Nick Davies (born 28 March 1953) is a British investigative journalist, writer, and

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

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 w ...

, as well as for ''

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 ...

'' and ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'', and been named Reporter of the Year, Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards. 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.

Career in journalism

Davies gained a PPE degree from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

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

Mirror Group Reach plc (known as Trinity Mirror between 1999 and 2018) is a British newspaper, magazine and internet journalism, digital publisher. It is one of the UK's biggest newspaper groups, publishing 240 regional papers in addition to the national ' ...

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

. He then moved to London initially to work for the '' Sunday People'' and spent a year working for '' The Evening Standard'' before becoming a news reporter at ''

'' in July 1979. Since then he has worked as home affairs correspondent at ''

''; chief feature writer at '' London Daily News'' in 1986 and on-screen reporter for ''

'' and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

'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 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, communications director for the Conservative Party. Davies received the Paul Foot Award 2011 for his work on this story. 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. Davies is to be played by

David Tennant David John Tennant (; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He is best known for portraying the Tenth Doctor, tenth and Fourteenth Doctor, fourteenth incarnations of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the science fiction series ''Docto ...

in an upcoming ITV drama about the phone hacking scandal, '' The Hack'', by the team which made '' Mr Bates vs The Post Office''.

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 bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Book ...

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

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

Peter Oborne Peter Alan Oborne (; born 11 July 1957) is a British journalist and broadcaster. He is the former chief political commentator of ''The Daily Telegraph'', from which he resigned in early 2015. He is author of ''The Rise of Political Lying'' (2005 ...

in ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' 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

* British Press 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 ''