Background
Gilligan was born in Teddington, London and was educated at Grey Court School, Kingston College of Further Education and at Street John"s College, Cambridge, where he studied history and was news editor of the student newspaper Varsity.
Gilligan was born in Teddington, London and was educated at Grey Court School, Kingston College of Further Education and at Street John"s College, Cambridge, where he studied history and was news editor of the student newspaper Varsity.
Street John"s College.
In 2003, he produced a report on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4"s The Today Programme in which he said a British government briefing paper on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction (the September Dossier) had been "sexed up". He was awarded Journalist of the Year in 2008 for his investigative reports about Ken Livingstone. In 2013, he became London"s Cycling Commissioner.
In 1994, he joined the Cambridge Evening News, then in 1995 he moved to The Sunday Telegraph where he became a specialist reporter on defence.
In 1999, he was recruited by the editor of British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4"s Today programme, Rod Liddle, as Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent. In May 2003, Gilligan made a broadcast in which he claimed that the British Government had "sexed up" a report in order to exaggerate the Weapons of Mass Destruction capabilities of Saddam Hussein.
Gilligan resigned from the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2004, in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry, after Lord Hutton questioned the reliability of Gilligan"s evidence. Gilligan described the British Broadcasting Corporation collectively as the victim of a "grave injustice".
Soon after leaving the British Broadcasting Corporation in early 2004, Gilligan was offered a job at The Spectator by its editor, Boris Johnson, who had been a key supporter of Gilligan during the Hutton Inquiry.
Later in 2004, Gilligan joined the London Evening Standard. Since 2009, Gilligan has been the London editor The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, where he also has a regular blog. Gilligan was also a reporter for Channel 4"s investigative programme Dispatches, covering a number of issues, including an allegedly fundamentalist Islamic group in Tower Hamlets.
On 22 November 2011, Gilligan criticised the Leveson Inquiry in an appearance before the House of Lords communications committee.
When asked about the main threats to investigative journalism in the foreseeable future, he argued "The most important threat is official restraint, by which I mean libel and privacy law, state surveillance, and the potential threat posed by the Leveson inquiry." He wrote that the public still trusted the press, and in the wake of the British Broadcasting Corporation"s false linking of child abuse to Lord McAlpine he suggested Lord Leveson should take note. Gilligan was cited in a submission to the Leveson enquiry.
In January 2013, Gilligan was appointed as the Cycling Commissioner for London by the Mayor, Boris Johnson. In March 2013, Gilligan became the host of the Sunday Politics show on LBC 97.3.
Press television controversy
Gilligan presented a fortnightly programme for Press television, the Iranian government"s English-language television channel.
Rod Liddle challenged Gilligan in July 2009 about working for an "international propaganda channel run by the Iranian government". Gilligan stopped his regular show in December 2009, though he appeared twice more on the network just before the United Kingdom"s May 2010 general election. Gilligan attributed his decision to leave to the politics of Iran "that was inconsistent with my opposition to Islamism.
I have not worked for Press television since.".
Quotations: "The most important threat is official restraint, by which I mean libel and privacy law, state surveillance, and the potential threat posed by the Leveson inquiry.".
He was also a member of Cambridge Universities Labour Club.
