John Sweeney

John Paul Sweeney (born 7 June 1958) is a British investigative journalist and writer.

He worked for The Observer newspaper, and the BBC's Panorama and Newsnight series.

Sweeney appeared on the BBC arts programme, The Late Show when he filmed behind the scenes footage of the campaign of the 1992 United Kingdom general election.

In 1996, Sweeney was sued for criminal defamation in France by the Barclay brothers, owners of The Daily Telegraph, but the claimants lost their case.

At the time, Sweeney worked for the rival newspaper The Observer, and had given an interview on BBC Radio Guernsey alleging that they had been involved in corruption.

The claimants justified their legal claim in the French courts on the basis that the broadcast could also be heard in a small coastal part of northern France, although this was widely considered forum shopping.

Sweeney was ordered to pay €3,000 by the appeal court in Rennes, France.

Sweeney worked at the BBC from 2001 to 2014 as a staff reporter for flagship news programme Panorama, but subsequently continued to be involved in producing BBC Panorama programmes.

After formally joining the BBC in 2001, Sweeney reported on mass graves in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe for the BBC in 2002.

By then Mugabe had banned BBC reporters from the country, forcing Sweeney to hide in a car boot to travel to a meeting with the leader of the opposition.

Sweeney spent four years investigating the cases of Sally Clark, Angela Cannings and Donna Anthony, three women who had been falsely imprisoned for killing their children.

Sweeney's investigation helped to clear their names, and led to Sir Roy Meadow, the expert witness whose testimony had proved decisive in their convictions, being temporarily struck off the General Medical Council's medical register.

Sweeney received the Paul Foot Award in 2005 in recognition of his work.

"Scientology and Me", a Panorama investigation into Scientology written and presented by Sweeney, was aired on BBC One on Monday, 14 May 2007.

Prior to its airing, video footage filmed by the Church of Scientology was released on YouTube and on DVD that showed Sweeney shouting at Scientology representative Tommy Davis during a visit to the Citizens Commission on Human Rights's exhibition "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death".

The clips were sections of a documentary the Church of Scientology's Freedom Magazine TV produced about the BBC Panorama programme called Panorama Exposed.

Sweeney wrote that he lost his temper due to days of harassment by Davis and the Church, and a strong personal reaction to the psychiatry exhibition.

He had been visited at his hotel by Davis, despite not having shared the address with the Church, and had been followed on several different occasions.

Sweeney labelled the clips "attack videos" and others say they were produced to discredit him and the documentary.

The BBC in response aired its own full recording of the incident.

Panorama's editor Sandy Smith explained what happened and how the BBC dealt with the incident in a post on the BBC's Editor's Blog.

An internal BBC investigation found that Sweeney's conduct at one point in the filming was clearly inappropriate, but also said that Sweeney had apologised for his outburst and concluded that as a whole, filming of the documentary had been performed in a proper and fair manner.

Later on that same year in the BBC Panorama year in review Sweeney said "..a new generation is making up its own mind, and for that I make no apology".

Sweeney went into a similar outburst in January 2009 when being interviewed on Radio 4 about the Tom Cruise film Valkyrie—clearly referring to the episode two years previously, as a part of a rehearsed joke.

A follow-up Panorama programme also hosted by Sweeney, which at an hour is twice the length of the original one, was aired on 28 September 2010.

This documentary contained interviews with high-profile ex-scientologists Mike Rinder and Marty Rathbun.

Rinder explained the tactics used by the church during the making of the previous documentary, while Rathbun primarily discussed the allegations of David Miscavige assaulting other members of the church.

Rinder had been involved in the Scientology organisation's stalking of Sweeney, and had left the Church shortly thereafter.

In an undercover visit to North Korea, Sweeney posed as an academic from the London School of Economics whilst travelling with a party of students from the university, also including Sweeney's wife and another BBC employee.

The BBC was accused of putting students at risk and of compromising the future ability of the university to pursue studies in other countries with strict regimes.

The BBC Trust Editorial Standards Committee investigated the complaints against the programme makers, and found that "the BBC failed to ensure that all the young adults Panorama travelled with were sufficiently aware of any potential risks to enable them to give informed consent. This was a serious failing, and the BBC is right to apologise to the complainants."

They also found that Sweeney's wife, who was the trip organiser and tour leader, had a conflict of interest which was compounded when she became employed by the BBC for the programme.

Subsequently, a public statement signed by six of the 10 LSE student participants on the trip said that "We feel that we have now been put in more risk than was originally the case, as a result of the LSE's decision to go public with their story".

Sweeney ceased working for the BBC in October 2019.

Sweeney was educated at Barton Peveril Grammar School, a state grammar school in Eastleigh, Hampshire, followed by the London School of Economics.

Sweeney ceased working for the BBC in October 2019.

Shortly before his departure, the Press Gazette reported that "[Sweeney] was secretly filmed speaking with a source over drinks who turned out to be an ally of [Tommy] Robinson".

Panorama later apologised on Sweeney's behalf for "offensive and inappropriate" comments made during the encounter.

After leaving, Sweeney made a complaint to Ofcom and MPs about seven investigations for Newsnight, Panorama and BBC News that were not broadcast, some relating to links to Russia among people working within British politics, which he said was part of a "pattern of timidity" at the BBC.

Later BuzzFeed News reported that four BBC sources had told them that two matters had led to Sweeney leaving: the Tommy Robinson investigation and a HR complaint made by a young BBC journalist deeply offended by a comment from Sweeney.