- Matt Frei
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Matthias Frei Born Matthias Frei
26 November 1963
Essen, West GermanyEducation University of Oxford Occupation Journalist, newsreader, news anchor, author Other names Matt Frei Ethnicity German Notable credit(s) BBC News Matthias Frei better known as Matt Frei (born 26 November 1963) is a German-born British television news journalist and writer, presently the Washington, D.C. correspondent for Channel 4 News.[1]
Contents
Personal life
Frei was born in 1963 in Essen, West Germany. His parents were refugees who left Silesia before it became part of Poland and settled in West Germany.[2] In 1973 he left Germany with his family and moved to the United Kingdom, when his father became a London correspondent for German radio.[2]
He was educated at Westminster School, then read History and Spanish at St Peter's College, University of Oxford, before graduating in 1986.
Frei is married and has four children.[3]
Career
BBC
Frei joined the BBC shortly after graduation. After a year in the German section of the World Service, he moved to English Language Current Affairs, where he worked for another year.
In 1989, working as a stringer, he reported on the First Intifada in Jerusalem, then on the Persian Gulf War as London Foreign Affairs correspondent. He took up the post of Bonn correspondent in Germany on the same day as the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In 1990 Frei took a holiday in Zimbabwe and persuaded aid worker friend Katty Kay to become a journalist.[4]
From 1992 to 1996, he worked as Southern Europe correspondent, based in Rome, and covered events in Bosnia, Kosovo, North Africa and various Mafia-related stories.[5]
After working as Southern Europe correspondent, he worked as Asia correspondent from 1997 to 2003, based in Hong Kong (taking up his post just before the handover to China) and later in Singapore.[6]
From 2002 he was the BBC's Washington, D.C. correspondent. In 2005, Frei reported from the centre of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. On 1 October 2007, Frei became the first presenter of the BBC World News one hour Washington-based news broadcast, BBC World News America, supported by correspondent Katty Kay. It currently airs on BBC News, BBC World News and several PBS stations.
For a week in July 2008, Frei presented the London based BBC News at Six on a relief basis. A year later on 27 July 2009, Frei returned to London again to present the evening bulletin (again as a relief presenter). In January 2011, Frei presented the BBCs Newsnight as a relief presenter.
Frei presented his own BBC documentary on the life and times of the German capital, Berlin. It ran from 14 November 2009.[7]
As part of his brief as the BBC's Washington correspondent, Frei presented a weekly Radio 4 show called Americana, which offers listeners slices of life in all of the country's 50 states as well as political news from Washington. Frei's last Americana episode aired in May 2011.[1]
Channel 4
It was announced in May 2011 that Frei would be switching to Channel 4 later in the year. Frei will serve as the broadcaster's Washington correspondent, as well as reporting for Channel 4's other news programmes.[1]
Awards
- Amnesty International Asia Award, for Newsnight features on Vietnam and Indonesia (1997 and 1998)
- Royal Television Society International News Award (2000)
- Prix Bayeux for War Reporting (2000)
Books
- Italy: The Unfinished Revolution (1995). Sinclair-Stevenson. ISBN 978-1-85619-571-3.
- Only in America (2008). HarperCollins Publishers Limited. ISBN 978-0007248926.
References
- ^ a b c "BBC’s Matt Frei switches to Channel 4". The Spy Report (Media Spy). 20 May 2011. http://www.mediaspy.org/report/2011/05/20/uk-bbcs-matt-frei-switches-to-channel-4/. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
- ^ a b First Person, 17 January 2009, The Guardian. Retrieved on 24 November 2009.
- ^ Meet the team - Matt Frei, BBC News
- ^ "She said... Katty Kay". BBC World Service. http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/169/kaycast.jsp. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
- ^ Downing, Malcom. (2003). The battle for Iraq: BBC news correspondents on the war against Saddam. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-7936-4.
- ^ Matt Frei, BBC Newswatch profile
- ^ Berlin Open2.net
External links
- BBC profile
- John Pilger doesn't buy the sales pitch of war lovers
- Americana, from BBC Radio 4
Categories:- 1963 births
- Living people
- People from Essen
- British people of German descent
- Old Westminsters
- Alumni of St Peter's College, Oxford
- BBC newsreaders and journalists
- British expatriates in the United States
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