Gavin MacFadyen

Gavin MacFadyen was an American investigative journalist and filmmaker.

He was the Director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) at Goldsmiths, University of London, an Advisor to the UK whistleblower support group The Whistler, and a Trustee of the Courage Foundation.

Spouses

• Virginia Daum (div.)
• Susan Benn (m. 2010)

In recent years, his work focused on facilitating and protecting whistleblowing activities. He was closely linked to Julian Assange and formed the official Julian Assange Defense Committee, which raises funds to pay the legal expenses of Assange and other Wikileaks staff. He has appeared in a number of documentaries about Wikileaks, including We Steal Secrets and Julian Assange: A Modern Day Hero?

Early life

MacFadyen was born Gavin Hall Galter on January 1, 1940, in Greeley in Colorado, and grew up in Chicago. His mother was a pianist. He adopted the surname of his stepfather, a medical researcher. He studied at Shimer College from 1958 to 1959, and later worked as a union organizer with trade unions. He was jailed for participating in civil rights demonstrations. He moved to England, joined the International Socialists (which later became the Socialist Workers Party (UK)), and graduated from the London School of Film Technique (now the London Film School). He founded a documentary film group to chronicle the political turmoil in the United States during the late 1960s for the BBC. He covered the anti-Vietnam War protests, race riots and the police clash with demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, where tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters battled police in the streets, while the Democratic Party fell apart over an internal disagreement concerning its stance on Vietnam. He went on to report from the Nicaraguan Revolution, a war between the right-wing Contras and the Marxist Sandinista National Liberation Front in the 1980s, and Iran-Contra, neo-Nazi violence, Watergate, the history of CIA.

Career

Filmmaking

MacFadyen had produced and directed more than 50 documentaries since the 1970s, investigating a diverse range of topics that includes industrial accidents, neo-Nazi violence in the UK, Chinese criminal societies, the history of the CIA,Watergate, election fraud in Guyana, the Iraq arms trade, child labour, nuclear proliferation, and Frank Sinatra's connection to organised crime. His programmes have been featured on Channel 4, the BBC, Panorama, Granada Television, ABC, and Frontline.

MacFadyen and Michael Gillard co-founded the Centre for Investigative Journalism as a non-profit in April 2003 with the intention of advancing training in the field of investigative journalism. MacFadyen also directed the organisation's International Journalism Summer Schools in 2003, 2004, and 2006.

He was a visiting Professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, and acted as a Visiting Professor at City University from 2003 to 2014 when it acted as CIJ's base.

As an advisor to The Whistler, a British organization designed to provide a legal, psychological and social support network to those in the UK brave enough to come out and blow the whistle on incompetence and crime from any sector, public or private, he helped to launch it in March 20, 2016. A number of international whistleblowers were in the UK and The Whistler was able to host them and hear their stories. The campaigner Eileen Chubb hosted the event and former intel­li­gence officer for MI5 Annie Machon, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, NSA whistleblower Tom Drake, Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project (GAP) (The Whistler's US counterpart) spoke.

Grants and other professional interests

MacFadyen co-designed the South African Power Reporting Workshops from 2005 to 2007 at Wits University in Johannesburg, and directed the New York conference on Financial and Business Investigative Journalism in 2005 atColumbia University. He has also acted as a mentor at the Fact/Fiction Workshops run by Performing Arts Labs.

He received an European Union MEDIA Programme grant in 1998 for work on a Social History website project, and was a Senior Research Fellow at Caledonian University in 2000 and at Glasgow University from 2002 to 2003.

Personal Life

MacFadyen lived in Pimlico with his wife, Susan Benn. MacFadyen passed away after a short illness on October 22 2016 at age 76.