One of Britain’s best known investigative reporters has donated a substantial part of his archive to London College of Communication.
Material from Phillip Knightley’s investigations into war reporting and the role of propaganda, including letters and interviews with the leading British, American, German, Russian and Australian war correspondents of the twentieth and twenty first centuries, will be stored at the College’s Research Space and made available to researchers and students around the world.
Knightley, one of only two journalists ever to have been twice named ‘Journalist of the Year’ by the British Press Awards, worked for 20 years as a special correspondent for the Sunday Times ‘Insight’ team, responsible for celebrated investigations such as the thalidomide scandal and the role of Kim Philby, the British spy who worked as a double agent for the Soviets while serving for MI6.
He was also Granada Reporter of the Year (1980), Colour Magazine Writer of the Year (1982), holder of the Chef and Brewer Crime Writer’s award (1983), and the Overseas Press Club of America award for the best book on foreign affairs in 1975 (The First Casualty).
As well as his investigative reporting, Knightley has written many books on espionage, propaganda and war, most notably The First Casualty and Philby, KGB Master Spy.
Paul Charman, head of journalism at London College of Communication, said: ‘We are immensely honoured that Phillip has chosen us to look after his archive.
He is probably the greatest living expert on the history of war reporting and much of the material for The First Casualty – letters, articles, interviews and photographs – will now be available for students of the subject for years to come.”
The archive will join the Stanley Kubrick Archive and the Tom Eckersley Collection in the Research Space of LCC.
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