Alistair Bunkall | |
---|---|
Born | Alistair Edward Julian Bunkall [1] February 22nd 1982 (age 41) [1] |
Nationality | British |
Education | Sherborne School, Dorset |
Alma mater | University of Bristol City University, London |
Occupation(s) | Journalist and TV News Correspondent |
Employer | Sky News |
Notable work | Off the Record with Alistair Bunkall (podcast) |
Title | Middle East Correspondent of Sky News (2012–present) |
Alistair Edward Julian Bunkall (born 1982, Bristol), [1] is a British journalist, currently working as Middle East Correspondent for Sky News, the 24-hour television news service operated by Sky UK. He has occupied this position since July 2021. Alistair was previously Defence and Security Correspondent for seven years and reported from many conflicts around the world including Afghanistan, Yemen [2] and the Islamic State insurgency in Iraq. [3]
Bunkall was born in Bristol in February 1982, and grew up in the village of Buckland Newton in north Dorset in South West England.[ citation needed ]
Bunkall was educated at Sherborne School, a boarding independent school for boys, in the market town of Sherborne in Dorset in South West England, [4] followed by the University of Bristol in the city of Bristol, also in South West England. [3] He took a postgraduate degree at the City University in Central London, in 2004. [5]
Bunkall is an experienced foreign correspondent, having reported from more than 30 countries during his career with Sky News, including the conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Gaza and West Bank.
He is also one of few western journalists to have reported from North Korea
After leaving Sherborne School, Bunkall gained work experience at the Dorset Echo , a local daily newspaper. While still at the University of Bristol, he worked for BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Somerset Sound. After completing his Post Graduate Degree at City University in London in 2004, he joined BBC News, and reported for the BBC One O'Clock News. He wen onto work in two ITV regions, initially as a Sports Correspondent: ITV Central and ITV Thames Valley, and for the CKNW radio station in the city of Vancouver in British Columbia, on the West Coast of Canada.
Bunkall joined Sky News as a general news reporter in 2007. He has held various positions at the channel including as Business Correspondent, Political Correspondent & Defence and Security Correspondent. He is currently the channel's Middle East Correspondent.
He has reported from Sudan in the run-up to the crucial elections leading up to Independence, and on the Norwegian twin terror attacks in early 2011.
Bunkall also reported from Denmark after the attempted assassination of a Danish cartoonist.
In 2014 he was deployed to the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan to report on the multi-national humanitarian relief effort.
He became Sky News Defence Correspondent in December 2012 and Middle East Correspondent in 2021. He has reported on the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Ukraine and South Sudan. He has also reported from North Korea [6] and is known for his access into some of the UK's most secretive establishments including the nuclear deterrent, covert drone base [7] and intelligence agencies. Bunkall has interviewed key world figures including Prime Ministers, NATO Secretary Generals, leading diplomats and military officers.
Bunkall has reported on elections in Pakistan, Israel, Turkey, the UK, South Sudan and the 2020 US Presidential election.
Since July 2019, Bunkall has run an independent podcast series, titled "Off The Record with Alistair Bunkall", where he interviews "some of the world's great leaders". [8] Recent high-profile interviews include Sir Alex Younger, former Head of MI6. [9]
Bunkall is married to Kate. [10] They live in the Middle East with their two children.
Sherborne is a market town and civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, 6 miles east of Yeovil. The parish includes the hamlets of Nether Coombe and Lower Clatcombe. The A30 road, which connects London to Penzance, runs through the town. In the 2011 census the population of Sherborne parish and the two electoral wards was 9,523. 28.7% of the population is aged 65 or older.
The West Country is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. The West Country has a distinctive regional English dialect and accent, and is also home to the Cornish language.
Sherborne School is a public school located beside Sherborne Abbey, in the parish of Sherborne, Dorset. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in 705 AD by St Aldhelm and, following the dissolution of the monasteries, re-founded in 1550 by King Edward VI, making it one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom. Sherborne is one of the twelve founding member public schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference in 1869 and is a member of the Eton Group and Boarding Schools Association.
Sir Richard Billing Dearlove is a retired British intelligence officer who was head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), a role known informally as "C", from 1999 until 6 May 2004. He was head of MI6 during the invasion of Iraq. He was criticised by the Iraq Inquiry for providing unverified intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
Rageh Omaar is a Somali-born British journalist and writer. He was a BBC world affairs correspondent, where he made his name reporting from Iraq. In September 2006, he moved to a new post at Al Jazeera English, where he presented the nightly weekday documentary series Witness until January 2010. The Rageh Omaar Report, first aired February 2010, is a one-hour, monthly investigative documentary in which he reports on international current affairs stories. From January 2013, he became a special correspondent and presenter for ITV News, reporting on a broad range of news stories, as well as producing special in-depth reports from all around the UK and further afield. A year after his appointment, Omaar was promoted to International Affairs Editor for ITV News. Since October 2015, alongside his duties as International Affairs Editor, he has been a Deputy Newscaster of ITV News at Ten. Since September 2017 Omaar has occasionally presented the ITV Lunchtime News including the ITV News London Lunchtime Bulletin and the ITV Evening News.
The Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) is a tier 1 special reconnaissance unit of the British Army. It was established on 6 April 2005 and is part of the United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF).
Adam James Harold Holloway is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gravesham since 2005. He served as Government Whip from September to October 2022, and as Assistant Government Whip from July to September 2022. He currently serves on the Home Affairs Select Committee and European Scrutiny Committee. He was a vocal supporter of pro-Brexit lobby group Leave Means Leave.
The Middle East and North Africa is a geographic region whose countries are often referred to by the acronym MENA. It is also known as WANA, SWANA, or NAWA, which alternatively refers to the Middle East as West Asia or as Southwest Asia; this is another way to reference the geographical region, instead of using the more common political terminology.
Mark William Austin is an English journalist and television presenter, currently working for Sky News.
Geraint V. Vincent is a British journalist, currently employed by ITN as a Correspondent for ITV News.
Francis Rolleston Gardner is a British journalist, author and retired British Army Reserve officer. He is currently the BBC's Security Correspondent, and since the 11 September attacks on New York has specialised in covering stories related to the War on Terror.
ITV News West Country is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV West Country.
Sam Kiley is a Senior International Correspondent at CNN. Prior to CNN, he was the Foreign Affairs Editor of Sky News. He is a journalist with over twenty years' experience, based at different times of his career in London, Los Angeles, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Jerusalem. He has written for The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Times and Mail on Sunday newspapers, The Spectator and New Statesman weekly political news magazines, and reported for BBC Two, Sky One, Channel 4, and lately, Sky News.
Paul Wood is a British journalist. He is the World Affairs correspondent for the BBC. He was previously the defence and Middle East correspondent.
David Chater is a British broadcast journalist. Chater has more than 35 years' experience in international television news, having worked for Independent Television News, Sky News and Al Jazeera English. He joined ITN in 1976, Sky News in 1993 and Al Jazeera English in 2006. In 2008 he also took time out to serve as Head of News at Georgian television channel Kanal Pik, run under licence by K1.
Hugh Sykes is a journalist employed by BBC News, specifically reporting for news programmes on BBC Radio 4. Sykes can regularly be heard reporting for PM, The World at One, Broadcasting House and The World This Weekend.
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6, is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence in support of the UK's national security. SIS is one of the British intelligence agencies and the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service ("C") is directly accountable to the Foreign Secretary.
Jane Ferguson is an Irish-British journalist, special correspondent for PBS NewsHour and contributor to The New Yorker.