Ben Brown (journalist)

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name = Ben Brown


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birth_date = birth date and age|1960|5|26|df=y
birth_place = Kent, England
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occupation = TV presenter, newsreader and journalist
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Ben Brown (born 26 May 1960) is a journalist and news presenter for the BBC's rolling news channel BBC News. He has also presented the BBC News at Six and the BBC News at Ten and occasionally appears on the BBC One Weekend Bulletins.

Previously a special correspondent for BBC News he covered a variety of major stories across the globe before moving behind the desk on the BBC News Channel in 2006, becoming the presenter on Monday-Thursday evenings, firstly alongside Emily Maitlis and now Joanna Gosling. Brown still occasionally presents from outside the studio when a major story occurs.

Born in Kent, Ben Brown was educated at the Sutton Valence School, an Independent school, and at Keble College, Oxford, before graduating from the Cardiff Centre for Journalism Studies with a diploma with distinction. He joined Radio Clyde in Glasgow as a reporter, and later became a reporter for Radio City in Liverpool.

In 1986, Ben joined Independent Radio News, covering major stories from superpower summits to the Hungerford massacre. He joined BBC TV News two years later and was a Foreign Affairs Correspondent until 1991, reporting the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Persian Gulf war, from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

He was appointed Moscow Correspondent in 1991, where he witnessed the final collapse of Communism and the fall of Mikhail Gorbachev. He was at the Russian Parliament when troops loyal to President Yeltsin stormed it in 1993, and the following year he was in Chechnya for the start of the civil war. His coverage of that conflict won him several international prizes, including the Bayeux War Correspondent of the Year Award and the Golden Nymph Award from the Monte Carlo Television Festival.

In January 1995, Ben resumed his roving role as a Foreign Affairs Correspondent, based in London. He has covered the break-up of Yugoslavia extensively, reporting from Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, where his stories helped to secure several awards for the BBC, including a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Award).

In 2000 Ben won a Royal Television Society award for his report from Zimbabwe, where he was trapped inside a white farm whilst it was invaded by armed militants. In 2001 he won the Bayeux War Correspondent Award for the second time for his coverage of the Intifada in Israel. More recently, Ben was embedded with British troops in the Iraq war. Ben wrote about his experiences in a book, 'The Battle for Iraq', notably how a British soldier saved his life by opening fire on an Iraqi militiaman who was just about to shoot Ben in the back with a rocket-propelled grenade. He recounted how he elatedly kissed the gunner from the Irish Guards; "It was a natural reaction I suppose, but later I was rather disgusted with my delight. Reporters are supposed to be observers of the battlefield, not participants. I wondered if, by being so close to the British troops, I had somehow crossed an invisible line." Ben covered the first Gulf War in 1991, and his account of that, 'All Necessary Means', was also published.

During his time as a correspondent Brown did attract criticism for reporting as fact that Scud missiles had been fired by the Iraqis on March 20 when this was a false claim made by the US/UK coalition. For example: 'The priority of the day was to shoot the incoming scuds out of the sky, because no-one could be certain if they were armed with lethal chemical or biological warheads.' (BBC Ten O'Clock News, BBC One, 20 March 2003). Although it is understandable that reporting during war is difficult, Brown failed to verify that such claims were fake, and it was given by the coalition forces to support the ongoing military operation in Iraq.

References

Brown, Ben (1991) "All Necessary Means: Gulf War and Its Aftermath" BBC Books ISBN 0-563-36304-5

Beck,S & Downing ,M (ed.)(2003)"The Battle for Iraq: BBC News Correspondents on the War against Saddam and a New World Agenda" BBC Books ISBN 0-563-48787-9
* [http://www.bbcworld.com/content/template_clickpage.asp?pageid=2054] Short Biography at BBC World website
* [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1391309,00.html "'Then she pulled me closer and started to sob uncontrollably on my shoulder' on a defining moment in the tsunami coverage"] Ben Brown, "The Observer", Jan. 16, 2005
* [http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=35142 "War reporters hit back at tie jibes"] Zoe Smith, "Press Gazette", 3 August 2006