John Kampfner



Profile:
Full name: John Kampfner

Area of interest: Politics and political life

Journals: The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph

Email: [mailto:john@jkampfner.net john@jkampfner.net]

Website: JKampfer.net

Blog: Comment is free...

Agent: David Higham Associates

Networks:



Biography:
Education:

Career: The Daily Telegraph: foreign correspondent (reported on the fall of the Wall and the unification of Germany and in Moscow at the time of the coup and the collapse of Soviet Communism); Financial Times: Chief Political correspondent; BBC Today programme: political commentator; New Statesman: Political Editor, 2002/2005, Editor, 2005/2008
 * profile (jkampfner.net)

Current position/role:


 * also writes/has written for:

Other roles: Author, Broadcaster

Other activities: named as chief executive of the press freedom magazine Index on Censorship, August 2008

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:

TV/Radio: regular pundit for all channels on politics and foreign affairs
 * documentaries (jkampfner.net)

Controversy/Criticism:

Awards/Honours: Documentary The Ugly War won Film of the Year and Journalist of the Year awards at the Foreign Press Association in London, 2002; British Society of Magazine Editors Current Affairs Editor of the Year, 2006

Scoops:

Other: Married to journalist, Lucy Ash



Books & Debate:

 * Inside Yeltsin's Russia: corruption, conflict, capitalism OCLC31970496, 1994
 * Robin Cook: The life and times of Tony Blair's most awkward minister OCLC40965651, 1998
 * Blair's wars OCLC52532815, 2003
 * Dangerous liaisons: Blair, Britain and the failure of Europe OCLC61129422, 2005

Latest work: Freedom for sale: how we made money and lost our liberty OCLC61129422, September 2009. Reviewed here by Peter Preston in The Observer

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate: 

The Guardian/The Daily Telegraph/The Independent:
Column remit: Politics

Section:

Role: Commentator

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:john@jkampfner.net john@jkampfner.net]

Website: Guardian.co | Telegraph.co

Commissioning editor:

Day published:

Regularity: Varies

Column format:

Average length:



Articles: 2011

 * you think we've got free speech in Britain? Think again'' - Nobody sensible wants to abolish libel law, to allow a free-for-all in which reputations are impugned without a right to redress. It's about balance and proportion - 6th January
 * vote: it's not just about Nick Clegg'' - This too narrow focus understates the potential for electoral reform to lift Britain's political malaise - 4th January



Articles: 2010

 * will fight Europe's last dictator?'' - It sticks in the craw to hear William Hague disparaging the honorable approach Robin Cook adopted as Foreign Secretary - 30th December
 * Cable and co have to fight their corner – or walk away'' - The business secretary must not allow a loss of face to cow him: he has a department to run and a party to keep on course - 23rd December
 * Lib Dems need to show pride in liberalism'' - A once-in-a-generation chance to put a liberal stamp on public policy - 16th December (FT)
 * shows up our media for their docility at the feet of authority'' - Mr Assange is an unconventional figure, a man who lives in the shadows and enjoys doing so - 29th November
 * golden age is gone for good'' - The irony of Greece’s riots in May was that the UK was almost completely irrelevant during the saga - 30th October
 * will have to grow up eventually'' - The fault line of the Coalition is the role of the state: not in New Labour's Big Brother mindset, but as a promoter of social justice - 19th August
 * Blair's magnanimity will not change public opinion'' - Blair's decision to donate his book proceeds to injured soldiers may be genuine, but it won't alter the consensus on the Iraq war - 17th August
 * I feel queasy. But I don't regret backing the Lib Dems'' - Those of us on the centre left who ditched Labour weren't wrong. Fighting hard for electoral reform is how Clegg will prove it - 1st August
 * bent on self-exoneration'' - The Chilcot inquiry, which marks its first anniversary this weekend, was flawed from the start. Its purpose was not to apportion blame. Everyone realised from the outset that Blair would get away with it scot-free - 31st July
 * Kampfner v Korieh Duodu'' - The Lib-Con coalition has promised a review of our costly, complicated libel laws. But do they really need reforming in the interests of free speech? - 27th May (Korieh Duodu)
 * once, a court decision that gladdens the heart'' - Once in a while, in these days of antagonism towards the political-legal establishment, something happens that gladdens the heart. The ruling yesterday by three of the UK's most senior judges in the long-running defamation case against the science writer Simon Singh was one such moment - 2nd April
 * deal is aimed at Iran'' - The nuclear weapons cuts agreed between the US and Russia are largely about sending a message to countries such as Iran - 26th March
 * Clegg must dodge the love-bombs'' - Nick Clegg needs to tread carefully – his attempts to reach out to everyone can backfire - 14th March
 * I'm backing the Lib Dems'' - It started with Iraq. But in 2010 Nick Clegg's party has become the natural home for left-liberal Cookites like me - 9th March
 * Brown too is shamed by Iraq'' - The then Chancellor never questioned Tony Blair's vacuous assertions - 4th March
 * is a good day for free expression'' - The MPs' report delivers a boost to libel reformers, a severe rebuke to the News of the World, and a final warning for the PCC - 24th February
 * is our anti-war outrage muted at this Afghan folly?'' - Even the doubters seem to be giving this military intervention one final chance, but there is little confidence it will succeed - 17th February
 * battle commence over privacy'' - John Terry’s is only the latest attempt to suppress free speech for financial reasons - 6th February
 * Brown must pray voters forget this was his war too'' - for the moment the focus is back on the past. Brown is desperately hoping that the public will remember Iraq not as new Labour’s war but as Blair’s war - 31st January (writing in The Sunday Times)
 * still no one has been held to account for Iraq'' - The prime minister chose to fight four wars in his first five years in office - 28th January



Articles: 2009

 * laws that stain Britain’s good name'' - Libel tourism isn’t just a matter for the media elite. Freedom of speech for everyone is in danger - 10th November
 * Marr made no mistake'' - Conference season 09: A leader's health is a matter of public interest. Asking Gordon Brown was legitimate and showed an important lack of deference - 29th September
 * values have never been more important – or less popular'' - People everywhere have been too willing to trade freedom for prosperity or security - 21st September
 * must reclaim the politics of liberty'' - Conservatives have artfully hijacked the civil liberties agenda – the left has allowed itself to be outmanoeuvred - 20th September
 * risk real freedom for short-term material gain'' - Our civil liberties are in jeopardy and we are to blame. We have reduced democracy to the right to make and spend money - 7th September (writing in The Times)
 * safe haven for the super-rich'' - The British deference to people paid far beyond their worth hobbles the FSA's new banking code - 13th August
 * Booth's gun crime film is a sad reminder of New Labour's fatal flaws'' - The party's great failure is its micro-political fixation, free of context. Mandelson v Harman is just more of the same - 5th August
 * gift for the libel tourists'' - Britain's libel laws are killing investigative journalism. But the News of the World scandal makes reform even more unlikely - 13th July
 * can't hijack voting reform'' - It comes as no surprise that 51% of Labour supporters favour voting reform, but it's no task for a government at the fag end of its life - 17th June
 * rump parliament'' - If Labour MPs still think they'll achieve anything other than a less humiliating defeat by removing Gordon Brown, they're wrong - 6th June
 * Martin: out of his class'' - To excuse, even implicitly, Speaker Martin's incompetence by his working-class roots is inverted snobbery of the worst order - 19th May
 * care over caution'' - Faced with frustrating and highly charged conditions, the BBC's attempts to offer balanced reporting of the Gaza conflict have weakened it - 12th January



Articles: 2008

 * politics of intimidation'' - The Damian Green arrest confirms my fears about a vengeful government and a supine media - 29th November 2008
 * the afterglow'' - Today, Obama supporters justly celebrate an epochal moment. The daily grind of tough political decisions begins all too soon - 5th November 2008
 * high expectations of Obama'' - The warm air is already being blown into Downing Street. No matter what troubles lie ahead, the ogre will soon be gone and the saviour is on his way - 31st October 2008
 * often turns to dust, Mr Brown'' - There are similarities between Brown's recovery package and Blair's early successes in Iraq - 17th October 2008
 * tribe bury the hatchet'' - The Labour tribes plan may work in the short term but the test will come with the return to Parliament - 3rd October 2008
 * Labour, same old enemy'' - For the past year in the media it has been open season against Gordon Brown. Was the falling out inevitable? - 22nd September 2008
 * is paying price for dodgy deals'' - Labour is in a mess over the free market - 19th September 2008
 * ideas, the Tories are doomed'' - The sorry state of our nation's politics reflects the staleness of our thinkers - 5th September 2008
 * Huggy Cameron has performed a vanishing act'' - The Tories have slipped back into their political comfort zone, which is a shame for us and a lost opportunity for them - 12th August 2008
 * home of crooks and spivs'' - our economic crisis has been manufactured in boardrooms, through the reckless pursuit of profits - 8th August 2008
 * Brown's courage and vision deficit knows no borders - Britain's loss of clout is not down to the prime minister alone. But he's done his bit. There's much to repair, Mr Miliband - 1st August 2008
 * Does Gordon Brown steady the ship - or set a more radical course? - 30th May 2008
 * Infuriated by Incapability Gordon Brown - 29th April 2008
 * Brown's Labour party needs a new vision - 16th May 2008
 * Gordon Brown thinks - but what does he believe? - 21st May 2008
 * It is time for PM Gordon Brown to stick his neck above the parapet - 21st March 2008
 * Too-clever-by-half Nick Clegg is not alone - Nick Clegg achieved something remarkable during the denouement of the Euro-scrap in the Commons - 7th March 2008
 * Labour, Tories and state surveillance - 8th February 2008
 * Quiet professionals give Brown space to fight - During the height of the war between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, a group of advisers and officials would meet at the armistice line - 25th January 2008
 * CPS should investigate Foreign Office - 11th January 2008



Links:

 * periodicals archive (jkampfner.net)
 * newspapers archive (jkampfner.net)
 * Martin Bright and John Kampfner political interviews at New Statesman
 * Wikipedia bio