David Leigh

David Leigh is a British journalist and writer who was the investigations editor of The Guardian and is the author of Investigative Journalism: a survival guide. He officially retired in April 2013, although Leigh continued his association with the newspaper. In 1977 Leigh exposed to the public the existence of the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret British government propaganda department and one of the largest covert anti-communist propaganda organisations in history. This expose led to further discoveries including the existence of Orwell's list, smear attacks against British trade unionists, and British propaganda operations in Korea, India, Malaya, Cyprus and Ireland. Career Educated at Nottingham High School and King's College, Cambridge, leaving with a postgraduate degree in 1969. He is an investigative journalist who received the first of several British Press Awards in 1979 for an exposure of jury-vetting. He was a journalist for the Scotsman, The Times, and The Guardian, and a Laurence Stern fellow at the Washington Post in 1980. Between 1989 and 1996, he also worked as a reporter for Thames TV's current affairs series This Week, and a producer/director for Granada TV's investigative series World in Action. From 1980 to 1989, he was chief investigative reporter at The Observer. His book The Wilson Plot (1988) increased public interest in alleged attempts by the British security services and others to destabilise Harold Wilson's government in the 1970s. His 1995 TV documentary for World in Action, "Jonathan of Arabia", led after a libel trial to the jailing for perjury of former Conservative defence minister Jonathan Aitken.