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George Arbuthnott - Investigative Journalist at The Sunday Times
George Arbuthnott is deputy editor of the Insight team at The Sunday Times. His investigations helped to shape the Modern Slavery Bill, expose a global doping scandal in athletics and revealed that Boris Johnson failed to declare conflicts of interest over his friendship with an ex-model. George has won or been shortlisted for more than 30 awards. Join Liezl as she talks to George about his incredible work as a journalist and how he ended up writing ‘the book the Prime Minister doesn’t want you to read’.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- George had a journalistic instinct even from his days at school. He wrote match reports for his school's sports teams but they weren't entirely factual, he made them controversial to make people laugh. When at university he also set up a publication which poked fun at the establishment.
- While studying his masters degree, George had a scholarship with the Mail on Sunday which allowed him to spend some of his holiday time there learning and doing some writing. He ended up doing work on children who had been failed by social services which got published, this led to George being taken on as a trainee after his degree.
- George has written and investigated some of the most horrific and interesting stories including a student being killed by a polar bear, the international murder of Anni Dewani and was part of the investigation into the FIFA corruption scandal and how Qatar bribed their way to hosting the 2022 World Cup.
- In 2015 George joined the Insight Team at the Sunday Times on a scholarship set up in the memory of Marie Colvin, a famous foreign correspondent killed in Syria. His special interest in corruption and human rights abuses led him to conduct a two-year investigation that brought to light human trafficking in the United Kingdom and won him Campaign of the Year at the British Journalism Awards. This also lead to Prime Minister Theresa May introducing changes to the Modern Slavery Act.
- In 2016 George was listed by Forbes in their '30 under 30' in their media category.
- George and Jonathan Calvert's book ‘Failures of State’ recounts the extraordinary political decisions taken at the heart of Boris Johnson’s government during the global pandemic. You can find a link to the book in the show notes below. The original article on the pandemic that they wrote for the Times in April 2020 was their most read online article ever, more than doubling the previous record.
BEST MOMENTS
‘I didn’t know what investigative journalism was, but it was the one course where you could do print and broadcast journalism’
‘Once you looked into it you could see the whole system was riddled with corruption’
‘They marketed it as ‘the book the Prime Minister doesn’t want you to read’
VALUABLE RESOURCES
George on Twitter
George on LinkedIn
Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus
George Arbuthnott's work at the Times
ABOUT THE GUEST
George Arbuthnott is a British investigative journalist at The Sunday Times. His work helped to shape the Modern Slavery Bill, expose a global doping scandal in athletics, and revealed several controversies involving the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. For this, Arbuthnott has won young journalist of the year at the 2012 Press Awards, two British Journalism Awards in 2015,and being shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2015 for a piece on the modern slave trade. In 2016, he was shortlisted for the European Press Prize with 'The Fifa Scandal', and in 2019, he was a finalist at the British Journalism Awards for an investigation carried out alongside Sunday Times journalists Jonathan Calvert and Gabrial Pogrund. He is the co-author of one of the first social histories of the COVID-19 pandemic, “Failures of State.”
ABOUT THE PODCAST
In the Spotlight was born as a platform to share, broadcast and promote the interesting, wonderful and inspiring things that some of the people who crossed Liezl’s path have done. She would love to shine the spotlight on them and share their journeys with you to hopefully inspire you to be the best you, not to give up and to follow your passion or dream. And in that way, help to make a little difference and share some of the beauty of this world.
ABOUT THE HOST
Liezl Colditz van Rooyen
Born and raised in South Africa, Liezl followed her dream to see the world at age 23 and twenty years on has now travelled to 50 countries and worked and lived in the UK, Belgium and Saudi Arabia. She is a mum of two boys, a chartered management accountant working in large energy projects, a musician, runner, a world citizen but proudly South African and now a podcaster. The incredible people she has met, the amazing places she has seen and the magic of life she has experienced, inspired her to start this podcast.
CONTACT METHOD
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inthespotlightwithliezl
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inthespotlightwithliezl
Facebook personal: https://www.facebook.com/lcolditzvanrooyen/
Instagram personal: https://www.instagram.com/liezl_colditzvanrooyen/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/van-rooyen-liezl/
View all episodes
By Liezl Colditz Van RooyenGeorge Arbuthnott is deputy editor of the Insight team at The Sunday Times. His investigations helped to shape the Modern Slavery Bill, expose a global doping scandal in athletics and revealed that Boris Johnson failed to declare conflicts of interest over his friendship with an ex-model. George has won or been shortlisted for more than 30 awards. Join Liezl as she talks to George about his incredible work as a journalist and how he ended up writing ‘the book the Prime Minister doesn’t want you to read’.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- George had a journalistic instinct even from his days at school. He wrote match reports for his school's sports teams but they weren't entirely factual, he made them controversial to make people laugh. When at university he also set up a publication which poked fun at the establishment.
- While studying his masters degree, George had a scholarship with the Mail on Sunday which allowed him to spend some of his holiday time there learning and doing some writing. He ended up doing work on children who had been failed by social services which got published, this led to George being taken on as a trainee after his degree.
- George has written and investigated some of the most horrific and interesting stories including a student being killed by a polar bear, the international murder of Anni Dewani and was part of the investigation into the FIFA corruption scandal and how Qatar bribed their way to hosting the 2022 World Cup.
- In 2015 George joined the Insight Team at the Sunday Times on a scholarship set up in the memory of Marie Colvin, a famous foreign correspondent killed in Syria. His special interest in corruption and human rights abuses led him to conduct a two-year investigation that brought to light human trafficking in the United Kingdom and won him Campaign of the Year at the British Journalism Awards. This also lead to Prime Minister Theresa May introducing changes to the Modern Slavery Act.
- In 2016 George was listed by Forbes in their '30 under 30' in their media category.
- George and Jonathan Calvert's book ‘Failures of State’ recounts the extraordinary political decisions taken at the heart of Boris Johnson’s government during the global pandemic. You can find a link to the book in the show notes below. The original article on the pandemic that they wrote for the Times in April 2020 was their most read online article ever, more than doubling the previous record.
BEST MOMENTS
‘I didn’t know what investigative journalism was, but it was the one course where you could do print and broadcast journalism’
‘Once you looked into it you could see the whole system was riddled with corruption’
‘They marketed it as ‘the book the Prime Minister doesn’t want you to read’
VALUABLE RESOURCES
George on Twitter
George on LinkedIn
Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus
George Arbuthnott's work at the Times
ABOUT THE GUEST
George Arbuthnott is a British investigative journalist at The Sunday Times. His work helped to shape the Modern Slavery Bill, expose a global doping scandal in athletics, and revealed several controversies involving the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. For this, Arbuthnott has won young journalist of the year at the 2012 Press Awards, two British Journalism Awards in 2015,and being shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2015 for a piece on the modern slave trade. In 2016, he was shortlisted for the European Press Prize with 'The Fifa Scandal', and in 2019, he was a finalist at the British Journalism Awards for an investigation carried out alongside Sunday Times journalists Jonathan Calvert and Gabrial Pogrund. He is the co-author of one of the first social histories of the COVID-19 pandemic, “Failures of State.”
ABOUT THE PODCAST
In the Spotlight was born as a platform to share, broadcast and promote the interesting, wonderful and inspiring things that some of the people who crossed Liezl’s path have done. She would love to shine the spotlight on them and share their journeys with you to hopefully inspire you to be the best you, not to give up and to follow your passion or dream. And in that way, help to make a little difference and share some of the beauty of this world.
ABOUT THE HOST
Liezl Colditz van Rooyen
Born and raised in South Africa, Liezl followed her dream to see the world at age 23 and twenty years on has now travelled to 50 countries and worked and lived in the UK, Belgium and Saudi Arabia. She is a mum of two boys, a chartered management accountant working in large energy projects, a musician, runner, a world citizen but proudly South African and now a podcaster. The incredible people she has met, the amazing places she has seen and the magic of life she has experienced, inspired her to start this podcast.
CONTACT METHOD
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inthespotlightwithliezl
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inthespotlightwithliezl
Facebook personal: https://www.facebook.com/lcolditzvanrooyen/
Instagram personal: https://www.instagram.com/liezl_colditzvanrooyen/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/van-rooyen-liezl/