Polly Renton  Polly Renton, born Penelope Sally Rosita Renton (4 March 1970 – 28 May 2010), was an award-winning British documentary film maker and proponent of ethical journalism, who played an important part in transforming political television in East Africa and trained a generation of African television journalists through her Nairobi based NGO, MEDEVA (Media Development in Africa). Penelope (‘Polly’) Sally Rosita Renton was born in Brighton on 4 March 1970, the youngest of the five children of Tim Renton (later Baron Renton of Mount Harry), a Conservative MP and Chief Whip to Margaret Thatcher, and his wife Alice (née Fergusson), a novelist and historian. She was named, in part, after her great aunt, the novelist and explorer Rosita Forbes. Her siblings include the investigative journalist and author Alex Renton and the artist and cartoonist Chelsea Renton. She was educated at Windlesham House School and Roedean before going up to Magdalen College, Oxford to read Modern Languages. After university she spent time in Guatemala helping to rescue children from prostitution before threats to her life forced her to leave the country. In 1994 Renton abandoned an 18-month career in the pharmaceuticals industry to work as a researcher for Peter Kosminsky on his sexual abuse docu-drama, "No Child of Mine" (1997), at Yorkshire Television. She directed her first two documentary films, "My Mate Charlie" (2000), about the rise in the use of cocaine in Britain, and "Waiting for Sentence" (2001), which explored prison life, for Channel 4's "Doing Time" series. Her next film, "Sex Bomb" (2002), dealt with sexually transmitted diseases among British teenagers and won the Royal Television Society's award for Best Independent Programme in 2002."“Polly Renton was adept at getting the very best out of her interviewees, giving them the confidence to speak openly about their experiences. She was a tenacious yet compassionate director, and her humour and kindness were evident even in the bleakest filming situations.”" (Obituary, "The Telegraph")  Renton moved to Kenya after holidaying there in 2000 and is credited with playing a major role in the transformation of the country’s television. Disillusioned by the poor quality of television journalism available and the restrictions on it, Renton obtained funding from the Ford Foundation to set up a non-governmental organisation, Media Development in Africa (MEDEVA), in Nairobi.