The former political editor of the Observer has hit back at claims in Nick Davies’ book, Flat Earth News, that he acted as a government mouthpiece and that he latched on to Blair’s spin doctor Alastair Campbell.
In an interview in the Independent, Kamal Ahmed said that the accusation is not only untrue, but the kind of “scurrilous journalism” that Davies attacks other journalists for using in his book.
Ahmed said: “For him to use such poisonous quotes off the record, I think questions his own journalistic ethics. You cannot hide behind the cloak of anonymity to attempt to destroy people’s characters.”
Ahmed discusses The Observer backing the Iraq war, and shows his anger at Davies accusing The Observer staff copying and pasting parts of emails from Alastair Campbell into leaders, saying: “There is no way that it happened.”
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