John Kampfner



Profile:
Full name: John Kampfner

Area of interest: Politics and political life

Journals/Organisation: The Guardian | The Daily Telegraph | The Independent

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

Personal website: http://www.jkampfner.net

Website:

Blog: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/johnkampfner

Representation: David Highman | Simon & Schuster

Networks: http://twitter.com/#!/johnkampfner



Biography:
About:

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: Regular pundit for all channels on politics and foreign affairs. Trustee, Index on Censorship


 * also writes/has written for:

Other roles/Main role: Author, Broadcaster

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

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:

Broadcast media:

Video: 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:

Debate: 

Journals:
Column name:

Remit/Info: 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: 2012

 * What the Italians can teach us about tax avoidance - The coastguard has mounted helicopter raids on mega-yachts off the Sardinian coast - 19th August
 * The Pussy Riot trial won't bring down Putin - It is wishful thinking. He has yet to create hunger for change that led to the Arab Spring - 14th August
 * The Lib Dems are in a stronger position than the Tories – but hide it well - Cameron needs Clegg more than Clegg needs Cameron – so why won't the Lib Dem leader show some muscle? - 10th August
 * Let Twitter twits stew in their own juice - The best response to cruel, offensive or disgusting tweets, like the one about Tom Daley's father, is simply to ignore them - 1st August
 * If this feeling lasts, we can dare to hope of a true legacy - The positives have so far hugely outweighed the negatives. The optimism was self-deprecating - 30th July
 * Twitter joke trial: common sense has finally prevailed - If you really want to blow up an airport, do you flag it up in advance? We have elevated taking offence to a human right - 27th July
 * Walk on by– but don't ban the chuggers - I fall into the classic grump category - professional men of a certain age - 25th July
 * Finally Ed Miliband could recalibrate Labour as a party of liberty - Facing down the wizened authoritarians and their secret courts would be a clean break with the Blair era's controlling zeal - 19th July
 * The price of our safety shouldn't be our freedom - The spivs and spooks play on our fears to ratchet up control at the expense of our liberties - 16th July
 * Coalition malcontents have nowhere to go - There is no guarantee any party will benefit from an early election - 12th July
 * This is no way to hold the powerful to account - Chairs of committees need to be far more assertive at the start of sessions - 9th July
 * Greece may be the epicentre – but this is a European crisis - Which politician will be brave enough to tell voters the days of abundance are over? - 18th June
 * We shouldn't lecture others about racism - What sticks in the craw is the patronising tone which permeates far beyond sport - 11th June
 * We need a head of state. And the Queen can't be bettered - Deference isn't my thing. But when I met the Queen I was smitten because, against my better nature, I wanted to be - 4th June
 * We shouldn't let the spooks get away with this - If it passes, the security services will have greater jurisdiction to withhold information from court - 30th May
 * A victory for style over substance - Summits can be important. But there is nothing magical about them - 21st May
 * In our politics you're either up or down - Suddenly, Cameron's charm is toxic and Miliband has discovered his Mojo - 14th May
 * If Blair wants to play elder statesman, let him - It is testament to the man that the whiff of a suggestion of a return to domestic politics has sent commentators into paroxysms of despair or joy - 4th May
 * The ringmaster may change but our circus will endure - Journalism is part of a larger crisis in public life - 28th April
 * Tighter privacy laws would only serve the rich and powerful - The report by MPs on privacy talks of the importance of free expression, but the measures it proposes fly in the face of that - 28th March
 * Williams isn't a traitor, she's a grown-up - The NHS Bill saga provides a salutary lesson about expectation management in a coalition - 12th March
 * For Russia and China, the Arab Spring only offers a warning - Russia has benefited hugely from trade deals with Syria. It is its main weapons supplier - 6th February
 * Lucky Dave’s show goes on as an(other) irritant departs - Nick Clegg must answer the question of what the Lib Dems are for - 4th February
 * A public mood that won't stand for corporate greed any longer - When it came to the bonus culture and tax loopholes, it took years for politicians to catch up with popular discontent - 20th January
 * Abbott's law: You must not overreact to Twitter - Too often Twitter militates against the development of an argument beyond the soundbite - 6th January



Articles: 2011

 * Brazil's success heralds the new world order - This historic economic shift has huge implications for our sense of identity and our role in the world - 29th December
 * Call it the Tracey Emin effect: art overcoming austerity outside London - Turner, Hepworth, FirstSite – the success of new galleries is making the case for culture-led regeneration - 27th December
 * How did Obama end up appeasing the neocons? - The President will continue to mind his conservative flank, particularly on security and law and order - 23rd December
 * Nick Clegg can only deliver on this rhetoric with Labour - For all the bad feeling of the last 18 months, their common interests remain. The left should start to think big - 20th December
 * Silent Liberal Democrats are left on the sidelines - One of the great fears among Liberal Democrat MPs is that their best pitch at the next general election would be: we made the Tories a little less nasty - 10th December
 * Nick Clegg's right. It's time to start means-testing pensioners - It's not 'misery' to have to cancel a holiday. As the wealth gap grows, we must focus on young people looking for work - 6th December
 * In the economic storm a new world order is being born - After decades of being lectured to by the West, the BRIC countries are enjoying their moment - 5th December
 * Which of our leaders has really got the courage to care? - The Coalition may have cracked down harder on the wealthy's pay rises and tax dodges than its predecessor, but that is not saying much - 28th November
 * James Murdoch: dead man walking? - As James Murdoch takes MPs' questions again, it's important to remember where the real problem with
 * The phone hacking inquiry must shackle corporate power, not journalists - As James Murdoch takes MPs' questions again, it's important to remember where the real problem with phone hacking lies - 10th November
 * At the Commonwealth summit, the human rights proselytisers no longer hold sway - The Perth summit reveals how compromised western leaders are in their efforts to promote human rights - 31st October
 * Cameron's Little Englanders need some German lessons - Europhobic talk of taking back powers from the EU to foster growth ignores Germany's route to real, lasting economic success - 26th October
 * Libel reform: a final push - Parliament is taking a significant step in its slow removal of the UK's pariah status on defamation - 19th October
 * Arab Spring is a wake up call for European dictatorships - Minsk is as close to Berlin as London is. Yet, an iron curtain separates the two capitals. In 2011, over a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the nation of Belarus holds out as the last dictatorship in Europe - 27th September
 * Alistair Darling’s sweet revenge leaves a bitter taste - Ed Miliband needs to do more than 'move on' - he needs to explain how his party descended into such acrimony in the first place - 4th September
 * wealthy should pay more tax. Why has it taken so long?'' - Three myths are being punctured: that higher levels of tax are a disincentive to the middle classes; that oligarchs will go elsewhere; that they won't bring in enough money - 26th August
 * too easily offended'' - The Starkey brouhaha follows a well-trodden path. Curmudgeonly man says something crass. Somebody gets cross - 22nd August
 * door has been left open for authoritarian hyperbole'' - Following the riots the gap between professed civil libertarians and the right has narrowed. But police do need support - 15th August
 * place has changed but the fight’s the same'' - The Berlin Wall is history, yet in the Middle East the barriers remain - 13th August
 * we want to punch above our weight, we'll have to pay for it'' - Our defence budget is more than adequate for a medium-sized European country. It does not meet the needs of a nation suffering from an identity crisis - 5th August
 * alone won't drain the trivia out of public life'' - Some of us thought 9/11 would usher in a new age of seriousness. We were wrong. Could Hackgate do it? Unlikely - 3rd August
 * the unthinkable'' - Steve Hilton's politics mix US-style hostility towards the state, a belief in bottom-up activism and a geek-led informality of style - 28th July
 * trouble is, reporters aren’t awkward enough'' - Tabloid journalism is integral to our tradition of press freedom. Denying its value would hand the rich and influential yet more power - 25th July
 * battle won. Now will MPs fight for their liberal values?'' - Politicians' cravenness towards the powerful did not just affect the media. It distorted crime, banking and immigration policy - 14th July
 * of the World fallout could change Britain's media culture'' - Axing the PCC means re-examining the balance of privacy v public interest – but will investigative journalism pay the price? - 10th July
 * media must start policing itself'' - Unfashionable though it might sound the problem in the UK is not too much investigation but too little - 6th July
 * the age of Western intervention is over'' - In case anyone has forgotten, on the eve of the Arab Spring uprisings, Cameron was busily trying to flog British arms to Middle Eastern potentates - 27th June
 * the Tories a bit less nasty won't save Clegg's skin'' - Though Ed Miliband is taking the heat now, the Lib Dem leader's task in achieving positive liberal results is getting harder - 14th June
 * that are too important to be decided on by judges'' - Advocates of free expression should not see privacy as inimical to that cause. Nor should they excuse shoddy journalistic practice - 1st June
 * only crimes are humour and irreverence'' - He kept going with his attacks on the Eurovision song contest as celebs shouted 'shame on you' - 18th May
 * should Nick Clegg do next?'' - The Lib Dems' USP is a belief in fairness combined with a caution about the role of the state - 9th May
 * is sweet but Labour needs Clegg after May 5'' - Miliband will be sitting prettiest after the local elections. But if he is serious about power, he must talk to Lib Dems - 3rd May
 * proves investing in our culture makes economic sense'' - If the current hiatus in funding capital projects becomes a long-term pattern, our country's regions will suffer enormously as a result - 26th April
 * punchbag Clegg can fight back'' - The fresh-faced politician of May 2010 is now battle hardened - 25th April
 * inquiry into press practice will be good for free speech'' - Though the timing may be opportunistic, Ed Miliband is right. Libel reform, privacy and media standards need looking at - 21st April
 * worrying rise of the rich man's weapon of justice'' - In the week that super-injunctions broke new legal ground, John Kampfner attacks a growing threat to press freedom - 1st April
 * last a blow to oligarchs'' - The draft defamation bill aims to rebalance English libel law - 16th March
 * fearful BBC must regain its nerve'' - Its journalists are stronger than ever; but its institutional courage is weaker than ever. For all that, it remains our greatest brand - 10th March
 * Assange and the big picture'' - Working with the founder of WikiLeaks has been like treading on eggshells. But he really has changed the world - 3rd March
 * tyrants want tear gas, the UK has always been happy to oblige'' - Take the revoking of licences to Bahrain with a pinch of salt. British arms firms will be back - 21st February
 * 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



News & updates:

 * John Kampfner steps down as Index on Censorship Chief Executive - "John will be working with Google as a part-time consultant on free expression and cultural issues and with the Global Network Initiative from 1 February, as well as undertaking various journalism and book-writing ventures." - 6th January 2012



References:


Links:

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