Kate Peyton

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Katherine Mary Peyton (b. December 13, 1965, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk - d. February 9, 2005, Mogadishu) was Senior Producer for the BBC Johannesburg Bureau 2002-05. She was killed in a shooting incident in Somalia whilst reporting on that country's nascent peace process.

She had gone to the Somali capital Mogadishu to report on the peace process and was standing outside a hotel popular with politicians and journalists when she was shot. It was later found by the United Nations that her killing was likely organised by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated military leader, Aden Hashi Farah.^[1] Her brief in Somalia was to record the first signs of hope in that country's recent history. Kate Peyton was a journalist of wide experience, having worked in African and Middle Eastern conflict zones.

1 Background
2 See also
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Background

Peyton was educated at Culford School and read Civil Engineering at Manchester University. However, while at university she found herself increasingly drawn to books and journalism and resolved to make a career as a producer in broadcasting.

On leaving university she got her first job, at BBC Radio Suffolk, and also worked at Radio Merseyside and GMR. Her long-term ambition as a young radio producer was eventually to work in South Africa, a country she had first visited with her family in 1979.

She finally moved to South Africa to work in the 1990s, firstly for the South African Broadcasting Corporation and the BBC as a freelance producer. She was eventually appointed to the post of Africa Producer for the BBC early in the new millennium. She covered many major stories, including the emerging AIDS crisis in South Africa, the Mozambique floods and the humanitarian emergency of Darfur.