Sunny Hundal

Sunny Hundal (born 1977) is a British journalist, blogger and academic.

Sunny Hundal
Born
London
NationalityBritish
EducationEconomics
Alma materBrunel University London
OccupationJournalist
Years active2006–present
Known forJournalism, Blogging, Academia
RelativesJagraj Singh

Born in London to Sikh parents of Indian origin, Hundal has a degree in economics from Brunel University. He is best known as the founder and editor of the centre-left group blog Liberal Conspiracy. The Guardian's website named him as their blogger of the year in 2006.[1] Hundal has also written for publications including The Guardian, The Financial Times and The Independent.

In June 2019, he helped to found a progressive news aggregator, Front Page Live, where he serves as Editorial Director UK.[2] He is also a journalist-in-residence at Kingston University.[3]

Hundal is a Covenor of the cross-party political movement, More United.[4]

Projects

Hundal has founded and edited a number of politically progressive websites: Liberal Conspiracy,[5] a group weblog about politics and media, Asians in Media,[6] Barfi Culture community websites,[7] the Pickled Politics weblog,[8] and the New Generation Network in 2006, a group and manifesto that attempted to challenge the current discourse on race relations in the UK. All these have been wound up.

In February 2007 he made a BBC radio documentary Lost in Translation about Asian brides brought to the UK.[9] The BBC also quoted his claim that Shahrukh Khan's endorsement of skin-lightening creams was "completely immoral".[10]

In June 2019, he helped to found a progressive news aggregator, Front Page Live, together with Joe Romm, its Editor-in-Chief, Carl Cameron, Laura Dawn, Helen Stickler and others. He serves as Editorial Director UK at Front Page Live.[2]

Political stances

In 2008, he wrote a blog post saying that non-white voters should consider voting Conservative, on the basis that "brown people" were being deliberately targeted by anti-terrorism legislation brought in by the New Labour government of Gordon Brown.[11] In 2010, on his Liberal Conspiracy blog, he backed the Liberal Democrats in the UK General Election.[12]

About three months after the formation of the Cameron–Clegg coalition, Hundal joined the Labour Party to influence its political direction.[13] In August 2010 Hundal backed Ed Miliband in the Labour leadership election.[14]

Hundal has criticised various religious organisations including the Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir,[15][16] the Muslim Council of Britain,[17] Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK,[17] Christian Concern For Our Nation,[16] Sikh Federation[18] and Hindu Forum of Britain.[18] He has been awarded the Fourth IRDS Awards for Print Media for fighting against religious obscurantism, awarded by the Lucknow-based Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS).[19]

In 2014 he defended the Tricycle Theatre's decision to boycott the UK Jewish Film Festival as a result of a £1,400 donation the festival received from the Israeli Embassy.[20]

A vegetarian, he describes himself as a strong environmentalist.[21]

See also

References
  1. Blogger of the year. The Guardian
  2. Wemple, Erik. "Ex-Fox Newser Carl Cameron takes his 'unfinished business' to progressive startup", The Washington Post, June 24, 2019; and "Masthead", Front Page Live, accessed June 25, 2019
  3. http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/activities/item.php?updatenum=2565
  4. "The team". Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  5. Liberal Conspiracy
  6. About AiM at Asians in Media magazine
  7. About Barfi Culture at Barfi Culture
  8. Contributors Archived 31 January 2013 at Archive.today at Pickled Politics
  9. Lost in Translation Archived 21 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, 26 February 2007, BBC Asian Network
  10. "Beyond the pale?", 25 September 2007, BBC News
  11. It’s time for brown people to switch to Tory Archived 15 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine, 16 June 2008, Pickled Politics
  12. "The Guardian endorses the Lib Dems and I'm with them", Liberal Conspiracy, 1 May 2010
  13. "Why I’ve decided to join the Labour party", Liberal Conspiracy, 16 August 2010
  14. "Why I think Ed Miliband is the right person to lead the Labour party", Liberal Conspiracy, 23 August 2010
  15. Sunny Hundal "The enemy within", The Guardian, 1 April 2007
  16. Sunny Hundal "Fundamentally flawed", The Guardian, 21 May 2008
  17. Sunny Hundal "Stop whining!", The Guardian,, 9 June 2006
  18. Sunny Hundal "The tables have turned", The Guardian, 2 November 2007
  19. IRDS Award Winners 2013 Archived 3 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences
  20. Hundal, Sunny; Cohen, Nick (9 August 2014). "Was the Tricycle theatre right to ask the UK Jewish film festival to 'reconsider' its funding?". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  21. Introducing guest blogger Sunny Hundal, The f word (feminist blog), 18 January 2009
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