over Christmas 2010 the country was gripped by the tragic story of Joanna Yeates' murder. Christopher Jefferies, the victim's landlord and neighbour was arrested as a suspect. Though released and cleared of all charges the retired Clifton College teacher had already been vilified by the press. A flamboyance in the classroom and passions for avant-garde cinema and the poetry of Christina Rossetti were used to fuel a character assassination: although quickly cleared by the police as innocent, Jeffereies had been named, shamed and smeared as morbid and murderous. He sued eight publications for Libel, and the Daily Mirror and Sun newspapers were found guilty of contempt of court. Jefferies's experience was recently turned into ITV drama, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies.