Martin Bright

Martin Derek Bright (born 5 June 1966) is a British journalist. He worked for the BBC World Service and The Guardian before becoming The Observer's education correspondent and then home affairs editor. From 2005 to 2009, he was the political editor of New Statesman. He had a blog for The Spectator, and was The Jewish Chronicle's political editor from September 2009 to March 2013. In 2014 he took a position at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, but resigned after five months over a lack of editorial autonomy. a private day school for boys in the city of Bristol in South West England, followed by Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he gained a BA Hons. in English Literature in 1987. In 1996, he gained an MA in the History of Asia and Africa at the School of Oriental and African Studies (part of the University of London). He reported the work of the scholars as "revisionist history" of Islam. They have developed new techniques of analysis, in some cases adopting methods from earlier biblical studies and using a wider range of sources, including non-Muslim, non-Arabic texts. Their conclusions have included: little is known about the life of the Muslim prophet Mohammad; rapid expansion of the religion could be due to its appeal "of conquest and jihad for the tribes of the Arabian peninsula";

Bright claimed that new archeological finds, such as scraps of manuscript at the Great Mosque of Sana'a in Yemen, have supported suggestions of the development of the Koran over time.

In January 2009, Bright formed New Deal of the Mind, a coalition of artists, entrepreneurs, academics and opinion formers working to boost employment in Britain's creative sector during the recession. The organisation was launched formally at Number 11 Downing Street on 24 March 2009. The launch seminar was attended by more than 60 of Britain's leading creative industry figures, as well as several ministers and politicians from across the political spectrum.

In September 2009, Bright joined The Jewish Chronicle as political editor. He left the publication in March 2013, but returned as a columnist, remaining until January, 2014. He resigned after five months, feeling Blair did not give him the autonomy he needed.

Marriage and family Bright is married to Vanessa Thorpe, the arts correspondent of The Observer; the couple have two children.

Works He was presenter of Channel 4's 30 Minutes documentary, Who Speaks For Muslims? (2002), about the Muslim community in the United Kingdom. The Muslim Council of Britain sent a letter to Channel 4 protesting what it described as several errors in the documentary, as well as a generally negative tone suggesting it supported radical Islam. Bright wrote When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries: The British State's flirtation with radical Islamism (2006), a report exploring British state funding of political Islam and Foreign Office overtures to radical groups. It was published by Policy Exchange, which Bright described as a centre-right thinktank. Martin presented the documentary Vanished: the Surrey Schoolgirl about an unsolved missing person case he reported on in the mid-1990s.

Legacy and honours 2009, Bright was on the journalism long list for the Orwell Prize. Bright's Observer article on information revealed by whistleblower Katharine Gun features prominently in the film Official Secrets, where Bright is played by Matt Smith.