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Revision as of 21:34, 11 November 2013

Andrew Paul Gilligan (born 22 November 1968) 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'. In 2013 he became London's Cycling Commissioner.

Early life and education

Gilligan was born in Teddington, London and was educated at Grey Court School, Kingston College of Further Education and at St John's College, Cambridge, where he studied history and was news editor of the student newspaper Varsity. He was also a member of Cambridge Universities Labour Club.

Career

In 1994, he joined the Cambridge Evening News, then in 1995 he moved to the Sunday Telegraph where he became a specialist reporter on defence.

In 1999 he was recruited by BBC Radio 4 Today programme editor Rod Liddle as Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent. In May 2003, Gilligan made a broadcast in which he claimed that the British Government had "sexed up" a report in order to exaggerate the WMD capabilities of Saddam Hussein. Gilligan resigned from the BBC in 2004, in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry, after Lord Hutton questioned the reliability of Gilligan's evidence. Gilligan described the BBC collectively as the victim of a "grave injustice".

In 2004 he joined the London Evening Standard. Gilligan was named Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2008 for his work on the Mayoralty. In 2009, he joined the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.

Gilligan was also a reporter for Channel 4's investigative programme Dispatches, covering a number of issues, including an allegedly fundamentalist Islamic group in Tower Hamlets.

Gilligan presented a fortnightly programme for Press TV, the Iranian government's English-language TV channel. Rod Liddle challenged Gilligan in July 2009 about working for an "international propaganda channel run by the Iranian government". Gilligan stopped his regular show in December 2009, though he appeared twice more on the network just before the UK's May 2010 general election. Gilligan attributed his decision to leave to the Politics of Iran "that was inconsistent with my opposition to Islamism. I have not worked for Press TV since." Gilligan also stated 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."

On 22 November 2011 Gilligan criticised the Leveson Inquiry in an appearance before the House of Lords communications committee. When asked about the main threats to investigative journalism in the foreseeable future, he argued "The most important threat is official restraint, by which I mean libel and privacy law, state surveillance, and the potential threat posed by the Leveson inquiry." He wrote that the public still trusted the press, and in the wake of the BBC's false linking of child abuse to Lord McAlpine he suggested Lord Leveson should take note. Gilligan himself was cited in a submission to the Leveson enquiry, also in a case of child abuse which he had wrongly linked to a mosque; the Telegraph deleted Gilligan's article and issued a correction.

In January 2013 Gilligan was appointed as the Cycling Commissioner for London by Mayor Boris Johnson. Accusations of "cronyism" were made following the appointment especially since Gilligan was instrumental in toppling the Mayor's main rival Ken Livingstone.

In March 2013 Gilligan became the host of the Sunday Politics show on LBC 97.3.

See also

• Cycling in London
• Transport in London

References

1. "Andrew Gilligan". Telegraph. 20 July 2003. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
2. "The man who wants Ken's scalp". Guardian. 30 April 2008. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
3. ^ "Profile: Andrew Gilligan". bbc.co.uk. 30 January 2004. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
4. "About Varsity". varsity.co.uk. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
5. Is it really grim up north? Andrew Gilligan
6. ^ Brook, Stephen (19 June 2009). "Andrew Gilligan to join the Telegraph". Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
7. "David Kelly: timeline". Telegraph. 9 June 2011. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
8. "'I have considerable doubts as to how reliable this journalist's evidence is'". Telegraph. 29 January 2004. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
9. Gilligan quits BBC over Hutton row BBC
10. "British Press Awards: Andrew Gilligan named journalist of the year". Press Gazette. 8 April 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
11. "Dispatches – Britain's Islamic Republic". Channel 4. 1 March 2010. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
12. "The truth about Andrew Gilligan". New Statesman. London. 22 November 2010.
13. ^ "Mehdi Hasan: New Statesman's senior editor makes up quote". The Telegraph. London. 22 November 2010.
14. Leveson inquiry criticised by Daily Telegraph's Andrew Gilligan John Plunkett
15. Investigative journalism: my testimony to the Lords' select committee Andrew Gilligan
16. Trust in the press has not died Andrew Gilligan
17. Newsnight was wrong, the BBC more so Andrew Gilligan
18. "Submission by the East London Mosque" (PDF). Retrieved 15 October 2013.
19. East London Mosque The Telegraph
20. "Andrew Gilligan to be London's 'cycling commissioner'". The Times. 18 January 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
21. Hugh Muir and Adam Bienkov. "Boris Johnson triggers fresh cronyism claims with Andrew Gilligan job | Politics". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
22. New job for Andrew Gilligan ITV
23. Boris Johnson offers Andrew Gilligan role as cycling commissioner New Statesman
24. "Andrew Gilligan on LBC". Lbc.audioagain.com. Retrieved 15 October 2013.

External links

• Column archive at Greenwich.co.uk
• Column archive at The Telegraph
• Column archive at the London Evening Standard
• Mayor's vision for Cycling in London

Template:Persondata

• 1968 births
• Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
• BBC newsreaders and journalists
• English journalists
• Living people
• People from Teddington