Brian Whitaker (sometimes credited as Brian Whittaker; born 13 June 1947) is a British

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and writer. He studied Arabic studies at the

University of Westminster The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Polyte ...

and Latin (BA Hons) at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

. A former joint investigations editor of ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

'', he left the title at the time of the

Wapping dispute The Wapping dispute was a lengthy failed strike by print workers in London in 1986. Print unions tried to block distribution of ''The Sunday Times'', along with other newspapers in Rupert Murdoch's News International group, after production wa ...

. For a period during 1987, he was editor of the short-lived ''

News on Sunday The ''News on Sunday'' was a left-wing British tabloid newspaper. It was launched in April 1987. Publication ceased seven months later, in November 1987. Origins The founders of the paper were former members of the left-wing group Big Flame. T ...

'' tabloid. The newspaper published extracts from '' Spycatcher'' by Peter Wright in August 1987 while Whitaker was editor. The title was eventually fined £50,000 in May 1989 for contempt of court in breaking an injunction upheld by the

Law Lords Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the British House of Lords, as a committee of the House, effectively to exercise the judicial functions of the House of ...

shortly before publication. Whitaker worked for the British newspaper ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' from 1987 and was its

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

editor from 2000 to 2007. He runs a personal, non-''Guardian''-related website, Al-Bab.com, about politics in the Arab world.

Works

*''News Limited: Why You Can't Read All About it'', 1981 (London: Minority Press Group) , , *''Notes and Queries, vol. 1-5'', 1990 (London: Fourth Estate) , , a collection of Q&A from the readers of ''The Guardian'' *''Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East'', 2006 (London: Saqi Books) , (Berkeley:

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facult ...

) , *''What's "Really" Wrong with the Middle East?'', 2009 (London: Saqi Books) , *''Arabs Without God: Atheism and Freedom of Belief in the Arab World'', 2014 (

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)

References

External links

Column archive
at ''

'' *
Al-Bab.com
Arab culture and politics website * * 1947 births Living people British male journalists Alumni of the University of Birmingham {{UK-journalist-stub