Ben de Pear
Benjamin de Pear (born 5 December 1970) is the Editor of Channel 4 News, a post he has held since 2012.
Early life
De Pear was born on 5 December 1970 in Hammersmith to John Andrew de Pear and Susan Elizabeth Kerr de Pear. He grew up in Staines and several places around the world including Iran and went to middle school in Barbados.[1]
He has an older sister, an artist, and a younger sister who is a TV drama producer.
Career
After a traineeship on the Staines and Ashford News, he joined Sky News in 1994 as a runner. From 1996–2000, he was a Foreign Overnight editor and producer. In 1999 he produced their award-winning coverage of Kosovo.
From 2000 to 2005, he was Sky's Africa Editor, but was also based for stints in Israel/Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan and was Sky's Producer in Baghdad for the fall of the city in April 2003. In 2004, he obtained the first sit down interview with President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.[2]
In 2005, he joined Channel 4 News producing their award-winning coverage of Lebanon, Somalia, Congo and Afghanistan and as Foreign Editor from 2008 led their investigation of Killing Fields in Sri Lanka[2] and their BAFTA winning coverage of the Japanese Tsunami as well as winning multiple other awards.
In 2012,[2] he became Editor of Channel 4 News, and under his editorship the programme has won 3 International Emmys, 3 RTS News Programmes of the Year and a BAFTA, as well as over 100 other awards.
In March 2017, de Pear issued an apology after Channel 4 News wrongly identified the perpetrator of the 2017 Westminster attack. It emerged that the person the programme had named as responsible was in prison at the time of the attack.[3]
In January 2018, de Pear was criticised after he liked a tweet by Kathy Burke, which called both Boris Johnson and Toby Young "a cunt".[4][5] A year later, he complained that Johnson wouldn't appear on his programme, claiming not to know the reason for the now Prime minister declining Channel 4 News requests.[6]
Personal life
In September 2003 he married Leila Amanpour, a British-Iranian photojournalist. They have three children.
References
- "De Pear, Ben, (born 5 Dec. 1970), Editor, Channel 4 News, since 2012 | Who's WHO & WHO WAS WHO".
- Conlan, Tara (12 March 2017). "Channel 4 News editor Ben De Pear: 'I see no end to Jon Snow. He's immortal'". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
- "Apology from Channel 4 News as it names wrong man as Westminster terror attacker – Press Gazette". www.pressgazette.co.uk. 2017-03-23.
- Divide And Disrupt: Inside Number 10's War Against The Media On Multiple Fronts
- kath 🙀🕷❄️🇪🇺 on Twitter: "He's a cunt and so are you.… "
- Channel 4 News will empty chair Boris Johnson if he refuses leaders' climate debate
External links
Media offices | ||
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Preceded by Jim Gray |
Editor of Channel 4 News August 2012 - |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
Preceded by |
Foreign Editor of Channel 4 News January 2009 - January 2011 |
Succeeded by |