Robert Penfold

Last updated

Robert Maxwell Penfold AM is a television reporter and journalist, who served as Foreign Correspondent for Australia's Nine News . [1]

Contents

Early career

Penfold started his career as a cadet journalist on the Macarthur Advertiser and Campbelltown-Ingleburn News, local newspapers in his hometown of Campbelltown, New South Wales. [2] He moved into broadcast journalism, working at the local radio and TV station in Tamworth, New South Wales.

Broadcasting career

During his reporting career Penfold worked at all three Australian commercial TV networks in Sydney and Melbourne. While working for Ten News in Melbourne, he was one of the first reporters into Darwin after Cyclone Tracy destroyed the city on Christmas Day in 1974.

He covered the Granville rail disaster as a Nine Network reporter and toured Australia covering the first visit of Prince Charles and Princess Diana and new baby Prince William. During his career at Nine Network, Penfold has worked for Nine News , A Current Affair , Today (appearing on the first show in 1982) and Sunday .

From 1985 to 1987, he was based in Nine's North American Bureau reporting on Ronald Reagan's presidency and covered the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Penfold moved to the United Kingdom for the Nine Network in 1987. During his time in Europe, he covered the IRA's war against the British, the divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and the hunt for Australia's most-wanted man at the time, mafia boss Robert Trimboli.

Penfold also reported on America's unsuccessful attempt to bring peace to Somalia and the triumphant march to freedom by Nelson Mandela. Memorable moments include live reports from Mandela's house in Soweto and the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989.

Penfold reported from the former Yugoslavia during the Balkan Conflict in the early 90s. In 1991, he was one of the first reporters into Kuwait City in the First Gulf War. Earlier, he reported from Baghdad as the Australian Government attempted to negotiate the freedom of Australians trapped in the region.

Penfold spent two years in Australia as head of the A Current Affair office in Melbourne.

He returned to Los Angeles, California in 1997 as North American Bureau Chief for the Nine Network. During his time as Channel Nine's U.S. correspondent, Penfold has reported on the Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump presidencies, the 11 September terrorist attacks on America, the earthquake in Haiti, and the 33 miners trapped in Chile. He also spent time with the Australian Army as he reported on the Iraq War and the Australian military's role in Iraq.

Penfold announced his retirement from the role of Nine Network's US Correspondent and Bureau Chief in June 2019, and his final broadcast tribute aired on the 6pm evening bulletin on 30 June 2019. Robert wrote this article on his thoughts about retiring. https://www.9news.com.au/national/news-robert-penfold-foreign-correspondent-retirement-highs-and-lows/8bf1cc10-57a0-4a83-bc31-ec4d5c07524e

In 2020 Penfold took on the role of head of Global Media Relations for the Meridian Rapid Defense Group.

Awards

During his career Penfold has won several awards for his reporting. He won the Thorn Award for his coverage of a deadly fire in Sydney, a Penguin Award from the Television Society of Australia for his coverage of a murderous attack on mourners during an IRA funeral in Belfast, a Logie for his contribution from Monte Carlo to Nine News coverage of Sydney winning the bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics and a Walkley commendation for his story of coming under fire in Iraq. In 2006, he was awarded Australia's most prestigious journalism prize, the Walkley Award for TV News Reporting for his coverage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans. [3]

In the 2020 Australia Day Honours Penfold was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for "significant service to the broadcast media, and to journalism". [4]

Related Research Articles

Monica Ann Attard is an Australian journalist and academic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Jones (news journalist)</span> Australian journalist and TV presenter (born 1955)

Anthony William Jones is an Australian television news and political journalist, radio and television presenter and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Riminton</span> Sri Lankan-Australian journalist and TV presenter

Hugh Riminton is a Sri Lankan-born Australian foreign correspondent, journalist and television news presenter. He is currently national affairs editor and occasional presenter of 10 News First. He previously co-anchored Ten Eyewitness News with Sandra Sully until February 2017.

Michael Holmes is an Australian news anchor and correspondent for CNN International (CNNI), anchoring CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes since 2019. The shows air between the hours of 12am and 4am Friday through Monday ET. Prior to that he anchored CNNI's CNN Today with Amara Walker. He has also anchored the 10a ET edition of International Desk and in early 2013 joined Suzanne Malveaux as co-anchor of CNN USA's Around The World at noon ET, an hour-long bulletin focusing on international news. Previously, he was the host of CNNI's behind-the-news program BackStory and other CNN International programs.

Sally Jane Sara is an Australian journalist, TV presenter, author, and playwright. She has worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for many years, including stints as foreign correspondent in Africa, South Asia, and Afghanistan. In 2025 she will host ABC Radio National Breakfast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Journalism in Australia</span>

Journalism in Australia is an industry with an extensive history. Reporters Without Borders placed Australia 26th on a list of 180 countries ranked by press freedom in 2020, ahead of both the United Kingdom and United States. Most print media in the country is owned by either News Corp Australia or Nine Entertainment.

Graham Hunt Davis is a Walkley Award and Logie Award winning Fijian-born Australian journalist. He hosts a weekly Australian television program, The Great Divide on the Southern Cross Austereo TV Network, and is a consultant to the Washington-based global communications company Qorvis on its Fiji account.

Robert Ovadia is an Australian journalist. He previously worked as a reporter and fill-in presenter for Seven News in Sydney.

Mark Davis is an Australian investigative journalist and lawyer, best known for his work on Dateline for SBS TV, where he is currently a co-presenter and video journalist.

Lisa Joy Millar is an Australian television news presenter and journalist.

Eric Campbell is a prominent Australian foreign correspondent, who began his career as a journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald. His assignments have included reporting the wars in Chechnya, Afghanistan and the Balkans, tracking polar bears in the Arctic, filming at secret military bases in Central Russia and travelling by sled with nomadic reindeer herders in Siberia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Walters</span> Australian journalist

Adam Walters is a Walkley Award winning Australian journalist author and Brisbane Bureau Chief for Sky News Australia. He was also a political adviser to former New South Wales Premier, Morris Iemma.

Brian Thomson is the former Senior Correspondent of SBS World News. He is currently SBS' International Editor.

Mark Willacy is an Australian investigative journalist for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). He, along with ABC Investigations-Four Corners team, won the 2020 Gold Walkley for their special report Killing Field, which covered alleged Australian war crimes. He has been awarded six other Walkley awards and two Queensland Clarion Awards for Queensland Journalist of the Year. Willacy is currently based in Brisbane, and was previously a correspondent in the Middle East and North Asia. He is the author of three books. In 2023, Willacy was found to have defamed Heston Russell, a former special forces commander, after making unproven allegations of war crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick McKenzie</span> Australian investigative journalist

Nick McKenzie is an Australian investigative journalist. He has won 14 Walkley Awards, been twice named the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year and also received the Kennedy Award for Journalist of the Year in 2020 and 2022. He is the president of the Melbourne Press Club.

Tim Arvier is an Australian journalist. He is currently the state political and investigative reporter, and a fill-in presenter, for Nine News Queensland. He was previously North American and European correspondent for Nine News, a reporter on Nine News Darwin and a Queensland reporter for A Current Affair.

Mark W. Burrows is an Australian television news presenter and journalist.

Stephen McDonell is a journalist who has been BBC's China correspondent since 2016. He is based in Beijing. He was previously the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's China correspondent from 2006 to 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Fowler (journalist)</span> British Australian Journalist

Andrew John Fowler is an Australian TV reporter, author, and journalist. Born in the United Kingdom, he worked as a journalist in London before migrating to Australia. He specialises in human rights and national security issues.

Chris O'Keefe is an Australian journalist and radio host.

References

  1. ↑ Robert Penfold - Nine News Foreign Correspondent - (Retrieved 7 October 2010)
  2. ↑ Australia. - (Retrieved 2 October 2010)
  3. ↑ - (Retrieved 8 October 2010)
  4. ↑ "Robert Maxwell Penfold". honours.pmc.gov.au. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
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.