Isobel Yeung

Last updated

Isobel Yeung
Nic Dawes - Isobel Yeung - Beverly Chase - HBO Vice.jpg
Yeung in 2007
Born (1986-11-02) November 2, 1986 (age 38)
Salisbury, England
Nationality British
Alma mater University of Nottingham
Occupation Journalist
Years active2014–present
Employer(s) VICE News, until February 2024 [1]
CNN, since May 2024 [2]
PartnerBenjamin Zand (2017–present) [3]
Children1 [4]

Isobel Yeung (born 1986) is a British long-form documentary senior correspondent. She has covered a variety of stories concerning major global issues such as ongoing world conflicts, terrorism, mass detention, and genocide. She has also reported on social issues in developing countries such as gender roles, women's rights (e.g. in Afghanistan), mental health and corruption. [5] [6] Her work has earned her two Emmy Awards and a Gracie Award.

Contents

Early life and education

Yeung was born in 1986 in Salisbury, England, to an English mother and Cantonese father. [7] [8] She has a sister and a brother. [9] She was raised and spent most of her early life in Salisbury.[ citation needed ]

Career

After secondary school, Yeung spent a year abroad in Asia, funding her travels through modelling for fashion brands and as editor for lifestyle publications. [10] Yeung graduated the University of Nottingham in 2009, having studied at both the UK and China campuses. [10] Then she moved to China and freelanced for a number of print publications and TV channels,[ citation needed ] including International Channel Shanghai, and China Central Television. [11] [ better source needed ] [12] [ dubious – discuss ]

As Yeung describes in interview, she pitched a documentary idea on the Hong Kong protests to Vice News in 2014 that resulted in her relocation to New York City to do such work full time; [13] she proceded to do so as a new employee of Vice.[ citation needed ] There, she was predominantly an on-air senior correspondent and producer for their flagship shows airing on HBO, specializing in long-form content and interviews.[ citation needed ] She is well-known for covering stories of human and political interest in areas of breaking and continuing international news (see examples and citations following), and on gender discrimination and sexual consent. [14]

In May 2024, CNN announced that Yeung would join them as an international correspondent in the network’s London bureau. [15]

Investigative reporting

In Palestine

In 2024, Yeung reported with the BBC on violence in the West Bank in the months following the October 7th Hamas attacks against Israel. The report included an investigation into a fatal shooting by IDF soldiers that led to the death of two children, Basil and Adam, aged 15 and 8 years old respectively. In response to the investigation, Professor Ben Saul, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism said that "For Adam, this appears to be a violation of the International Humanitarian Law prohibitions on deliberately, indiscriminately or disproportionately attacking civilians, a war crime, and a violation of the human right to life". The report questioned whether the IDFs use of lethal force against civilians was too routine, and raised concerns about disparities in the policing of violence committed by Israeli settlers compared to Palestinians. [16]

In Afghanistan

In 2022, Yeung reported on the state of law and justice in Afghanistan following the 2021 Taliban takeover, the situation of women's rights under the governance of the Taliban, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the country stemming from a shortage of food and medical supplies and its collapsed economy. [17] [ full citation needed ]

In China

In 2019, Yeung went undercover in Xinjiang, China, to investigate the internment camps for Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in the Muslim-majority region, reporting on their mass detention, familial separation, and surveillance at the hands of Chinese authorities. Numerous times during her reporting, Yeung was followed, accosted, and had her camera footage deleted by Chinese police and security forces. [18] [ original research? ]

In Ukraine

In early 2017, Yeung travelled to Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, forcibly annexed in 2014 by the Russian Federation, to report how the annexation had changed life on the peninsula. Yeung dined at the invitation of Russian oligarch and ex-KGB officer Alexander Lebedev in Sevastopol where he explained his vision for the restoration of the once famous USSR tourist destination. Yeung also interviewed Oleg Zubkov, owner of the Taigan Zoo and Safari Park in Crimea, about the sharp decline in tourism since the annexation and the Ukrainian damming of the North Crimean Canal. Yeung attended a 2018 Ukrainian presidential ceremony featuring President Petro Poroshenko that marked the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's split from the Russian Orthodox Church for the first time in 300 years. During her visit, she interviewed Ukrainian Crimeans who reported nine months of detention and torture by FSB officers for resisting the Russian occupation, the information blackout on the peninsula by Russian authorities, and the opening of the Kerch Strait Bridge. [19] [ full citation needed ]

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Yeung travelled to the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, between the strategic coastal cities of Kherson and Odesa during the Battle of Mykolaiv. While touring the damaged city with Mayor Oleksandr Syenkevych, Yeung met with family of soldiers and civilians killed in Russian bombings of the city and filmed remnants of apparent cluster munitions. In meeting with 25 year-old Mykolaiv resident Olya, Yeung interviews both Olya and her aunt Svetlana who resides in Russia about the ongoing war. While speaking with Yeung, Svetlana describes the war's filtered coverage in Russia and how Ukrainians aren't seeing how "the Nazis torture people [in Ukraine]" and how "the Russian forces are liberating Ukraine from Nazis." Yeung also toured the trenches of the Ukrainian 79th Brigade to the east of the city, attended the funeral of a deceased Ukrainian soldier, and spoke to refugees fleeing the conflict. [20] [ full citation needed ]

In Russia

In late April and early May 2023, Yeung travelled to Moscow to interview Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia during Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In the interview, Lvova-Belova refuted claims that Russia forcibly deported Ukrainian children and subjected them to propaganda, saying that the children involved and their parents were Russian-speaking and wanted to be part of Russia. She also said that what Russia had done was purely out of compassion for the children and no politics or propaganda was involved, with the Ukrainian children brought into Russia reciprocating with gratitude for Russian soldiers who brought them to safety. [21] The interview was criticized by Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of Office of the President of Ukraine, who described Lvova-Belova's remarks as "cannibalism" and that Russia is a "perfect model of hell". [22]

In Yemen

In 2018, Yeung travelled to Aden, Yemen, to report on the situation of the country's women during the Yemeni Civil War. In her Vice News report "The Women Fighting to Protect Yemen", she interviewed female fighters, child brides, domestic abuse victims, widows of the conflict and female protestors, and chewed khat with government officials from the Yemeni Interior Ministry; their takes on the country's problems related to gender discrimination, gender violence and financial displacement of Yemeni women were covered. [23] [ full citation needed ] She also interviewed former child soldiers of the Houthi movement. [24] [ full citation needed ]

Awards and recognition

In 2017, Yeung won a Gracie Award for TV National Reporter/Correspondent for her work on Afghan Women’s Rights for Vice on HBO, [25] after appearing the year prior on Marie Claire's list of America's 50 Most Influential Women. [14] In 2019, the Newswomen's Club of New York presented her with the Marie Colvin Front Page Award for Foreign Correspondence. [26]

In 2022 Vice News and Yeung were two-time winners of awards from the Foreign Press Association (FPA) of London, Yeung and Belle Cushing‍ in the category of Financial/Economic Story of the Year (for "Undercover in Guyana‍"), and then Yeung again, receiving that year's Journalist of the Year Award. [15] [27] Yeung's video reports, "Yemen: The Forgotten War" and "Return of The Taliban", both for Vice News, won Emmy Awards in the News category in 2022. [28] Yeung, Adam Desiderio, and others at Vice News received a Peabody Award for their reporting in the 2022 short documentary, "No Justice for Women in the Taliban's Afghanistan," which the award announcement describes the awards as being for their "bearing witness as a humanitarian crisis unfolds", and describes as "poignant and powerful" its reporting from "households gripped by poverty and food insecurity... [on] the country’s hunger problem and the dismal policies around women’s equality" following the U.S.' withdrawal in 2020-2021. [29]

Personal life

Yeung has been dating British-Iranian journalist and director Benjamin Zand since 2017. [3] In spring 2024, she gave birth to their first child. [30] The family live in London. [31]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting</span> American journalism award

This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, including United Nations correspondence. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic Reporting - International.

Anne Longworth Garrels was an American broadcast journalist who worked as a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, as well as for ABC and NBC, and other media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habiba Sarābi</span> Afghan Hazara politician (born 1956)

Dr. Habiba Sarābi is a hematologist, politician, and reformer of the reconstruction of Afghanistan after the Taliban first took power. In 2005, she was appointed Governor of Bamyan Province - the first Afghan woman to become a provincial governor. She had served as Afghanistan's Minister of Women's Affairs and as Minister of Culture and Education. Sarabi was instrumental in promoting women's rights and representation and environmental issues. She belongs to the ethnic Hazara people of Afghanistan. Her last name is sometimes spelled Sarobi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Coren</span> Australian journalist and occasional news anchor

Anna Coren is an Australian journalist and occasional news anchor who is an international correspondent with CNN based in Hong Kong.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lara Logan</span> South African journalist and war correspondent

Lara Logan is a South African television and radio journalist and war correspondent. Logan's career began in South Africa with various news organizations in the 1990s. Her profile rose due to reporting around the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. She was hired as a correspondent for CBS News in 2002, eventually becoming Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyse Doucet</span> Canadian journalist and TV presenter (born 1958)

Lyse Marie Doucet is a Canadian journalist who is the BBC's Chief International Correspondent and senior presenter. She presents on BBC World Service radio and BBC World News television, and also reports for BBC Radio 4 and BBC News in the United Kingdom. She also makes and presents documentaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nima Elbagir</span> Sudanese journalist (born 1978)

Nima Elbagir is a Sudanese journalist and an award-winning international television correspondent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Engel</span> American journalist and author

Richard Engel is an American journalist and author who is the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News. He was assigned to that position on April 18, 2008, after serving as the network's Middle East correspondent and Beirut bureau chief. Before joining NBC in May 2003, Engel reported on the start of the 2003 war in Iraq for ABC News as a freelance journalist in Baghdad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather Nauert</span> American government official and journalist

Heather Anne Nauert is an American broadcast journalist and former government official who served as Spokesperson for the United States Department of State in the Donald Trump administration from 2017 to 2019. Nauert also served as Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs from March 2018 to April 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marlene Sanders</span> American journalist and television producer (1931–2015)

Marlene Sanders was an American television news correspondent, anchor, producer and executive who worked for ABC News in the 1960s and 1970s and moved to CBS News in 1978. She was the first woman to achieve several milestones in the then male-dominated field of television news.

Mellissa Veronica Fung is a Canadian journalist with CBC News, appearing regularly as a field correspondent on The National.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Paton Walsh</span> British journalist (born 1977)

Nick Paton Walsh is a British journalist who is CNN's International Security Editor. He has been CNN's Kabul Correspondent, an Asia and foreign affairs correspondent for the UK's Channel 4 News, and Moscow correspondent for The Guardian newspaper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarissa Ward</span> British-American television journalist (born 1980)

Clarissa Ward is a British-American television journalist who is the chief international correspondent for CNN. Previously, she was with CBS News, based in London. Before her CBS News position, Ward was a Moscow-based news correspondent for ABC News programs.

Hollie McKay is an Australian born journalist who formerly worked for Fox News. She is a national bureau correspondent covering national and international news from Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Myanmar and Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holly Williams (journalist)</span> Australian journalist

Holly Williams is an Australian foreign correspondent and war correspondent who has worked for CBS since 2012. Prior to that, she worked for BBC News, CNN, and Sky News.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Ferguson</span> British/Irish journalist

Jane Ferguson is an Irish journalist.

Tina Susman is an American journalist and editor. A senior editor at Time from 2019-2022, she was previously the national editor for BuzzFeed News and while at the Los Angeles Times had multiple roles, starting as Baghdad bureau chief and moving on to become a national correspondent based in New York. Prior to that she oversaw and contributed coverage from at least 15 countries in Africa for the Associated Press and Newsday, part of the over-five-fold trend in the increase of women war correspondents from 1970 to 1992. She left Time in 2022 and was a senior editor at the tech news site Protocol.com until its closure in December 2022. While reporting for the Associated Press in 1994, Susman was kidnapped in Somalia and held for 20 days. For this, she was featured in an episode of Oprah and on MSNBC among other outlets, and her case became the subject of debate about whether the Associated Press should have withheld news of the kidnapping.

This is the military history of the 2020s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recognition of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan</span> International relations of Afghanistans Taliban government

The Taliban has ruled Afghanistan as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan since taking control by force in 2021, overthrowing the internationally recognized Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The takeover was widely criticized by the international community, and no countries have extended de jure diplomatic recognition to the new regime, despite nominally maintaining relations with Afghanistan. The Taliban has campaigned for international recognition since the takeover. Several countries have vowed never to recognize the Islamic Emirate, and others have said they will do so only if human rights in the country are respected. Some countries have accredited Taliban diplomats at the chargé d'affaires level despite not recognizing the Islamic Emirate. In September 2023, the People's Republic of China became the first country to formally name a new ambassador to the country since the takeover, and in January 2024 recognized the Taliban's envoy to China; however, the PRC still does not formally recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The United Arab Emirates also accepted a Taliban appointed diplomat as Afghanistan's new ambassador in August 2024.

On 12 December 2022, insurgents attacked a hotel popular with foreigners in Kabul, Afghanistan. At least 3 civilians were killed. 18 others, including foreigners, are reported to be among those injured. Islamic State – Khorasan Province claimed responsibility for the attack.

References

  1. ↑ @IsobelYeung (27 February 2024). "I no longer work for Vice. Its been the greatest honor to work with THE BEST team. We've broken stories from every corner of the globe. Those stories have led to arrests, law & policy changes. We've won all the awards. Moved the needle on important issues. THANKS FOR WATCHING" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 29 February 2024 – via Twitter.
  2. ↑ "Award-winning Correspondent Isobel Yeung Joins CNN". CNN Press Room. 8 May 2024. Archived from the original on 9 May 2024. Retrieved 6 June 2024.
  3. 1 2 "'VICE' Isobel Yeung & The Guy She Might Get Married To; Oh! She's Not Gay". Liverampup.com. 6 January 2019. Archived from the original on 29 February 2024. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  4. ↑ @izyeung (4 June 2024). "The best assignment of our lives just landed" – via Instagram.
  5. ↑ "Isobel Yeung". www.vice.com. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  6. ↑ "On the Front Lines with Isobel Yeung of VICE". Unearth Women. 19 October 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  7. ↑ Jackson, Benjamin (19 April 2017). "VICE's Isobel Yeung is Breaking The Dress Code". The Window. Archived from the original on 8 November 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2021. Originally from the U.K., Yeung has always had a global perspective, due in part to the fact that her father immigrated to England from Hong Kong in search of a better life
  8. ↑ Warren, James (23 February 2017). "Vice goes inside Syria to show what media censorship really looks like". Poynter. Retrieved 13 August 2021. The effort by Yeung — the child of an English mother and Hong Kong Chinese dad
  9. ↑ Yeung, Isobel (24 February 2020). "My brother, sister & dad all sell Chinese food for a living". X.
  10. 1 2 "Eastday-Isabelle Yeung". english.eastday.com. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
  11. ↑ Yeung, Isobel & Staff (20 April 2022). "Isobel Yeung" (reporter biosketch). The Independent . Retrieved 20 April 2022. Isobel Yeung is a TV presenter for CCTV-News and ICS. With a UK and Chinese background, she is currently based in Shanghai.
  12. ↑ Anderson, Cameron; Yeung, Isobel; others (31 October 2014). Gateway Promo. LITV Asia . Retrieved 2 November 2024– via YouTube.com.[ full citation needed ]
  13. ↑ Orin, Andy; Toboni, Gianna & Yeung, Isobel (10 May 2017). "We're Gianna Toboni and Isobel Yeung, Correspondents for VICE on HBO, and This Is How We Work" (interview). Lifehacker.com . Retrieved 7 July 2019. In 2014, I pitched a piece for Vice News on the Hong Kong protests. We created a 30-minute documentary, allowing us to dig into some of the issues that weren't being covered in the news headlines. That immersive style of long-form docs really won me over. So I moved to New York to do that full-time.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. 1 2 Goldman, Lea; Sklar, Rachel (13 October 2016). "The New Guard: America's 50 Most Influential Women". Marie Claire . Marie Claire. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  15. 1 2 Johnson, Ted (8 May 2024). "Isobel Yeung Joins CNN As International Correspondent". Deadline.com . Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  16. ↑ Yeung, Isobel & BBC Staff (2 May 2024). "Israel Accused of Possible War Crime Over Killing of West Bank Boy". BBC.com . Retrieved 3 May 2024.
  17. ↑ Yeung, Isobel (reporter); others (13 February 2022). Life in the Taliban's Afghanistan. Vice News Tonight . Retrieved 2 November 2024– via YouTube.com.[ full citation needed ]
  18. ↑ Yeung, Isobel; Salhany, Paula (ed.) (29 June 2019). China's Vanishing Muslims: Undercover In The Most Dystopian Place In The World. VICE News . Retrieved 7 May 2021.[ full citation needed ]
  19. ↑ Yeung, Isobel (reporter); others (9 December 2019). Life Inside Putin's Crimea. Vice News . Retrieved 20 April 2022– via YouTube.com.[ full citation needed ]
  20. ↑ Yeung, Isobel (reporter); others (27 March 2022). Battle for the South of Ukraine. Vice News . Retrieved 20 April 2022– via YouTube.com.[ full citation needed ]
  21. ↑ Yeung, Isobel; Rostowska, Maya; Archen, Ana (2 May 2023), Exclusive: We Interviewed the Russian Woman Accused of 'Stealing' 20,000 Children, Vice News , retrieved 10 May 2023
  22. ↑ Roshchina, Olena (2 May 2023), President's Office comments on Vice News interview with Russian Children's Rights Commissioner, Ukrainska Pravda , retrieved 10 May 2023
  23. ↑ Yeung, Isobel (reporter); others (31 January 2020). The Women Fighting to Protect Yemen. Vice News . Retrieved 2 November 2024– via YouTube.com.[ full citation needed ]
  24. ↑ Yeung, Isobel (reporter); others (15 April 2021). Inside a Child Soldier Rehab Center. Vice News . Retrieved 2 November 2024– via YouTube.com.[ full citation needed ]
  25. ↑ "2017 Gracies Gala Winners". All Women in Media. Alliance for Women in Media. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  26. ↑ "2019 Front Page Awards". NewswomensClubNewYork.com. Newswomen's Club of New York. 23 October 2019. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  27. ↑ FPA London Staff (2022). "2022 FPA Awards Shortlists for Each Category... 2022 Winners". FPALondon-Awards.org. London, England: The Foreign Press Association (FPA) London. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  28. ↑ "Winners of the News categories of the 43rd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards" (PDF). Emmy Awards. National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. 28 September 2022. pp. 12, 29. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  29. ↑ Peabody Award Staff (29 June 2023). "Winner, 2022: VICE News—No Justice for Women in the Taliban's Afghanistan". PeabodyAwards.com. Athens, GA: George Foster Peabody Awards. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  30. ↑ Yeung, Isobel (4 June 2024). "Life update: Welcome to the world Baby Yeung-Zand 🩵". X.
  31. ↑ Ruiz, Michelle (26 April 2022). "How Female Correspondents Are Defining War Coverage in Ukraine". Vogue. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.