Alastair Leithead

Alastair Leithead
Born	(1972-01-21) 21 January 1972 (age 52) Amersham
Education	University of Manchester
Occupation	Journalist
Notable credit	BBC News

Alastair Malcolm Leithead (/ˈliːθhɛd/; born 1972) is an English journalist working as a foreign correspondent for the BBC. Leithead was based in Nairobi from 2015 to 2019.[1] He works across all BBC News outlets.

Early life

Alastair Leithead was born in Amersham to Arthur Leithead, a security manager, and Edna Leithead (née Mooney), a teacher in private education. He was raised in Blaydon-on-Tyne and educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle.[2] He then went to the University of Manchester to study geography.[3]

Early career

After graduating from the University, Leithead worked at the Newcastle Evening Chronicle before joining BBC Radio Newcastle. Later he worked as a news producer in London.

Foreign reporting

As a foreign correspondent, Leithead has been based in Africa and Asia before moving to Kabul. There he covered the war in Afghanistan. Leithead has reported from a refugee camp in South Sudan. More recently, he has been based in Los Angeles before being re-located to Kenya as the BBC's Africa Correspondent in July 2015.[4]

Awards

Leithead won the 2007 Bayeux-Calvados Awards for war correspondents Television Award for his war reporting. In 2005/6 he was shortlisted for the Royal Television Society's TV Journalism Award, and in 2008 he was shortlisted for a BAFTA for best news coverage.

References

1. Istanbul's mayoral election upset, FOOC, 29 June 2019
2. [1] Archived 2012-12-24 at archive.today, Giving the gift of education
3. [2] Archived 2012-06-29 at the Wayback Machine, Why I support RGS Bursaries.
4. Leithead, Alistair. "Leithead's personal Twitter page". Twitter. Retrieved 24 July 2015.

External links

• [3], Alastair Leithead Twitter.