Benjamin de Pear (born 5 December 1970) was, until 2022, the Editor of Channel 4 News, a post he held since 2012.

Early life

De Pear was born on 5 December 1970 in Hammersmith to John Andrew de Pear and Susan Elizabeth Kerr de Pear. He grew up in Staines and several places around the world including Iran and went to middle school in Barbados.[1]

He has an older sister, an artist, and a younger sister who is a TV drama producer.

Career

After a traineeship on the Staines and Ashford News, he joined Sky News in 1994 as a runner. From 1996 to 2000, he was a Foreign Overnight editor and producer. In 1999 he produced their RTS award-winning coverage of Kosovo.

From 2000 to 2005, he was Sky's Africa Editor, but was also based for stints in Israel/Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan and was Sky's Producer in Baghdad for the fall of the city in April 2003. In 2004, he obtained the first sit down interview with President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.[2]

In 2005, he joined Channel 4 News producing their award-winning coverage of Lebanon, Somalia, Congo and Afghanistan and as Foreign Editor from 2008 led their investigation of Killing Fields in Sri Lanka[2] and their BAFTA winning coverage of the Japanese Tsunami as well as winning multiple other awards.

In 2012,[2] he became Editor of Channel 4 News, and under his editorship the programme has won 4 International Emmys, 4 RTS News Programmes of the Year and 3 BAFTAs, 2 Peabody Awards and produced a feature long Cannes winning and Oscar nominated documentary, "For Sama". Channel 4 News has won over 200 awards since 2012, gained audience and become the most watched news programme on social media in the UK.

In March 2017, de Pear issued an apology after Channel 4 News wrongly identified the perpetrator of the 2017 Westminster attack. It emerged that the person the programme had named as responsible was in prison at the time of the attack.[3]

In January 2018, de Pear was criticised after he liked a tweet by Kathy Burke, which called both Boris Johnson and Toby Young "a cunt".[4][5] A year later, he complained that Johnson wouldn't appear on his programme, claiming not to know the reason for the now Prime minister declining Channel 4 News requests.[6]

In August 2021, Channel 4 and ITN announced that de Pear would step down from Channel 4 News as editor. De Pear stepped down in January 2022.[7]

Personal life

In September 2003 he married Leila Amanpour, a British-Iranian photojournalist. The couple have three children.

References

  1. ↑ De Pear, Ben, (born 5 Dec. 1970), Editor, Channel 4 News, since 2012 | Who's WHO & WHO WAS WHO. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U281629. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4.
  2. 1 2 3 Conlan, Tara (12 March 2017). "Channel 4 News editor Ben De Pear: 'I see no end to Jon Snow. He's immortal'". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  3. ↑ "Apology from Channel 4 News as it names wrong man as Westminster terror attacker – Press Gazette". www.pressgazette.co.uk. 2017-03-23.
  4. ↑ Divide And Disrupt: Inside Number 10's War Against The Media On Multiple Fronts
  5. ↑ In April 2018 Channel 4 News broadcast "Cambridge Analytica Uncovered" which as part of a wider investigation with the Observer and New York Times exposed malpractice in that company and Facebook. It wiped $100 billion off the share value of Facebook and led to Mark Zuckerberg appearing before the senate. In 2019 this investigation garnered a record breaking 7 RTS awards - the most for a single news programme ever, beating the 6 the record 6 Channel 4 News had won in 2013 and 2017. The investigation also won the BAFTA for News, an Emmy and a Peabody amongst many other awards. In 2018 de Pear was one of four Executive producers of "For Sama" Directed by Waad al Kataeb and Ed Watts, which was a feature length documentary of her experiences of Aleppo, many of which she had chronicled whilst working for Channel 4 News. The film won over 100 awards including Best Documentary at Cannes, SXSW, a Bafta and was nominated for an Oscar. kath 🙀🕷❄️🇪🇺 on Twitter: "He's a cunt and so are you.… "
  6. ↑ Channel 4 News will empty chair Boris Johnson if he refuses leaders' climate debate
  7. ↑ Wiseman, Andreas (August 16, 2021). "Ben De Pear Steps Down As Channel 4 News Editor After Decade In Role". Deadline Hollywood.
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