SAMBROOK APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF BBC NEWS

THE BBC have announced the appointment of Richard Sambrook as Director of BBC News.
Sambrook, currently Deputy Director of BBC News, succeeds Tony Hall who is leaving the BBC to become Chief Executive at the Royal Opera House.
BBC Director-General, Greg Dyke, said: “The BBC News operation is the envy of the world. Richard takes the helm at an exciting time politically and technologically and inherits a strong team. I look forward to him developing the division to meet the ends of the 21st century.”
Sambrook was appointed Deputy Director in December 1999. He was previously Head of Newsgathering, running the department which brings in coverage from around the world for all BBC radio and TV news and daily current affairs programmes.
Sambrook said: “I’m delighted to have the opportunity to lead BBC News which is now renowned for its authority, impartiality and fairness. I look forward very much to working closely with our programme teams to build on those qualities for the benefit of audiences through TV, radio and online in the UK and around the world.”
Sambrook has worked as a producer and programme editor on BBC’s national TV news programmes and was senior producer and deputy editor of the Nine O’Clock News. He has worked on location in the Far East, Middle East, Europe, Russia and the United States and has helped produce campaign coverage for the last three general elections. Sambrook produced the BBC’s news coverage of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and co-ordinated the coverage of the war in Bosnia. (CD)