Nick Davies | |
|---|---|
| Born | 28 March 1953 (1953-03-28) (age 72) |
| Occupation | Journalist, writer, documentary maker |
| Nationality | British |
| Period | 1976–present |
| Genre | Journalism, politics |
| Notable works | Dark Heart: The Story of a Journey into an Undiscovered Britain (1998)[1] The School Report (2000)[2] Flat Earth News (2008)[3] Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch (2014)[4] |
| Notable awards | Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism 1999 British Press Awards Reporter of the Year, 2000 Paul Foot Award 2011 |
| Website | |
| www | |
Nick Davies (born 28 March 1953[citation needed]) is a Britishinvestigative journalist, writer, anddocumentary maker.
Davies has written extensively as afreelancer, as well as forThe Guardian andThe Observer, and been named Reporter of the Year,[5] Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year at theBritish Press Awards.[6]
Davies has written numerous books on the subject of politics and journalism, includingFlat Earth News,[3] which attracted considerable controversy as an exposé of journalistic malpractice in the UK and around the globe.[7] As a reporter forThe Guardian, Davies was responsible for uncovering theNews of the World phone hacking scandal, including the July 2011 revelations of hacking into the mobile phone voicemail of the murdered schoolgirlMilly Dowler.
Davies gained aPPE degree fromOxford University in 1974,[8] and started his journalism career in 1976, working as a trainee for theMirror Group inPlymouth. He then moved to London initially to work for theSunday People and spent a year working forThe Evening Standard before becoming a news reporter atThe Guardian in July 1979. Since then he has worked ashome affairs correspondent atThe Observer; chief feature writer atLondon Daily News in 1986 and on-screen reporter forWorld in Action andChannel 4'sDispatches. After theLondon Daily News folded he moved to the United States for a year, where he wroteWhite Lies, about the wrongful conviction of a black janitor,Clarence Brandley, for the murder of a white girl.[8] From 1989 Davies was a freelance reporter forThe Guardian, for which he contributed articles,[9] working from his home in Sussex. He was the winner of the firstMartha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in 1999.[10]
Following the publication ofFlat Earth News and aGuardian story co-written by Davies claiming thatNews of the World journalists tapped private mobile phones to get stories,[11] on 14 July 2009 Davies told theCulture, Media and Sport Select Committee that theMetropolitan Police Service had done too little to investigate the claims.[12] TheGuardian coverage also led to calls from high-profile MPs for the dismissal ofAndy Coulson, communications director for theConservative Party.[13] Davies received thePaul Foot Award 2011 for his work on this story.[14]
Davies's book on theNews International phone hacking scandal,Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch, was released in August 2014.[4][15]
Davies is played byDavid Tennant in the 2025 ITV drama about the phone hacking scandal,The Hack.[16]
Flat Earth News was greeted in theLondon Review of Books 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".[17] TheLRB highlighted the analysis showing that 60% of the content of UK papers was based mainly onwire 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 inThe Observer disputed some of the charges against British journalism in the book, and described it as "unduly pessimistic".[18]
Peter Oborne inThe Spectator concentrated on the use of illegal techniques to invade privacy rather than declining standards, describingFlat 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 [of journalism] that is salient and good".[19]
