Sunny Hundal
Sunny Hundal (born 1977) is a British journalist, blogger and academic.
Sunny Hundal | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | British |
Education | Economics |
Alma mater | Brunel University London |
Occupation | Journalist |
Years active | 2006–present |
Known for | Journalism, Blogging, Academia |
Relatives | Jagraj Singh |
Born in London to Sikh parents of Indian origin, Hundal has a degree in Economics from Brunel University. He is best known as the founder and editor of the centre-left group blog Liberal Conspiracy. The Guardian's website named him as their blogger of the year in 2006.[1] Hundal has also written for publications including The Guardian, The Financial Times and The Independent.
In June 2019, he helped to found a progressive news aggregator, Front Page Live, where he serves as Editorial Director UK.[2] He is also a journalist-in-residence at Kingston University.[3]
Hundal is a Covenor of the cross-party political movement, More United.[4]
Projects
Hundal has founded and edited a number of politically progressive websites: Liberal Conspiracy,[5] a group weblog about politics and media, Asians in Media,[6] Barfi Culture community websites,[7] the Pickled Politics weblog,[8] and the New Generation Network in 2006, a group and manifesto that attempted to challenge the current discourse on race relations in the UK. All these have been wound up.
In February 2007 he made a BBC radio documentary Lost in Translation about Asian brides brought to the UK.[9] The BBC also quoted his claim that Shahrukh Khan's endorsement of skin-lightening creams was "completely immoral".[10]
In June 2019, he helped to found a progressive news aggregator, Front Page Live, together with Joe Romm, its Editor-in-Chief, Carl Cameron, Laura Dawn, Helen Stickler and others. He serves as Editorial Director UK at Front Page Live.[2]
Political stances
In 2008, he wrote a blog post saying that non-white voters should consider voting Conservative, on the basis that "brown people" were being deliberately targeted by anti-terrorism legislation brought in by the New Labour government of Gordon Brown.[11] In 2010, on his Liberal Conspiracy blog, he backed the Liberal Democrats in the UK General Election.[12]
About three months after the formation of the Cameron–Clegg coalition, Hundal joined the Labour Party to influence its political direction.[13] In August 2010 Hundal backed Ed Miliband in the Labour leadership election.[14]
Hundal has criticised various religious organisations including the Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir,[15][16] the Muslim Council of Britain,[17] Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK,[17] Christian Concern For Our Nation,[16] Sikh Federation[18] and Hindu Forum of Britain.[18] He has been awarded the Fourth IRDS Awards for Print Media for fighting against religious obscurantism, awarded by the Lucknow-based Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS).[19]
In 2014 he defended the Tricycle Theatre's decision to boycott the UK Jewish Film Festival as a result of a £1,400 donation the festival received from the Israeli Embassy.[20]
A vegetarian, he describes himself as a strong environmentalist.[21]
See also
References
- Blogger of the year. The Guardian
- Wemple, Erik. "Ex-Fox Newser Carl Cameron takes his 'unfinished business' to progressive startup", The Washington Post, June 24, 2019; and "Masthead", Front Page Live, accessed June 25, 2019
- http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/activities/item.php?updatenum=2565
- "The team". Retrieved 3 May 2017.
- Liberal Conspiracy
- About AiM at Asians in Media magazine
- About Barfi Culture at Barfi Culture
- Contributors Archived 31 January 2013 at Archive.today at Pickled Politics
- Lost in Translation Archived 21 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, 26 February 2007, BBC Asian Network
- "Beyond the pale?", 25 September 2007, BBC News
- It’s time for brown people to switch to Tory Archived 15 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine, 16 June 2008, Pickled Politics
- "The Guardian endorses the Lib Dems and I'm with them", Liberal Conspiracy, 1 May 2010
- "Why I’ve decided to join the Labour party", Liberal Conspiracy, 16 August 2010
- "Why I think Ed Miliband is the right person to lead the Labour party", Liberal Conspiracy, 23 August 2010
- Sunny Hundal "The enemy within", The Guardian, 1 April 2007
- Sunny Hundal "Fundamentally flawed", The Guardian, 21 May 2008
- Sunny Hundal "Stop whining!", The Guardian,, 9 June 2006
- Sunny Hundal "The tables have turned", The Guardian, 2 November 2007
- IRDS Award Winners 2013 Archived 3 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences
- Hundal, Sunny; Cohen, Nick (9 August 2014). "Was the Tricycle theatre right to ask the UK Jewish film festival to 'reconsider' its funding?". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
- Introducing guest blogger Sunny Hundal, The f word (feminist blog), 18 January 2009