Scott Taylor (born December 30, 1960) is a Canadian journalist, author and publisher who specializes in military journalism and war reporting. His coverage has included wars in Cambodia, Africa, the Persian Gulf, Turkey, South Ossetia, the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. He has worked as the editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps, since 1988. Taylor has won Press TV's ' Unembedded Journalist of the Year' Award for 2008. In 1996 he received the Quill Award, as well as the Alexander MacKenzie Award for journalistic excellence.
Taylor is a regular op-ed contributor to the Halifax Herald newspaper, as well as the Embassy Magazine. He has also contributed to such publications as the Ottawa Citizen, Maclean’s magazine, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Sun, Reader's Digest and the Global television network. He has also appeared in several international journals such as Indian Defense Review, Mayar Nemzet and Al Jazeera. In 2006, Taylor presented to the University of Western Ontario his Clissold Lecture titled From Belgrade to Baghdad. Taylor appears regularly in Canadian media as a military expert and analyst .
In 2004, Taylor and a Turkish colleague Zeynep Tugrul were kidnapped in Iraq by Ansar al-Islam, a radical Islamist group and held for five days. His release generated a wave of international media coverage and he returned to Iraq in 2005, briefing the U.S soldiers stationed there on the Turkmen people of Iraq .
Taylor's Canadian military magazine, Esprit de Corps, was first conceived of as an in-flight magazine for the Canadian Air Force, after Taylor and his wife Katherine discovered that Canadian Air Force planes lacked any on-board entertainment system or reading material. Their original concept was to utilize the military passengers who normally used the airlines to attract advertisers who wished to promote their products to Canadian Forces personnel.
After struggling to have his proposal accepted by the Canadian Forces, Taylor was able to secure national advertisers for the publication; corporations who had large budgets and could afford to advertise in their magazine Esprit de Corps, which was first published as an illustration-oriented magazine, with small articles and more entertainment-oriented content.
Due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Canadian government’s subsequent downsizing of its military expenditure, the Canadian Forces were experiencing cutbacks and changing the way in which its personnel would be transported. This affected Esprit de Corps drastically, as Canadian Forces personnel would now be transported via flights chartered by Air Canada. Because of the loss of its Canadian Air Force distribution and the cost-cutting atmosphere of the military community, Taylor and his wife decided to convert their magazine to a newsstand monthly.
The new magazine would feature mainly current military news and Canadian military history. The magazine continued to retain its seat-back distribution with Air Canada military charters and Taylor began to hire staff in order to help fill their new eighty-four page format.
In 1991, Esprit de Corps ran a controversial article, in which they interviewed the recently resigned vice-Admiral Chuck Thomas, recognizing and supporting Thomas, who had claimed that the Canadian Forces were not properly prepared for the future. As a result, the Department of National Defence ordered Air Canada to cease distribution of Esprit de Corps aboard their military charter flights. The DND’s decision was later reversed when Taylor threatened to issue a press release detailing corruption involving the DND official magazine Canadian Defence Quarterly.
On September 7, 2004, Taylor and Turkish journalist Zeynep Tugrul, who works for the Turkish newspaper Sabah, arrived in Iraq to report on the Invasion of Iraq by the United States Military.[1] Their reporting brought them to the city of Tal Afar in the predominantly Turkmen North, where the U.S was on the verge of major action against mujahedeen fighters. At a quarter past 7:00 on September 7, Taylor and Zeynep met with an Iraqi police checkpoint, planning to get directions to their contact in Tal Afar, Doctor Jashar. They were directed to a waiting car filled with masked gunmen, whom they believed to be Iraqi Special Forces.
They were driven by the masked gunmen to a resistance safe house, where they were kidnapped by Ansar al-Islam, a radical Islamist group and accused of being spies. Scott and Zeynep were held captive for five days by the Mujahedeen in which they were transported to numerous resistance sites, tortured for information, threatened with execution and continually beaten.
On September 12, Mujahedeen agents threw Taylor into an awaiting cab in northern Iraq with next to no money and abruptly released him, having negotiated a release with the Iraqi Turkmen Front and Zeynep Tugrul, who had been released earlier. His release created a wave of international media attention, granting him interviews in which he told the story of his kidnapping. [2]
Taylor currently lives in Ottawa, Ontario with wife Katherine and son Kirk. He works at Esprit de Corps office as the publisher. He also plays for the Esprit de Corps Commando's hockey team as a right winger.
Taylor has authored several books during his career:
| Year | Titles | ISBN | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Tarnished Brass: Crime and Corruption in the Canadian Military | ||
| 1998 | Tested Mettle: Canada’s Peacekeepers at War | ||
| 2000 | Inat: Images of Serbia and the Kosovo Conflict | ||
| 2002 | Diary of an Uncivil War: The Violent Aftermath of the Kosovo Conflict | ||
| 2003 | Spinning on the Axis of Evil: America's War against Iraq | ||
| 2004 | Among the 'Others': the forgotten Turkmen of Iraq | ||
| 2008 | Unembedded: Two Decades of Maverick War Reporting | ||
| 2010 | Unreconciled Differences: Turkey Armenia and Azerbaijan |
Taylor has also starred in and been the subject of several documentaries:
| Year | Titles | Subject | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Yugoslavia: the Avoidable War | a documentary that explores Western countries involvement during the war in Yugoslavia. | |
| 2005 | Passionate Eye: Reporters in Iraq | The kidnapping of journalists in Iraq and the impact that is having on reporting in Iraq. | |
| 2009 | National Geographic's Locked Up Abroad: Iraq | A docudrama in which Taylor recounts the events of his kidnapping by insurgents. | |
| 2009 | Myths for Profit | a dramatic exposé documentary which explores Canada’s role in the industries of war and peace. | |
| 2010 | If I Should Fall | a documentary about the life and death of Trooper Marc Diab of The Royal Canadian Dragoons who was killed in Afghanistan when his vehicle struck an IED. | |
| 2010 | Afghanistan: Outside the Wire | a documentary in which Taylor travels throughout Afghanistan as a civilian, learning the civilian' side of the Afghanistan war.[3] | Afghanistan: Outside The Wire, You Tube |
| 2010 | The Weight of Chains | a documentary analyzing the break-up of Yugoslavia and the part played by the United States, NATO and the European Union | |
| 2011 | From Belgrade to Baghdad | A documentary about Taylor's military journalism career, following him from his reporting in the Balkans to the war in Iraq. | |
| 2011 | F-35 Politics of Procurement | Taylor looks at the Canadian governments project to acquire new fighter planes to replace their CF-18's | |
| 2013 | Homecoming: The Casualties of War | An in-depth look at the challenges faced by soldiers returning from Afghanistan and families of the fallen, particularly "invisible wounds" like PTSD and Survivor guilt.[4] | |