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

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and writer. Whitaker earned a degree in 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 Po ...

and Latin (BA Hons) at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

. He started work as a graduate journalist with the ''

Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St. Paul's Square, Liverpool, England. It is published Monday through Sunday, and is Liverpool's da ...

'' in 1968. During his time in Liverpool, he set up the '' Liverpool Free Press'' in 1971 with four other ''Echo'' journalists. The paper specialised in investigative journalism and stories the more mainstream media would not cover. The paper's investigative work led to a former council leader and former council architect being jailed for corruption over their involvement in the building of a dry ski slope in Kirkby. A former joint investigations editor of ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday 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 N ...

'', 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 politics, left-wing United Kingdom, British Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper. It was launched in April 1987. Publication ceased seven months later, in November 1987. Origins The founders of the ...

'' tabloid. The newspaper published extracts from ''

Spycatcher ''Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer'' (1987) is a memoir written by Peter Wright, former MI5 officer and assistant director, and co-author Paul Greengrass. Wright drew on his experiences and research into ...

'' 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 Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' from 1987 and was its

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

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 faculty ...

) , *''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 (

CreateSpace On-Demand Publishing, LLC, doing business as CreateSpace, was a self-publishing service owned by Amazon. The company was founded in 2000 in South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, So ...

)

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 Alumni of the University of Westminster Writers on the Middle East {{UK-journalist-stub