Duncan Campbell (journalist)

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1952, Campbell was brought up and educated in Dundee. His mother was a mathematician who worked at Bletchley Park under Alan Turing.[1] As a pupil at the High School of Dundee, an independent school, he first trained in computer programming aged 16, taught computer languages, and undertook programming in scientific computers languages. He gained three S-levels (equivalent to A-levels) in physics, chemistry, and maths, and then an open scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford, graduating in 1973 with a first-class Honours degree in physics. The following year, Campbell completed a one-year MSc in Operational 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."[2]

After leaving Sussex University, Campbell became a journalist on the Brighton Voice. Founded in March 1973 by Roy Carr-Hill and George Wilson, the paper's content followed broadly anarcho-socialist principles, with emphasis on reports on housing, the police, gay rights, civil liberties, the environment, unemployment, anti-racism, fascism, and women's rights.

He was also a regular contributor to the New Scientist and Time Out magazines, which during the early 1970s had a much more radical editorial remit than they did in later years. In 1976, Campbell wrote a seminal story for Time Out, co-authored with Mark Hosenball, called "The Eavesdroppers".[3] It was the first time the British news media printed the acronym GCHQ, which stood for Government Communications Headquarters, a highly secretive arm of the British secret services, responsible for communications interception.

The article led to the forcible deportation of its American co-author, Hosenball.[4] Campbell, who could not be deported, was instead placed under MI5 surveillance, which included the tapping of his phones. The following year, Campbell agreed to talk with ex-signals intelligence operator, John Berry, at Berry's home. He was accompanied by fellow Time Out reporter, Crispin Aubrey. After a three-hour conversation, Special Branch arrested the three under the Official Secrets Act 1911, leading to the ABC trial.

In 1982, Campbell published War Plan UK — the Truth about Civil Defence in Britain, which revealed and discussed — often for the first time — the inadequacy and futility of the British government's preparations in the event of nuclear war.[5]

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. Campbell'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."[6]

ECHELON (1988)

Appearing on tv programme After Dark in 1991

Campbell revealed in 1988, in an article titled "Somebody's listening" and published in the New Statesman, the existence of the ECHELON surveillance program.[8]

In 1999, he wrote a report on communications intelligence entitled Interception Capabilities 2000 for the European Parliament.[9]

Campbell came out as gay in 1987[12] and has investigated many LGBT issues, including "bogus" HIV/AIDS medicines and quack doctors.[12]

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

• Founder member, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
• Nominated as Rector of Aberdeen University, 1981
• Consultant on telecommunications, Technology Faculty, Open University, 1976–1982
• Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee Study Group on Defence, 1980–1983
• Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee Study Group on Security Services, 1979–1983
• Chairman and director, Statesman and Nation Publishing Company Ltd (publishers of New Statesman) 1990–1994
• Senior Research Fellow, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Washington, D.C., 1999–2000
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
• Visiting fellow of the Media School Bournemouth University, 2002–present.

• NSAKEY
• SIGINT

• Campbell, Duncan (12 December 1980). "Colonialism: A Secret Plan for Dictatorship". New Statesman.
• Campbell, Duncan (1981). "Big Brother is Listening: Phone Tappers and the Security State". New Statesman. ISBN 0-900962-08-9.
• Campbell, Duncan (1982). War Plan UK: The Truth about Civil Defence in Britain (1st (hardback) ed.). Burnett Books. ISBN 0-09-150670-0. ISBN 0-09-150671-9 (paperback). 1983 Revised edition, Paladin Books, ISBN 0-586-08479-7.
• Campbell, Duncan (1984). The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier: American Military Power in Britain (hardback ed.). Michael Joseph. ISBN 0-7181-2289-5. ISBN 0-7181-2350-6 (paperback).
• Campbell, Duncan; Connor, S. (1986). On the Record: Surveillance, Computers and Privacy: the Inside Story (hardback ed.). London: Michael Joseph. ISBN 0-7181-2575-4. ISBN 0-7181-2576-2 (paperback).
• Campbell, Duncan (1988). Secret Service. London: Franklin Watts. ISBN 0-86313-725-3. 'Issues' series of children's books.

• Official website
• Inside Echelon by Duncan Campbell
• Interception Capabilities 2000
• Secret Society episodes