Edward Stourton Journalist and Broadcaster

­Edward Stourton is one of the presenters of the BBC's Today programme and as host of the prestigious foreign affairs programme Correspondent, was nominated for an Emmy and won an Amnesty award.

He regularly hosts debates on Radio 4 and has also made numerous current affairs documentaries for BBC television and radio. Edward also makes regular contributions to national newspapers and magazines.

He has also presented editions of Assignment and Panorama, and the phone-in programme Call Ed Stourton on Radio 4 which, in 1997, won the Sony Award for Best Radio News and Current Affairs Programme. His current affairs work for Radio 4 includes the series The Violence Files, Asia Gold and Global Shakeout. Asia Gold won the Sony Gold for current affairs in 1997.

­Career Chronology

1957: Born in Lagos, Nigeria. Edward was educated at Ampleforth and Trinity College Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union.

1979: Edward joined Independent Television News as a graduate trainee, working as a scriptwriter and producer for all of ITN's news programmes and became a founder member of the Channel Four News team.

1985: After two years of general reporting (including several tours of Beirut) Edward was appointed ITN’s first Washington Correspondent.

1986: Edward was appointed Channel 4's Washington Correspondent covering the final years of the Reagan presidency and the 1988 presidential campaign. He also presented special programmes on the Iran-Contra scandal.

1988: He was based in France at the BBC's new Paris Television bureau, before returning to ITN as a Diplomatic Editor in 1990. During the subsequent three years he covered the superpower negotiations which ended the Cold War, developments in the European Union – including the Maastricht Summit – the crisis in Bosnia and the Gulf War, when he worked in Baghdad during the allied attack.

1993: Edward returned to the BBC to present the One O'Clock News, which he presented for six years.

1997: Edward presented Absolute Truth, a landmark four-part series for BBC2 on the modern Catholic Church (and writes a book to accompany the series).

1999: Edward joined the team on the Today programme.

2001: Edward hosted the BBC coverage of the trooping of the colour. He also wrote and presented both the television and radio obituaries for Cardinal Hume, and documentary series In The Footsteps Of Saint Paul, In the Footsteps of Moses and In the Footsteps of Mohammed, transmitted by Radio 4.

2005: Edward authored the BBC's coverage of the papal election White Smoke – The Election Of A Pope 2005

2006: Presenter for BBC's Heaven & Earth - Edward visited Canterbury Cathedral to comment on its restoration process.

2006: In association with RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) and Radio 4, Edward hosted the lecture series Iconoclasts.

2007/8: Edward continues his work on the Today programme, as well as contributing to ‘Any Questions’ and the ‘Heaven and Earth Show’ for BBC television and BBC radio.

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