Jonathan Hunt
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Jonathan Hunt is the author of "Trial by Conspiracy", a book alledging that The Guardian newspaper falsified evidence that Conservative MP Neil Hamilton had accepted bribes from the Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al Fayed.
"Trial by Conspiracy" was published on 19 October 1998. On the same day, The Guardian ran a story revealing that Hunt was an ardent supporter of the Conservative party and had been compelled by HM Customs to pay £23,000 for evading VAT and import duty. Hunt has previously worked in public relations and co-owned a now defunct television production company, 'Cotton City Pictures', with business partner Ian Tonge. Two days later, the paper published a comment piece by editor Alan Rusbriger, attacking the book and asserting that Hunt was in league with Living Marxism magazine, who had also defended Neil Hamilton:
- "The 336-page book is expensively produced. He has a reputable PR agency promoting it. It was launched at the House of Commons and with a party at Westminster. If his parents are paying the bills their son's obsession is proving expensive...It is no coincidence that Mr Hunt is in league with a magazine called Living Marxism, which specialises in conspiracy theory tosh in the hope that someone big and powerful - like ITN - will sue. The resultant publicity is their dream. This author is just longing to be sued."
Hunt subsequently submitted complaints about both articles to the Press Complaints Commission, all of which were rejected [1].
Hunt is the registrant of the domain guardianlies.com, a website outlining Hunts claims against The Guardian and how they "duped the British nation". The site claims that it is "merely a question of time before the perpetrators are brought to book and the history books are rewritten". The site reproduces an article by James Heartfield, printed in LM Magazine, defending Hunt and his investigation [2]. The site goes on to describe Heartfield as a "university lecturer and radical journalist of unimpeachable integrity and intellect" [3].
Jonathan Hunt is not a member of the libertarian LM group. This case serves, however, to illustrates the bizarre alliances spawned by the LM group of former marxists and the right wing.
Contact
Jonathan Boyd Hunt
jon AT viewpoint.demon.co.uk (replace AT with @)
50 Church Street
Great Budworth
CW9 6HH
Tel: +44 (0)973 676355
References
- "Author of attack on paper's ethics was fined £23,000 for tax dodge", The Guardian, 19 October 1998 [4]
- Alan Rusbriger, "Conspiracy Merchants", The Guardian, 21 October 1998 [5]
Extenal links
- Press Complaints Commission, Decision on complaint by Jonathan Hunt
- Jonathan Hunt, "Trial by Conspiracy", Greenzone Publishing
