John Sweeney (journalist)

For other persons named John Sweeney, see John Sweeney (disambiguation).

John Sweeney in front of City of Westminster Magistrates' Court, covering the trial of Julian Assange.

John Sweeney (born 1958) is a British journalist and author. Having worked previously for The Observer newspaper and the BBC's Newsnight, Sweeney is an investigative journalist for the BBC's Panorama series.

Education

Sweeney was educated at Barton Peveril Grammar School, a former state grammar school in the railway town of Eastleigh in Hampshire (becoming the Barton Peveril Sixth Form College in 1973), followed by the London School of Economics.

Investigative journalism

Sweeney worked for twelve years at The Observer newspaper, where he covered wars and revolutions in more than sixty countries including Romania, Algeria, Iraq, Chechnya, Burundi and Bosnia.^{[citation needed]}

Barclay brothers suit

In 1996, Sweeney was sued for criminal defamation in France by the Barclay brothers, owners of The Daily Telegraph, but the claimants lost their case. At the time, Sweeney worked for the rival newspaper The Observer, and had given an interview on BBC Radio Guernsey alleging that they had been involved in corruption. The claimaints justified their legal claim in the French courts on the basis that the broadcast could also be heard in a small coastal part of northern France, although this was widely considered forum shopping. Sweeney was ordered to pay €3,000 by the appeal court in Rennes, France.

Career at the BBC

Zimbabwe

After formally joining the BBC in 2001, Sweeney reported on mass graves in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe for the BBC in 2002. By then Mugabe had banned BBC reporters from the country, forcing Sweeney to hide in a car boot in order to travel to a meeting with the Leader of the Opposition.

Cot death investigation

Sweeney spent four years investigating the cases of Sally Clark, Angela Cannings and Donna Anthony, three women who had been falsely imprisoned for killing their children. Sweeney's investigation helped to clear their names, and led to Sir Roy Meadow, the expert witness whose testimony had proved decisive in their convictions, being temporarily struck off the General Medical Council's medical register. Sweeney received the Paul Foot Award in 2005 in recognition of his work.

Investigative report on Scientology

"Scientology and Me", a Panorama investigation into Scientology written and presented by Sweeney, was aired on BBC One on Monday, 14 May 2007. Prior to its airing, video footage filmed by the Church of Scientology was released on YouTube and on DVD that showed Sweeney shouting at Scientology representative Tommy Davis during a visit to CCHR's "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death". The clips were sections of a documentary the Church of Scientology's Freedom Magazine TV produced about the BBC Panorama programme.

Sweeney remarked that he lost his temper due to days of harassment by Davis and the Church, and a strong personal reaction to the psychiatry exhibit. He had been visited at his hotel by Davis, despite not having shared the address with the Church, and had been followed on several different occasions. Sweeney labelled the clips "attack videos" and others say they were produced to discredit himself and the documentary.

The BBC in response aired its own full recording of the incident. Panorama's Editor Sandy Smith explained what happened and how the BBC dealt with the incident in a post on the BBC's Editor's Blog. An internal BBC investigation found that Sweeney's conduct at one point in the filming was clearly inappropriate, but also noted that Sweeney had apologised for his outburst and concluded that as a whole, filming of the documentary had been performed in a proper and fair manner. Later on that same year in the BBC Panorama year in review Sweeney said “..a new generation is making up its own mind, and for that I make no apology”.

This time as a part of a rehearsed joke, Sweeney goes into a similar outburst in January 2009 when being interviewed on Radio 4 about the Tom Cruise film Valkyrie—clearly referring to the episode two years previously.

A follow-up Panorama programme also hosted by Sweeney, which at an hour is twice the length of the original one, was aired on 28 September 2010. This documentary contained interviews with high profile ex-scientologists Mike Rinder and Marty Rathbun. Rinder in particular explained the tactics used by the church during the making of the previous documentary, while Rathbun primarily discussed the allegations of David Miscavige assaulting other members of the church. Rinder had been involved in the Scientology organisation's stalking of Sweeney.

North Korea Uncovered

In an undercover visit to North Korea, Sweeney posed as an academic from the London School of Economics whilst travelling with a party of students from the university, also including Sweeney's wife and another BBC employee. The BBC has been accused of putting students at risk and of compromising the future ability of the university to pursue studies in other countries with strict regimes. The programme was watched by 5.06 million people making it the number 1 show in its time slot and the 2nd most watched show of the night.

Awards

Sweeney has won several awards throughout his career, including:

• 1998: What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year prize for reports on human rights abuses in Algeria.
• 2000: an Emmy Award and a Royal Television Society prize for programs about the Massacre at Krusha e Madhe, Kosovo.
• 2001: the Amnesty International prize for "Victims of the Torture Train," about human rights abuses in Chechnya.
• 2003: a Sony Gold award (2003) for Best Radio News programme.
• 2004: a Royal Television Society prize (2004) for "Angela's Hope," a BBC One documentary about a woman wrongly convicted of murdering her three babies.
• 2005: The Paul Foot Award.

Books

• Sweeney, John (1991). The Life and Evil Times of Nicolae Ceausescu. Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-09-174672-8. 
• Sweeney, John (1993). Trading with the Enemy: Britain's Arming of Iraq. Pan Books. ISBN 978-0-330-33128-9. 
• Sweeney, John (1998). Purple Homicide, Fear and Loathing on Knutsford Heath. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-7475-3970-4. 
• Sweeney, John (2010). Rooney's Gold. Biteback. ISBN 1-84954-054-3. 
• Sweeney, John (2012). Big Daddy: Lukashenka, Tyrant of Belarus. Silvertail Books. 
• Sweeney, John (2012). Elephant Moon. Silvertail Books. ISBN 9781909269019. 
• Sweeney, John (2013). Church Of Fear : Inside The Weird World Of Scientology. Silvertail Books. ISBN 978-1909269033. 

External links

• Profile on the Panorama Website
• BBC Editors Blog: Investigating Scientology
• Filmography at the British Film Institute
• Sweeney, John; Presented by Kate Adie (March 1, 2008). "FOOC: Justin Webb on US Democrat primaries 1 Mar 08". From Our Own Correspondent (BBC Radio 4, John Sweeney reports on the death in Florida of a noted opponent of Scientology: 17 minutes, 30 seconds into Podcast). Retrieved 2008-03-01. 
• BBC employee criticised after PRs hand deliver Mormon documentary complaint 27 March 2012 regarding Sweeney an his documentary The Mormon Candidate on Mormonism, the LDS Church, and Mitt Romney