Andrew Gilligan
Encyclopedia
Andrew Paul Gilligan is a British journalist best known for a 2003 report on BBC Radio 4
's The Today Programme in which he said a British government briefing paper on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction
(the September Dossier
) had been 'sexed up', a claim that ultimately led to a public inquiry that criticised Gilligan for errors he made in the report, forcing the BBC's chairman and director general, as well as Gilligan himself, to resign.
, London. He was educated at Grey Court School
, Ham, Richmond, at Richmond upon Thames College
, Twickenham
, and at St John's College, Cambridge
, where he studied history. A large part of his time in Cambridge was spent on the student newspaper, Varsity
, of which he became News Editor. He was also a member of Cambridge Organisation of Labour Students
and stood as one of its candidates for the Cambridge delegation to the National Union of Students conference in 1994. Keith Vaz
said he employed Gilligan as an intern, but them dismissed him because he had forged references on his CV.
In 1994, after a summer placement on The Independent
, he gave up his studies to work full-time in journalism. He contributed to the Cambridge Evening News
as a freelancer and later moved to the Sunday Telegraph
where he became a specialist reporter on defence. In 1999 he was recruited by the Today programme editor Rod Liddle
as Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent, as part of an attempt by Liddle to sharpen up the programme's investigative journalism.
. He obtained leaked Ministry of Defence
reports showing that some of the Army's rifles and radios had not worked; that only a small fraction of Royal Air Force
(RAF) bombs during the campaign had hit their targets; and that a £1 billion upgrade to the RAF's main combat jet had left it unable to drop smart bombs. The Defence Secretary
, Geoff Hoon
, denied to Parliament Gilligan's report that British troops were ill-equipped for the war in Iraq and called for a public apology. Gilligan's allegations were borne out by a National Audit Office
report.
In 2000, Gilligan reported on plans being developed at an Italian university for an EU constitution. The Prime Minister's spokesman, Alastair Campbell
, denied any such plans and attacked the journalist as 'Gullible Gilligan'.
Plans for an EU constitution were announced by the Government the following year.
, when he was stationed in Baghdad
. On the day United States forces claimed to have entered the city centre, Gilligan broadcast on the BBC World Service
saying: "I'm in the centre of Baghdad, and I don't see anything… But then the Americans have a history of making these premature announcements." Gilligan was referring to a military communiqué from Qatar
that morning saying that the Americans had entered the centre of the city. In fact, it transpired that an American patrol had passed briefly through one of the south-western suburbs, and then exited again.
The previous day Gilligan had questioned a US Centcom statement that the Americans had taken control of Baghdad airport. Gilligan and three other journalists had visited the airport that morning and established that the Americans were not in control of the airport terminal or approach road. This report was confirmed by a further bus-load of journalists who were taken to the airport later that day by the Iraqi authorities; US forces did not take control of the airport until that night.
Gilligan's reporting was criticised both by the Iraqi authorities, who twice threatened to expel him for disobeying rules not to travel without a minder, and by the British Government. The British defence minister, Adam Ingram
, attacked him for reporting on the day after Baghdad fell, 10 April 2003, that Iraqi civilians were "passing their first days of freedom in a greater fear than they've ever known" due to the widespread outbreak of looting, lawlessness and disorder which broke out after the Americans arrived.
published by the British Government had "sexed up" the military capabilities of Iraq
in order to bolster the argument for going to war with the country. In a subsequent newspaper article, Gilligan quoted a source as identifying Alastair Campbell
, then the Prime Minister's Director of Communications and Strategy, as responsible for the suppressions.
According to Gilligan's account of his source, the "classic" example of the exaggeration was the dossier's claim that Iraq was able to deploy biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so. In the first, unscripted report, broadcast live at 6.07 am on BBC Radio 4
's Today programme, Gilligan claimed to have been told by his source that the Government "probably knew that the 45 minute figure was wrong even before it decided to put it in". Gilligan did not use this formulation in any of his subsequent 19 broadcasts that day, instead saying that the claim was regarded as questionable and based on information from only one source.
) subsequently set up to investigate the circumstances leading up to Kelly's death heard much evidence about Gilligan's claims, and ruled that they were unfounded. The Inquiry could not establish exactly what had transpired at the meeting between Gilligan and Kelly as Gilligan took notes using a palmtop computer
. Two versions of Gilligan's notes were found, only one of which mentioned Alastair Campbell.
However, Gilligan's general account of the conversation - though not that the government "probably" knew that the 45 minute claim "was wrong" - appeared to many observers to have been substantially corroborated by separate interviews given to two other BBC journalists, Susan Watts
and Gavin Hewitt
. Watts had recorded her conversation with Kelly, in which Kelly did indeed say that Alastair Campbell
might be responsible for changes to the dossier. Both Gilligan and Watts spoke to Kelly on an unattributable
basis.
The Government demanded that the BBC name the source for Gilligan's report. The BBC refused to do so. However, after rumours began to circulate amongst his colleagues, Kelly himself eventually revealed to his employers that he had spoken to Gilligan, though he denied making the crucial "probably knew it was wrong" comment.
It was later revealed that Campbell had written in his diary: "It was double-edged but GH (Geoff Hoon) and I agreed it would fuck Gilligan if that was his source." Government press officers assisted journalists to make Kelly's name public, providing clues to journalists and confirming his identity to any who deduced it. One newspaper put more than 20 names to the Ministry of Defence press office before it confirmed David Kelly's.
, which was undertaking an inquiry into the dossier. Gilligan emailed several members of the Committee to tell them that Susan Watts' unattributed Newsnight
source was David Kelly, thereby implicitly revealing Kelly as his own source. Though Gilligan supported his own case by doing this, it unnerved Kelly — who was forced to deny making the comments attributed to him which were quoted verbatim in the committee. Gilligan's actions in identifying another journalist's source went against a principle of investigative journalism
: protect the source.
and had not reached 10 Downing Street.
Lord Butler of Brockwell
, found that "more weight was placed on the intelligence than it would bear", that the dossier "put a strain on the Joint Intelligence Committee in seeking to maintain their normal standards of neutral and objective assessment", and that the judgments in the dossier went to the "outer limits … of the intelligence available."
On the 45-minute claim, Butler endorsed the concerns of the Defence Intelligence Staff and said they should have been heeded. The 45-minute claim should not have been included in the form it took, and there were "suspicions that it had been included because of its eye-catching character". He did not, however, conclude as Gilligan had originally claimed that "the government probably knew it was wrong."
It also emerged that some of the intelligence underpinning the dossier, based on reporting from a new and untested source, had been withdrawn by MI6 as unreliable. Lord Butler of Brockwell revealed that much of the remainder of the intelligence was described by MI6 as "patchy" and "fragmentary", contrary to the characterisation of it by the Prime Minister as "detailed, authoritative and compelling". However, Lord Butler of Brockwell cleared both the Prime Minister and the chairman of the JIC, John Scarlett
, of bad faith or dishonesty.
, its director general, Greg Dyke
, and Gilligan all resigned from the BBC following the publication of the Hutton Inquiry report. Gilligan was belligerent in his departure, saying: "This report casts a chill over all journalism, not just the BBC's. It seeks to hold reporters, with all the difficulties they face, to a standard that it does not appear to demand of, for instance, Government dossiers."
After leaving the BBC, Gilligan became Defence and Diplomatic Editor of The Spectator
. In a speech to the Edinburgh TV Festival in August 2004, the main annual gathering of the broadcasting industry, Gilligan spoke of his "awe" at what he claimed was the Government's "industrial-strength, 45-carat shamelessness" over the dossier and said that the BBC should not retreat from journalistic probing of the Government.
In a drama-documentary The Government Inspector made by Peter Kosminsky
and broadcast on 17 March 2005 by Channel 4
, the discrepancy between the two computer versions of Gilligan's record of his meeting with Dr Kelly was explained by showing Gilligan altering the file to make it tie in with what he had reported. Gilligan claimed that the depiction as "demonstrably, even absurdly, false", and his denial was supported by Greg Dyke . However, Kosminsky responded that he had been advised on the matter by a computer forensics expert.
; he has been a particular critic of the former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone
. Starting in December 2007, Gilligan wrote a series of articles claiming that companies and organisations run by friends and business associates of the Mayor's policing adviser, Lee Jasper
, had received millions of pounds from City Hall while failing to file audited accounts and allegedly doing little or nothing in return for the money. Police are currently investigating seven of the Jasper-linked projects and have made three arrests for theft and money-laundering. In March 2008, following further revelations by Gilligan, Lee Jasper resigned.
The Lee Jasper articles are credited by some with the defeat of Mr Livingstone by Boris Johnson
in the Mayoral election of 1 May 2008. Charlie Beckett, the director of the media thinktank Polis at the London School of Economics, told the Guardian: "If ever a single story has done for a politician, it may just be that one." In April 2008, Gilligan was named Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards
for his work on the Mayoralty. In autumn 2009, he joined the Daily and Sunday Telegraph
as London Editor.
Gilligan is also a reporter for Channel 4's investigative programme Dispatches
, covering the practice of extraordinary rendition
, the privatised railways, the treatment of British soldiers returning from war in Iraq, the housing industry, British airports and other subjects. In March 2010 he reported on the activities of the Islamic Forum of Europe, which London MP Jim Fitzpatrick
claimed was infiltrating the Labour Party
. However IFE reported that he falsely claimed it was linked to Tower Hamlets' former Assistant CEO, and lied to the local Conservative leader to make that claim. He has also reported two editions of ITV
's The London Programme.
Gilligan presented a fortnightly programme for Press TV
, the Iranian government's English-language TV channel until December 2009, though he appeared twice more on the network just before the May 2010 general election. Gilligan in his Daily Telegraph
blog accused Mehdi Hasan
of lying via a "made up quote" from Press TV
staff in a New Statesman
blog article, In the same blog entry Gilligan attributed his decision to leave on the "Iranian shilling
that was inconsistent with my opposition to Islamism
. I have not worked for Press TV since." Gilligan also said that his work for Press TV
consisted of a "regular discussion show on the station, in which Islamism, and the policies of the Iranian government, were often debated and challenged."
In October 2008, Gilligan started a new weekly column for the hyperlocal website Greenwich.co.uk under the title Gilligan's Greenwich.
In November 2008, Guardian contributor Dave Hill reported on allegations that Andrew Gilligan had engaged in sockpuppeting - creating a series of fake online identities to praise and defend his own viewpoints and stories featured in his columns. Gilligan denied these allegations, claiming that one of the online identities was his partner, but refused to expand on this further.
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's The Today Programme in which he said a British government briefing paper on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction
Iraq and weapons of mass destruction
During the regime of Saddam Hussein, the nation of Iraq used, possessed, and made efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction . Hussein was internationally known for his use of chemical weapons in the 1980s against Iranian and Kurdish civilians during and after the Iran–Iraq War...
(the September Dossier
September Dossier
Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government, also known as the September Dossier, was a document published by the British government on 24 September 2002 on the same day of a recall of Parliament to discuss the contents of the document...
) had been 'sexed up', a claim that ultimately led to a public inquiry that criticised Gilligan for errors he made in the report, forcing the BBC's chairman and director general, as well as Gilligan himself, to resign.
Early career
Gilligan was born in TeddingtonTeddington
Teddington is a suburban area in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London, on the north bank of the River Thames, between Hampton Wick and Twickenham. It stretches inland from the River Thames to Bushy Park...
, London. He was educated at Grey Court School
Grey Court School
Grey Court School is a maximed comprehensive in Richmond, Greater London, England. It was built in the 1950s. Its head teacher is Maggie Bailey and it is twinned with Alexander-von-Humboldt-Gymnasium in Konstanz, Southern Germany...
, Ham, Richmond, at Richmond upon Thames College
Richmond upon Thames College
Richmond upon Thames College is a further education college in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, which provides education primarily to 16-19 year olds...
, Twickenham
Twickenham
Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...
, and at St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....
, where he studied history. A large part of his time in Cambridge was spent on the student newspaper, Varsity
Varsity (Cambridge)
Varsity is the oldest of Cambridge University's main student newspapers. It has been published continuously since 1947, and is one of only three fully independent student newspapers in the UK. It appears every Friday around Cambridge...
, of which he became News Editor. He was also a member of Cambridge Organisation of Labour Students
Cambridge University Labour Club
The Cambridge Universities Labour Club is a political society whose predecessor was first set up in 1905, which now seeks to unite socialist and social democratic students at Cambridge University with the Labour Party by propagating "the values of Clause 4 of the Labour Party’s constitution, to...
and stood as one of its candidates for the Cambridge delegation to the National Union of Students conference in 1994. Keith Vaz
Keith Vaz
Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz, known as Keith Vaz, was born 26 November 1956 in Aden, Yemen.Keith Vaz is a British Labour Party politician and a Member of Parliament for Leicester East, He is the longest serving Asian MP and has been the Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee since July...
said he employed Gilligan as an intern, but them dismissed him because he had forged references on his CV.
In 1994, after a summer placement on The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, he gave up his studies to work full-time in journalism. He contributed to the Cambridge Evening News
Cambridge Evening News
The Cambridge News is a British daily newspaper published each weekday and on Saturdays. It is distributed from its parent company Cambridge Newspapers Ltd's Milton base which was opened in 1991 as a print works, and became the Evening News main operational hub in 1998...
as a freelancer and later moved to the Sunday Telegraph
Sunday Telegraph
The Sunday Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961. It is the sister paper of The Daily Telegraph, but is run separately with a different editorial staff, although there is some cross-usage of stories...
where he became a specialist reporter on defence. In 1999 he was recruited by the Today programme editor Rod Liddle
Rod Liddle
Roderick E. L. Liddle is an English print, radio, and television journalist.He is an associate editor of The Spectator, and former editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he is the author of Too Beautiful for You , Love Will Destroy Everything , and co-author of The Best of Liddle Britain...
as Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent, as part of an attempt by Liddle to sharpen up the programme's investigative journalism.
The Today programme
On Today, Gilligan broke a number of stories about the British military's shortcomings, particularly in relation to the Kosovo warKosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
. He obtained leaked Ministry of Defence
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
reports showing that some of the Army's rifles and radios had not worked; that only a small fraction of Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
(RAF) bombs during the campaign had hit their targets; and that a £1 billion upgrade to the RAF's main combat jet had left it unable to drop smart bombs. The Defence Secretary
Secretary of State for Defence
The Secretary of State for Defence, popularly known as the Defence Secretary, is the senior Government of the United Kingdom minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence, chairing the Defence Council. It is a Cabinet position...
, Geoff Hoon
Geoff Hoon
Geoffrey "Geoff" William Hoon is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Ashfield from 1992 to 2010...
, denied to Parliament Gilligan's report that British troops were ill-equipped for the war in Iraq and called for a public apology. Gilligan's allegations were borne out by a National Audit Office
National Audit Office (United Kingdom)
The National Audit Office is an independent Parliamentary body in the United Kingdom which is responsible for auditing central government departments, government agencies and non-departmental public bodies...
report.
In 2000, Gilligan reported on plans being developed at an Italian university for an EU constitution. The Prime Minister's spokesman, Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell
Alastair John Campbell is a British journalist, broadcaster, political aide and author, best known for his work as Director of Communications and Strategy for Prime Minister Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003, having first started working for Blair in 1994...
, denied any such plans and attacked the journalist as 'Gullible Gilligan'.
Plans for an EU constitution were announced by the Government the following year.
Baghdad reporting
Gilligan first came to prominence during the 2003 invasion of Iraq2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
, when he was stationed in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
. On the day United States forces claimed to have entered the city centre, Gilligan broadcast on the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
saying: "I'm in the centre of Baghdad, and I don't see anything… But then the Americans have a history of making these premature announcements." Gilligan was referring to a military communiqué from Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
that morning saying that the Americans had entered the centre of the city. In fact, it transpired that an American patrol had passed briefly through one of the south-western suburbs, and then exited again.
The previous day Gilligan had questioned a US Centcom statement that the Americans had taken control of Baghdad airport. Gilligan and three other journalists had visited the airport that morning and established that the Americans were not in control of the airport terminal or approach road. This report was confirmed by a further bus-load of journalists who were taken to the airport later that day by the Iraqi authorities; US forces did not take control of the airport until that night.
Gilligan's reporting was criticised both by the Iraqi authorities, who twice threatened to expel him for disobeying rules not to travel without a minder, and by the British Government. The British defence minister, Adam Ingram
Adam Ingram (Labour politician)
Adam Paterson Ingram is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow from 1987 to 2010.-Early life:...
, attacked him for reporting on the day after Baghdad fell, 10 April 2003, that Iraqi civilians were "passing their first days of freedom in a greater fear than they've ever known" due to the widespread outbreak of looting, lawlessness and disorder which broke out after the Americans arrived.
The "sexing up" Iraqi capabilities allegations
On 29 May 2003, back in Britain, Gilligan reported allegations that a dossierSeptember Dossier
Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government, also known as the September Dossier, was a document published by the British government on 24 September 2002 on the same day of a recall of Parliament to discuss the contents of the document...
published by the British Government had "sexed up" the military capabilities of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
in order to bolster the argument for going to war with the country. In a subsequent newspaper article, Gilligan quoted a source as identifying Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell
Alastair John Campbell is a British journalist, broadcaster, political aide and author, best known for his work as Director of Communications and Strategy for Prime Minister Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003, having first started working for Blair in 1994...
, then the Prime Minister's Director of Communications and Strategy, as responsible for the suppressions.
According to Gilligan's account of his source, the "classic" example of the exaggeration was the dossier's claim that Iraq was able to deploy biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so. In the first, unscripted report, broadcast live at 6.07 am on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's Today programme, Gilligan claimed to have been told by his source that the Government "probably knew that the 45 minute figure was wrong even before it decided to put it in". Gilligan did not use this formulation in any of his subsequent 19 broadcasts that day, instead saying that the claim was regarded as questionable and based on information from only one source.
David Kelly
Gilligan's source was biological weapons expert David Kelly. Kelly was found dead, having apparently committed suicide, shortly after being identified as the source for the story. An inquiry (the Hutton InquiryHutton Inquiry
The Hutton Inquiry was a 2003 judicial inquiry in the UK chaired by Lord Hutton, who was appointed by the Labour government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, a biological warfare expert and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq.On 18 July 2003, Kelly, an employee...
) subsequently set up to investigate the circumstances leading up to Kelly's death heard much evidence about Gilligan's claims, and ruled that they were unfounded. The Inquiry could not establish exactly what had transpired at the meeting between Gilligan and Kelly as Gilligan took notes using a palmtop computer
Handheld PC
A Handheld PC, or H/PC for short, is a term for a computer built around a form factor which is smaller than any standard laptop computer. It is sometimes referred to as a Palmtop. The first handheld device compatible with desktop IBM personal computers of the time was the Atari Portfolio of 1989...
. Two versions of Gilligan's notes were found, only one of which mentioned Alastair Campbell.
However, Gilligan's general account of the conversation - though not that the government "probably" knew that the 45 minute claim "was wrong" - appeared to many observers to have been substantially corroborated by separate interviews given to two other BBC journalists, Susan Watts
Susan Watts
Susan Janet Watts is the science editor of the BBC's Newsnight programme, joining the programme in January 1995.-Early life:She went to Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham Girls' School. She has a BSc in Physics from Imperial College London....
and Gavin Hewitt
Gavin Hewitt
Gavin Hewitt is a British journalist and presenter, currently BBC News's Europe Editor, a post he has held since September 2009.-Life and career:...
. Watts had recorded her conversation with Kelly, in which Kelly did indeed say that Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell
Alastair John Campbell is a British journalist, broadcaster, political aide and author, best known for his work as Director of Communications and Strategy for Prime Minister Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003, having first started working for Blair in 1994...
might be responsible for changes to the dossier. Both Gilligan and Watts spoke to Kelly on an unattributable
Journalism sourcing
In journalism, a source is a person, publication, or other record or document that gives timely information. Outside journalism, sources are sometimes known as "news sources"...
basis.
The Government demanded that the BBC name the source for Gilligan's report. The BBC refused to do so. However, after rumours began to circulate amongst his colleagues, Kelly himself eventually revealed to his employers that he had spoken to Gilligan, though he denied making the crucial "probably knew it was wrong" comment.
It was later revealed that Campbell had written in his diary: "It was double-edged but GH (Geoff Hoon) and I agreed it would fuck Gilligan if that was his source." Government press officers assisted journalists to make Kelly's name public, providing clues to journalists and confirming his identity to any who deduced it. One newspaper put more than 20 names to the Ministry of Defence press office before it confirmed David Kelly's.
The Foreign Affairs Committee
Kelly was called to give evidence before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the House of CommonsBritish House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
, which was undertaking an inquiry into the dossier. Gilligan emailed several members of the Committee to tell them that Susan Watts' unattributed Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
source was David Kelly, thereby implicitly revealing Kelly as his own source. Though Gilligan supported his own case by doing this, it unnerved Kelly — who was forced to deny making the comments attributed to him which were quoted verbatim in the committee. Gilligan's actions in identifying another journalist's source went against a principle of investigative journalism
Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...
: protect the source.
The Hutton Inquiry
Despite this error and the overstatement in his first report, Gilligan maintained he had uncovered a potentially important news story, originating from a credible source. However, his story suffered from weaknesses that were demonstrated during the inquiry. Lord Hutton determined that while Alastair Campbell had made comments on the dossier, the Joint Intelligence Committee had taken all the decisions on its content. Hutton determined that the Defence Intelligence Staff had raised doubts about the 45 minute claim, but they had been dismissed by the Secret Intelligence ServiceSecret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
and had not reached 10 Downing Street.
The Butler Enquiry
A later official enquiry into the government's use of intelligence, conducted by the former head of the civil serviceCivil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
Lord Butler of Brockwell
Robin Butler, Baron Butler of Brockwell
Frederick Edward Robin Butler, Baron Butler of Brockwell, is a retired British civil servant, now sitting in the House of Lords as a Life Peer.-Life:Butler was born in Lytham St Annes on on 3 January, 1938...
, found that "more weight was placed on the intelligence than it would bear", that the dossier "put a strain on the Joint Intelligence Committee in seeking to maintain their normal standards of neutral and objective assessment", and that the judgments in the dossier went to the "outer limits … of the intelligence available."
On the 45-minute claim, Butler endorsed the concerns of the Defence Intelligence Staff and said they should have been heeded. The 45-minute claim should not have been included in the form it took, and there were "suspicions that it had been included because of its eye-catching character". He did not, however, conclude as Gilligan had originally claimed that "the government probably knew it was wrong."
It also emerged that some of the intelligence underpinning the dossier, based on reporting from a new and untested source, had been withdrawn by MI6 as unreliable. Lord Butler of Brockwell revealed that much of the remainder of the intelligence was described by MI6 as "patchy" and "fragmentary", contrary to the characterisation of it by the Prime Minister as "detailed, authoritative and compelling". However, Lord Butler of Brockwell cleared both the Prime Minister and the chairman of the JIC, John Scarlett
John Scarlett
Sir John McLeod Scarlett, KCMG, OBE was Director General of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 2004 to 2009...
, of bad faith or dishonesty.
Resignation from the BBC
The BBC's chairman, Gavyn DaviesGavyn Davies
Gavyn Davies, OBE was the chairman of the BBC from 2001 until 2004, a former Goldman Sachs banker and a former economic advisor to the British Government...
, its director general, Greg Dyke
Greg Dyke
Gregory "Greg" Dyke is a British media executive, journalist and broadcaster. Since the 1960s, Dyke has a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism. He is credited with introducing 'tabloid' television to British broadcasting, and reviving the ratings of TV-am...
, and Gilligan all resigned from the BBC following the publication of the Hutton Inquiry report. Gilligan was belligerent in his departure, saying: "This report casts a chill over all journalism, not just the BBC's. It seeks to hold reporters, with all the difficulties they face, to a standard that it does not appear to demand of, for instance, Government dossiers."
After leaving the BBC, Gilligan became Defence and Diplomatic Editor of The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
. In a speech to the Edinburgh TV Festival in August 2004, the main annual gathering of the broadcasting industry, Gilligan spoke of his "awe" at what he claimed was the Government's "industrial-strength, 45-carat shamelessness" over the dossier and said that the BBC should not retreat from journalistic probing of the Government.
In a drama-documentary The Government Inspector made by Peter Kosminsky
Peter Kosminsky
Peter Kosminsky is a British writer, director and producer. He has directed Hollywood movies such as White Oleander and television films like Warriors, The Government Inspector and The Promise.- Biography :...
and broadcast on 17 March 2005 by Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, the discrepancy between the two computer versions of Gilligan's record of his meeting with Dr Kelly was explained by showing Gilligan altering the file to make it tie in with what he had reported. Gilligan claimed that the depiction as "demonstrably, even absurdly, false", and his denial was supported by Greg Dyke . However, Kosminsky responded that he had been advised on the matter by a computer forensics expert.
Post-BBC
After leaving the BBC, Gilligan joined the London Evening StandardEvening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
; he has been a particular critic of the former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
. Starting in December 2007, Gilligan wrote a series of articles claiming that companies and organisations run by friends and business associates of the Mayor's policing adviser, Lee Jasper
Lee Jasper
Lee Jasper is a British Black activist and former Senior Policy Advisor on Equalities to the Mayor of London. He resigned on 4 March 2008 following publication by the Evening Standard of personal emails that were illegally acquired....
, had received millions of pounds from City Hall while failing to file audited accounts and allegedly doing little or nothing in return for the money. Police are currently investigating seven of the Jasper-linked projects and have made three arrests for theft and money-laundering. In March 2008, following further revelations by Gilligan, Lee Jasper resigned.
The Lee Jasper articles are credited by some with the defeat of Mr Livingstone by Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
in the Mayoral election of 1 May 2008. Charlie Beckett, the director of the media thinktank Polis at the London School of Economics, told the Guardian: "If ever a single story has done for a politician, it may just be that one." In April 2008, Gilligan was named Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards
British Press Awards
The British Press Awards is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. Established in the 1970s, honours are voted on by a panel of journalists and newspaper executives...
for his work on the Mayoralty. In autumn 2009, he joined the Daily and Sunday Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
as London Editor.
Gilligan is also a reporter for Channel 4's investigative programme Dispatches
Dispatches (TV series)
Dispatches is the British television current affairs documentary series on Channel 4, first transmitted in 1987. The programme covers issues about British society, politics, health, religion, international current affairs and the environment, usually featuring a mole in an organisation.-Awards:*...
, covering the practice of extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
, the privatised railways, the treatment of British soldiers returning from war in Iraq, the housing industry, British airports and other subjects. In March 2010 he reported on the activities of the Islamic Forum of Europe, which London MP Jim Fitzpatrick
Jim Fitzpatrick (politician)
James Fitzpatrick is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Poplar and Limehouse since the 2010 General Election. From 1997 to the 2010 election he was the member for Poplar and Canning Town...
claimed was infiltrating the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. However IFE reported that he falsely claimed it was linked to Tower Hamlets' former Assistant CEO, and lied to the local Conservative leader to make that claim. He has also reported two editions of ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's The London Programme.
Gilligan presented a fortnightly programme for Press TV
Press TV
Press TV is a 24-hour English language global news network owned by the Iranian government. Its headquarters are located in Tehran, Iran, with bureaux in Beirut , Damascus , London , Seoul and Washington DC ....
, the Iranian government's English-language TV channel until December 2009, though he appeared twice more on the network just before the May 2010 general election. Gilligan in his Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
blog accused Mehdi Hasan
Mehdi Hasan
Mehdi Hasan is a British journalist who has worked in television current affairs and the national press. He was appointed senior editor at the New Statesman In the late spring of 2009.-Television career:...
of lying via a "made up quote" from Press TV
Press TV
Press TV is a 24-hour English language global news network owned by the Iranian government. Its headquarters are located in Tehran, Iran, with bureaux in Beirut , Damascus , London , Seoul and Washington DC ....
staff in a New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
blog article, In the same blog entry Gilligan attributed his decision to leave on the "Iranian shilling
Politics of Iran
The politics of Iran take place in a framework of theocracy guided by an Islamist ideology. The December 1979 constitution, and its 1989 amendment, define the political, economic, and social order of the Islamic Republic of Iran, declaring that Shi'a Islam of the Twelver school of thought is...
that was inconsistent with my opposition to Islamism
Islamic extremism
Islamic extremism refers to two related and partially overlapping but also distinct aspects of extremist interpretations and pursuits of Islamic ideology:...
. I have not worked for Press TV since." Gilligan also said that his work for Press TV
Press TV
Press TV is a 24-hour English language global news network owned by the Iranian government. Its headquarters are located in Tehran, Iran, with bureaux in Beirut , Damascus , London , Seoul and Washington DC ....
consisted of a "regular discussion show on the station, in which Islamism, and the policies of the Iranian government, were often debated and challenged."
In October 2008, Gilligan started a new weekly column for the hyperlocal website Greenwich.co.uk under the title Gilligan's Greenwich.
In November 2008, Guardian contributor Dave Hill reported on allegations that Andrew Gilligan had engaged in sockpuppeting - creating a series of fake online identities to praise and defend his own viewpoints and stories featured in his columns. Gilligan denied these allegations, claiming that one of the online identities was his partner, but refused to expand on this further.
Further reading
- "Profile: Andrew Gilligan". BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
. 20 July 2003. Accessed 5 August 2011. - "Andrew Gilligan". The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
. 20 July 2003. Accessed 5 August 2011. - "Gilligan statement in full". BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
. 30 January 2004. Accessed 5 August 2011. - "Profile: Andrew Gilligan". BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
. 30 January 2004. Accessed 5 August 2011.
External links
- Column archive at Greenwich.co.uk
- Column archive at The TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
- Column archive at the London Evening Standard