Duncan Campbell (journalist)

For other persons named Duncan Campbell, see Duncan Campbell (disambiguation).

Duncan Campbell is a British freelance investigative journalist, author and television producer who, since 1975, has specialised in the subjects of intelligence and security services, defence, policing, civil liberties and, latterly, computer forensics. He was a staff writer at the New Statesman from 1978 to 1991 and Associate Editor (Investigations) from 1988 to 1991. He was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act in the ABC trial in 1978 and made the controversial series Secret Society for the BBC in 1987 (see Zircon affair). In 1988, he revealed the existence of the ECHELON surveillance program. He shares the same name as another Scottish-born journalist called Duncan Campbell, former Time Out and City Limits writer, who was a long-standing correspondent for The Guardian and who is married to the Oscar-winning actor Julie Christie.

Early life

Born in Glasgow in 1952, Campbell was brought up and educated in Dundee, where he was a pupil at the High School of Dundee, an independent school in the city of Dundee in Scotland. Something of a science prodigy, he first trained in computer programming aged 16 and, whilst still at school, taught computer languages and undertook programming in scientific computers languages. He gained three ‘S’ levels (the old Scottish equivalent to ‘A’ levels) in Physics, Chemistry and Maths, and then an open scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he achieved a BA First Class Honours Physics in 1973. The following year, Campbell completed a one-year MSc in Operations Research at the University of Sussex; the course included Psychology, Economics, Accountancy and Model Building. He later told The Independent "It was extremely useful. It was not difficult to make the grades, though they'll hate me for saying so". [Independent August 7, 1997]

Early journalism

After leaving Sussex University, Campbell settled in Brighton and became a journalist on Brighton Voice. Founded in March 1973 by Roy Carr-Hill and George Wilson, this ‘underground’ collectively run paper started life in a private home, 21 Clermont Terrace. By the late 1980s, it was based at Prior House, Tilbury Place, and published approximately every six weeks. The paper's content followed broadly anarcho-socialist principles, focusing on housing, the police, gay rights, civil liberties, environment, unemployment, anti-racism and fascism and women's rights. Collective meetings were held at the "Open Café", 7 Victoria Rd, where the paper was typed up and laid out in the basement. Distribution was the main problem for the Voice, as many newsagents were reluctant to stock it, either because of its contents or fear of legal action from some of those ‘named and shamed’ in its pages. Unsurprisingly, the paper sold well on the University of Sussex campus. As well as Duncan Campbell, notable members of the collective included housing activist Steve Bassam, later the city's Labour council leader and life peer Lord Bassam, and Daily Mail journalist Val Hennessy. The last issue of Brighton Voice was published in July 1989.

Notable articles

In 1980, his article revealing the existence of the secret Standing Committee on Pressure Groups (SCOPG) in Hong Kong led to the revelation that most pressure groups and individual members of the opposition were under surveillance by the colonial government. Duncan's article asserts that Hong Kong under then governor Sir Murray MacLehose had become a dictatorship. In his words: "Hong Kong is a dictatorship; and scarcely a benevolent one."

Campbell revealed in 1988, in an article titled "Somebody's listening" and published in New Statesman, the existence of the ECHELON surveillance program.^[1]

In 1999 he wrote a report on COMINT entitled Interception Capabilities 2000 for the European Parliament.^[2]

In 2005 and 2007, Campbell investigated and wrote criticisms of the Operation Ore child pornography prosecutions in the UK, which exposed police errors and "revealed how computer evidence used against 7,272 people in the UK accused of being paedophiles had been founded on falsehoods." These articles were "Operation Ore Exposed" and "Sex, Lies and the Missing Videotape", both published in PC Pro magazine.^[3][4]

The Who's Pete Townshend and Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja were both cleared of charges they accessed child pornography through the Landslide site by the investigation detailed by Campbell in PC Pro magazine. When their credit card charges and IP addresses were traced, both were found to have accessed sites which had nothing to do with child pornography.^[4]

Secret Society (1987)

The Secret Society series caused a political furore in 1987. The production team behind the series was threatened with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. Campbell's front door was kicked down and his home searched. In 1987, Strathclyde Police raided the corporation's Scottish headquarters in Glasgow and seized the tapes from the offices of BBC Scotland where the series had been made. Campbell's home was also raided, The tapes were later returned and the series broadcast on the BBC except for episode one. The BBC decided that the episode (one) about secret cabinet committees was too sensitive to show before the 1987 general election. The Thatcher government leaned on the BBC to prevent its damaging allegations being made public.

1. The Secret Constitution: Secret Cabinet Committees - about small, secret and influential Cabinet committees.
2. In Time Of Crisis: Government Emergency Powers - Since 1982, governments in every other NATO country have been preparing for the eventuality of war. In Britain, these preparations are kept secret. So what will happen when the balloon goes up?
3. A Gap In Our Defences - Bungling defence manufacturers and incompetent military planners have botched every new radar system that Britain has installed since World War Two. Why? And can we stop it happening again?
4. We're All Data Now: Secret Data Banks - The Data Protection Act is supposed to protect us from abuse, but it's already out of date and full of loopholes. So what kind of abuses should we worry about?
5. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) - ACPO Making up their own law and policy. About the Association of Chief Police Officers and how Government policy and actions are determined in the fields of law and order.
6. Communications Zircon - About GCHQ with particular reference to a secret £500 million satellite. Reference to Zircon spy satellites which the public accounts committee were not told about.

Awards

• 1989: Best Business Feature, Magazine Publishing Awards
• 1987: What The Papers Say, Investigative Journalist of the Year
• 1987: Freedom of Information Campaign: Media Award
• 1983: Specialist Writer of the Year, Periodical Publishers’ Association, for reports on nuclear weapons and the Prime spy case.
• 1980: Cobden Trust Award, for series of New Statesman articles on civil liberties, including an exposé on Britain's secret telephone tapping centre.

Miscellaneous

• Founder member, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
• Nominated as Rector of Aberdeen University, 1981
• Consultant on telecommunications, Technology Faculty, Open University, 1976–82
• Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee Study Group on Defence, 1980–1983
• Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee Study Group on Security Services, 1979–83
• Chairman and director, Statesman and Nation Publishing Company Ltd (publishers of New Statesman) 1990-94
• Senior Research Fellow, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Washington, D.C., 1999–2000
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

See also

• NSAKEY
• SIGINT
• ECHELON
• Operation Ore

References

1. ^ Campbell, Duncan (1988-08-12), "Somebody's Listening", New Statesman, http://duncan.gn.apc.org/echelon-dc.htm, retrieved 2007-06-19 
2. ^ Campbell, Duncan (1999-04), Interception Capabilities 2000, European Parliament, Directorate General for Research, Directorate A, The STOA Programme, http://www.cyber-rights.org/interception/stoa/interception_capabilities_2000.htm, retrieved 2007-06-19 
3. ^ Campbell, Duncan (2005-07-01), "Operation Ore Exposed", PC Pro, http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed/page3.html, retrieved 2007-06-19 
4. ^ ^{a b} Campbell, Duncan (2007-04-01), "Sex, Lies and the Missing Videotape", PC Pro, http://ore-exposed.obu-investigators.com/PC%20Pro%20article%20June%202007%20.pdf, retrieved 2007-06-19 

Further reading

• Campbell, D. (1980). Colonialism: A Secret Plan for Dictatorship New Statesman, 12 December 1980.
• Campbell, D. (1981). Big Brother is Listening: Phone Tappers and the Security State. New Statesman Report 2.
• Campbell, D. (1982). War Plan UK: The Truth about Civil Defence in Britain (1st ed.). Burnett Books. ISBN 0-09-150670-0 (hardback), ISBN 0-09-150671-9 (paperback). 1983 Revised edition Paladin Books ISBN 0-586-08479-7.
• Campbell, D. (1984). The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier: American Military Power in Britain. Michael Joseph. ISBN 0-7181-2289-5 (hardback), ISBN 0-7181-2350-6 (paperback).

External links

• Duncan Campbell's own web site
• Inside Echelon by Duncan Campbell
• Interception Capabilities 2000
• Secret Societys 1-4 on archiv.org

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