Nicholas Davies (born 28 March 1953) is an award-winning British investigative journalist, writer, and documentary maker. Davies has written extensively as a

freelancer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance ...

, as well as for ''

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 ...

'' and ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'', and been named Reporter of the Year, Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year at the

British Press Awards The Press Awards, formerly the British Press Awards, is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. History Established in 1962 by '' The People'' and '' World's Press News'', the first award ceremony for the then-named ...

. Davies has made documentaries for ITV's ''

World in Action ''World in Action'' was a British investigative current affairs programme made by Granada Television for ITV from 7 January 1963 until 7 December 1998. Its campaigning journalism frequently had a major impact on events of the day. Its product ...

'' and written numerous books on the subject of politics and journalism, including ''Flat Earth News'', which attracted considerable controversy as an exposé of journalistic malpractice in the UK and around the globe. As a reporter for ''The Guardian'', Davies was responsible for uncovering the ''News of the World'' phone hacking scandal, including the July 2011 revelations of hacking into the mobile phone voicemail of the murdered schoolgirl

Milly Dowler Milly is a feminine given name, sometimes used as a short form (hypocorism) of Mildred, Amelia, Emily, etc. It may refer to: People * Milly Alcock (born 2000), Australian actress * Milly Babalanda (born 1970), Ugandan politician * Milly Ber ...

Career in journalism

Davies gained a PPE degree from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1974, and started his journalism career in 1976, working as a trainee for the Mirror Group in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to ...

. He then moved to London initially to work for the ''

Sunday People The ''Sunday People'' is a British tabloid Sunday newspaper. It was founded as ''The People'' on 16 October 1881. At one point owned by Odhams Press, The ''People'' was acquired along with Odhams by the Mirror Group in 1961, along with the ' ...

'' and spent a year working for ''

The Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after bei ...

'' before becoming a news reporter at ''

'' in July 1979. Since then he has worked as

home affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

correspondent at ''

''; chief feature writer at ''

London Daily News The ''London Daily News'' was a short-lived London newspaper owned by Robert Maxwell. It was published from 24 February to 23 July 1987. History The ''London Daily News'' was intended to be a "24-hour" paper challenging the local dominance of t ...

'' in 1986 and on-screen reporter for ''

'' and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

's '' Dispatches''. After the ''London Daily News'' folded he moved to the United States for a year, where he wrote ''White Lies'', about the wrongful conviction of a black janitor, Clarence Brandley, for the murder of a white girl. From 1989 Davies was a freelance reporter for ''

'', for which he contributed articles, working from his home in Sussex. He was the winner of the first Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in 1999. In September 2016 he retired, announcing that he would travel in search of interesting experiences. His website states he was last seen somewhere between a yoga shala in Indonesia and a cattle ranch in northern Argentina. Following the publication of '' Flat Earth News'' and a ''Guardian'' story co-written by Davies claiming that ''News of the World'' journalists tapped private mobile phones to get stories, on 14 July 2009 Davies told the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee that the

Metropolitan Police Service The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

had done too little to investigate the claims. The ''Guardian'' coverage also led to calls from high-profile MPs for the dismissal of

Andy Coulson Andrew Edward Coulson (born 21 January 1968) is an English journalist and political strategist. Coulson was the editor of the ''News of the World'' from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's repo ...

, communications director for the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. Davies received the Paul Foot Award 2011 for his work on this story.Dan Sabbag
"Nick Davies wins award for hacking exposé"
''The Guardian'', 29 February 2012, p.5 Davies's book on the ''News International'' phone hacking scandal, '' Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch'', was released in August 2014.

Critical reaction to ''Flat Earth News''

'' Flat Earth News'' was greeted in the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review o ...

'' on its publication as "a genuinely important book, one which is likely to change, permanently, the way anyone who reads it looks at the British newspaper industry". The ''LRB'' highlighted the analysis showing that 60% of the content of UK papers was based mainly on wire copy or press releases, a practice Davies called "

churnalism Churnalism is a pejorative term for a form of journalism in which press releases, stories provided by news agencies, and other forms of pre-packaged material, instead of reported news, are used to create articles in newspapers and other news me ...

", while only 12% are original stories and only 12% of stories showed evidence that the central statement had been corroborated.

Mary Riddell Mary Carmella Riddell (born 19 April 1952) is a British journalist. She has been a newspaper columnist for ''The Daily Telegraph'', and served as the newspaper's assistant editor. Early life Riddell was born in Grimsby and attended Boston High ...

in ''

'' disputed some of the charges against British journalism in the book, and described it as "unduly pessimistic". Peter Oborne in ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...

'' concentrated on the use of illegal techniques to invade privacy rather than declining standards, describing ''Flat Earth News'' as "hypnotically readable" and praising the collection of evidence that the practice of journalism is "bent", although qualifying this somewhat by suggesting that Davies "ignores a great deal f journalismthat is salient and good".

Awards

Reporter of the Year, 2000; Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year. * Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, 1999. * Paul Foot Award 2011, for a series of articles that helped to expose the scale of phone-hacking at the ''News of the World''. (Davies was also nominated for the award the previous year.)

Bibliography

* * * * * *

References

External links

Nick Davies
''official website'' *
Column archive
at ''