{{Short description|British journalist (born 1960)|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} {{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
{{Infobox person | name = Ian Cobain | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1960}} | birth_place = Liverpool, England | occupation = Journalist }}
'''Ian Cobain''' (born 1960) is a British journalist. Cobain is best known for his investigative journalism into human rights abuses committed by the British government post-9/11, the secrecy surrounding the British state<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-10-06|title=The History Thieves by Ian Cobain review – how Britain covered up its imperial crimes|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/06/the-history-of-thieves-by-ian-cobain-review|access-date=2021-03-25|first=Ian|last=Jack|author-link=Ian Jack|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> and the legacy of the Northern Ireland's Troubles.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-10-25|title=Anatomy of a Killing by Ian Cobain review – a death that casts new light on the Troubles|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/25/anatomy-of-a-killing-ian-cobain-review-a-death-casts-new-light-troubles|first=Sean |last=O'Hagan|author-link=Sean O'Hagan (journalist)|access-date=2021-03-25|website=The Observer|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Cobain|first=Ian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/06/ministry-of-defence-files-archive|title=Ministry of Defence holds 66,000 files in breach of 30-year rule|date=2013-10-06|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-04-21|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
==Early life== Ian Cobain was born in 1960 in Liverpool, England, and lives with his wife and two children in London.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ian Cobain|url=https://granta.com/contributor/ian-cobain/|access-date=2021-03-25|website=Granta|language=en-US}}</ref>
==Journalism== A journalist since the early 1980s, Cobain was the senior investigative reporter for British newspaper ''The Guardian'' until August 2018.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}
He has reported on six wars,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nctj.com/want-to-be-a-journalist/alumni/Ian-Cobain?|title=Ian Cobain|website=www.nctj.com|access-date=2020-04-21}}</ref> including the war in the Gulf, and the wars in Afghanistan<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://folk.ntnu.no/tronda/kk-f/fra151001/0174.html|title=KK-FORUM: The Times: American will take no prisoners|work=The Times|access-date=2020-04-21}}</ref> and Iraq.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Cobain|first=Ian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/20/peter-gibson-inquiry-torture-interrogation|title=Who in Whitehall approved 'gloves-off' interrogation after 9/11?|date=2013-12-20|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-04-21|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> In September 2005, he revealed that the British government had been supporting the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" programme.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Cobain|first1=Ian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/sep/12/usa.politics|title=Destination Cairo: human rights fears over CIA flights|date=2005-09-11|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-04-21|last2=Grey|first2=Stephen|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|last3=Norton-Taylor|first3=Richard}}</ref> In 2006, he joined the BNP as part of an undercover investigation, and ended up being appointed central London organiser for the party, a position he swiftly resigned.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Cobain|first=Ian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/dec/21/thefarright.topstories3|title=Exclusive: inside the secret and sinister world of the BNP|date=2006-12-21|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-04-21|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2006-12-21|title=The Guardian journalist who became central London organiser for the BNP|first=Ian|last=Cobain|url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/dec/21/thefarright.politics|access-date=2021-03-25|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref>
Cobain published a book in 2012, ''Cruel Britannia'', which documented the British government's use of torture in the last 70 years.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Kampfner|first=John|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/04/cruel-britannia-ian-cobain-review|title=Cruel Britannia by Ian Cobain – review|date=2012-11-04|work=The Observer|access-date=2020-04-21|language=en-GB|issn=0029-7712}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/culture/2013/01/closed-circle-britains-culture-secrecy|title=The closed circle: Britain's culture of secrecy|last=Brooke|first=Heather|date=31 January 2013|work=New Statesman}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Stafford Smith|first=Clive|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/23/cruel-britannia-ian-cobain-review|title=Cruel Britannia by Ian Cobain - review|date=2012-11-23|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-04-21|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/cruel-britannia-a-secret-history-of-torture-by-ian-cobain-8343851.html|title=This admirable investigation into torture in the fraying empire will overturn myths|last=Howe|first=Stephen|date=24 November 2012|work=The Independent}}</ref> David Hare described it as "one of the most shocking and persuasive books of the year", Peter Oborne in ''The Spectator'' said, "Carefully researched and well-written… [Cobain] should be congratulated for addressing a subject which much of the rest of Fleet Street has been determined to ignore",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/shameful-home-truths|title=Shameful home truths|last=Oborne|first=Peter|date=24 November 2012|work=The Spectator}}</ref> and the ''Sunday Times'' identified it as a "must-read" and declared it, "a fine study of the role Britain has played in the business of torture". The book won the Paddy Power/Total Politics Debut Political Book of the Year award.<ref>Total Politics, [http://www.totalpolitics.com/blog/354252/paddy-power-and-total-politics-political-book-awards.thtml Paddy Power & Total Politics Political Book Awards]</ref>
Throughout his journalistic career, Cobain has taken a close interest in the Troubles and the legacy of the conflict. As a result, in 2012, he was retained as an expert witness by lawyers seeking to overturn the murder conviction of Liam Holden, who had been the last man to be sentenced to hang in Britain before his sentence was commuted to life.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/law/2012/jun/21/army-waterboarding-victim-cleared-murder|title=Army 'waterboarding victim' who spent 17 years in jail is cleared of murder|first=Ian|last=Cobain|newspaper=The Guardian|date=21 June 2012}}</ref> Also in 2012, Cobain investigated allegations of collusion between Northern Irish police and Loyalist paramilitary gunmen who had shot dead six men in a bar in the village of Loughinisland in 1994. A subsequent report by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Al Hutchinson, confirmed the findings of Cobain. In 2014, Cobain drew upon contemporary police records, witness statements and pathologists' reports to reconstruct the events of the Ballymurphy shootings in west Belfast in August 1971.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/26/-sp-ballymurphy-shootings-36-hours-west-belfast-northern-ireland-10-dead|title=Ballymurphy shootings: 36 hours in Belfast that left 10 dead|first=Ian|last=Cobain|newspaper=The Guardian|date=26 June 2014}}</ref> A fresh inquest into the deaths was held between late 2018 and early 2020, and on 11 May 2021, this coroner's inquest found that the 10 civilians killed were innocent, and that the use of lethal force by the British Army was "not justified".<ref name="bbc2021">{{cite web|url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56986784 | work = BBC News | publisher = BBC | title = Ballymurphy Inquest: Coroner finds 10 victims were innocent | date = 11 May 2021 | accessdate = 11 May 2021 }}</ref> The 11th death was not part of the inquest.
{{As of|2019}}, Cobain was a journalist at the ''Middle East Eye''.<ref name="MEE_Cobain_banned_DSEI" />
==Rejection from the DSEI== Cobain was rejected from attending the 2019 DSEI international arms sales fair in London Docklands, on the grounds that he tweeted messages unfavourable to the arms trade and DSEI, and because it was "[suspected that] he [would] not write anything positive about DSEI".<ref name="MEE_Cobain_banned_DSEI" />
==Prizes== Cobain has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for journalism and won the Martha Gellhorn Prize and the Paul Foot Award for investigative journalism, as well as two Amnesty International journalism awards,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ideasfestival.co.uk/2013/events/silvia-casale-ian-cobain-and-malcolm-evans/ |title=Silvia Casale, Ian Cobain and Malcolm Evans {{!}} On Torture|date=18 May 2013|publisher=Bristol Festival of Ideas|access-date=9 June 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130620220808/http://www.ideasfestival.co.uk/2013/events/silvia-casale-ian-cobain-and-malcolm-evans/ |archive-date=20 June 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and, with fellow ''Guardian'' journalist, Richard Norton-Taylor, a Human Rights Campaign of the Year Award from Liberty, for their "investigation into Britain's complicity in the use of torture".<ref>Liberty, [https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/previous-award-winners List of previous winners] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141119163246/https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/previous-award-winners |date=19 November 2014 }}</ref>
==Works== * ''Cruel Britannia: A Secret History of Torture'', Portobello Books, 2012. {{ISBN|184627334X}} * ''The History Thieves: Secrets, Lies and the Shaping of a Modern Nation'', Portobello Books, 2016. {{ISBN|1846275830}} * ''Anatomy of a Killing: Life and Death on a Divided Island'', Granta Books, 2020. {{ISBN|9781846276408}}
==References== {{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="MEE_Cobain_banned_DSEI">{{cite news | last1= Akkad | first1=Dania | title= 'See if he chases': Why Ian Cobain was actually banned from covering UK arms fair |trans-title = <!-- trans-title is the English translation --> | date= 2019-11-07 |newspaper= Middle East Eye | url= https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-why-ian-cobain-was-actually-banned-covering-uk-arms-fair |accessdate=2019-11-09 |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20191109005018/https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-why-ian-cobain-was-actually-banned-covering-uk-arms-fair |archivedate= 2019-11-09 |url-status=live <!-- live|dead|unfit|usurped -->}}</ref>
}}
==External links== * Nathalie Olah, [http://thequietus.com/articles/12261-ian-cobain-cruel-britannia-interview Cruel Britannia: Ian Cobain interviewed], 19 May 2013 * [http://www.portobellobooks.com/ian-cobain Cobain's page on the Portobello Books website]{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} * [https://www.theguardian.com/profile/iancobain Cobain's page on ''The Guardian'' website] * {{Muckrack}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cobain, Ian}} Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:British male journalists Category:The Guardian journalists