Tim Franks

Tim Franks has presented Newshour, the flagship news and current affairs programme on the BBC World Service, since 2013. Before that, Tim spent almost 20 years as a reporter. He cut his teeth reporting on the Troubles in Northern Ireand before joining the Lobby at Westminster, where he became the Today programme’s special political correspondent.

Tim spent nine years as a foreign correspondent, based in the Washington, Brussels and Jerusalem bureaux, travelling across Europe and the Middle East. He’s covered several major conflicts, from Iraq and Israel-Lebanon, to South Sudan and Ukraine. Tim won one of the most prestigious international war-reporting awards – the Bayeux – for his coverage of war in Gaza. Although he’s now based in London, with Newshour, Tim does still regularly report from the field, and has co-presented the programme from locations as diverse as Managua, Beijing, Addis Ababa, Caracas, Washington DC, Berlin and Bujumbura.