Nik Gowing

British broadcasting legend and television presenter Nik Gowing has been working as a news anchor and correspondent for the last three decades, his work as a television and radio presenter has covered some of the biggest events in recent British and global history and garnered awards for both himself and the British Broadcasting Company. Known for his work at the BBC Nik Gowing began his journalistic career for ITN where he was bureau chief in Rome and Warsaw for eighteen years, in 1988 Gowing became one of the leading TV presenters for Channel 4’s flagship programme Channel 4 News where he was the channel’s Diplomatic Editor from 1988 to 1996.

In 1996 Nik Gowing moved to the BBC where he has remained until taking semi-retirement in 2014; whilst at the BBC Gowing was present at a number of world changing events including providing much of the BBC’s coverage of the attacks on September 11th 2001. Gowing is also known as the TV presenter and newscaster who first broke the news of the death of Princess Diana to global audiences in 1997, where he provided more than seven hours live coverage for the BBC.

As well as his television work Nik Gowing is a published author, writing a number of critical and factual texts that address information management, leadership and conflict in emergencies and times of crises. His most recent work, Skyful of Lies and Black Swans: The New Tyranny of Shifting Information Power in Crises published in 2009, challenges many of the preconceived ideas of Western politics and society’s management of tension, information and conflict. His study for the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict in Washington DC similarly challenged assumptions about the role of the media in times of crisis.

His work as a critic and analyst has gained him access to a number of influential groups and councils including councils of Chatham House, the board of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, and the advisory council at Wilton Park, as well as positions as an after dinner speaker and Visiting Fellow in International Relations at Keele University and at the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center in the J F Kennedy School of Government, at Harvard University. An award winning journalist and world renowned analyst Nik Gowing’s work as both a television and radio presenter has reached audiences of almost half a billion people, his work on BBC News’ HARDtalk and the World Today addressed the biggest and most controversial global events of the time and brought him into contact with some of the most important leaders the world has ever known.