Mark Austin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mark Austin (born November 1, 1958) is an Emmy-award winning journalist and anchor of the ITV1 News at 10.30 and co-presenter of the ITV Evening News. Since joining ITV News in 1986 Mark has specialised in covering foreign events, travelling all round the globe.

Born in London, Austin was educated at Bournemouth School.

Austin started his career in the media as a general reporter on the Bournemouth Evening Echo (1976-1980). He then joined the BBC as a newsroom writer, becoming a general news reporter in 1982. He was made a sports reporter in 1985.

Austin joined ITN, who produce the news for ITV, from the BBC in October 1986 in the role of Sports Correspondent. He was given his first assignment on day one - to cover England's successful Ashes tour of Australia as well as the America's Cup. He stayed in Australia for four months and during this time unexpectedly found himself reporting on the extraordinary "Spycatcher" trial.

Austin has also covered all the major sporting events for ITV News, including the Olympics, Wimbledon, the British Open, Rugby internationals, football news and cricket. In 1993 he won top prize in the Sports News category at the Royal Television Society Sports Awards for his coverage of the drug scandal affecting three British sportsmen at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. In 1995 he was seconded to ITV to report from South Africa on the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Mark was one of the first British journalists to report from the Gulf during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. From the start of the war early in 1991 he was in Bahrain, the base for many of the Tornado squadrons, sending back regular reports including those on the recapture from the Iraqis of the islands of Qaruh and Um-al-Maradin.

Austin was based in Hong Kong in 1993 as Asia Correspondent for ITV News. He returned there for his second tour as Asia Correspondent in 1996, spending over two years reporting on all the major events in the region including the handover of the island to the Chinese in July 1997. He returned to London headquarters in mid-1998.

1994-1995 saw him in Johannesburg as Africa Correspondent for ITV News. In that role he reported on the historic transition to democracy in South Africa, Mandela's victory in the elections and on the bloody civil war in Rwanda as well as other major events throughout the continent. During 1995 he also covered the Bosnian crisis following the fall of Srebrenica. His reporting won him a joint Gold Medal, with fellow-correspondent Paul Davies, at the 1996 Film & Television Festival of New York.

He has covered wars in several countries and in mid-1999 he played a key role in the coverage of the War in Kosovo. Based on the Albanian border for much of the conflict, Mark reported on the refugee crisis caused by the war. On the day in June Nato troops finally entered Kosovo he was airlifted in with the Gurkhas, the first troops to enter the country, reporting on their vital role as mine clearers and witnessing an early confrontation with Serb police. Mark's reporting of the war was part of ITV News' coverage which received a Gold Nymph at the 1999 Television Festival of Monte Carlo.

His reporting of the devastating floods in Mozambique in the early part of 2000 received an International Emmy award in the US - American television's equivalent of an Oscar - as well as a Gold Nymph at the 2000 Television Festival of Monte Carlo and Gold and Silver Medals at the New York Television Programming Awards.

In Sept 2001 he covered the terrorist attacks in New York and afterwards reported on the War in Afghanistan.

In October 2006 he travelled to Beijing as part of a series of reports of ITV News on China's rapid economical growth. Austin had been to Beijing many times previously and covered the Tianneman square uprising back in 1989.

In January 2007 he travelled to Antarctica to cover a series of reports that ITV were making addressing climate change.

Austin subsequently became head anchor of ITV News when Sir Trevor McDonald retired in December 2005. He took up the role of presenting the flagship ITV News programme on the 3rd of January 2006.

He will continue to co-present the ITV Evening News with Mary Nightingale alongside presenting the flagship ITV News at 10.30.

[edit] Personal life

Mark is married with three children and lives in London. When not reporting from around the world, he names reading, walking on the Cornish cliffs and playing cricket and golf as his favourite pastimes.

He is part of the cricket The Lord's Taverners which includes celebrities like Chris Tarrant.

He is also known for his height at 6ft 3 as the tallest news reader.