Margaret Gilmore

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Margaret Gilmore (born 9 February 1956) is a journalist, broadcaster, writer and analyst. She frequently broadcasts, writes and lectures on security issues and is an Associate Fellow with the lead UK security think tank RUSI.

Margaret Gilmore was appointed as Home and Legal Affairs Correspondent for BBC Television News in January 2000.

Margaret gained a degree in English from the University of London (studying at Westfield College, now part of Queen Mary, University of London) and began her career as a journalist in 1977 reporting for local newspapers in London and then with Independent Radio News.

She joined the BBC in 1985 as a reporter based in Northern Ireland. From there she moved to Breakfast News, and then BBC 2's Newsnight, where she specialised in Irish Affairs. Margaret worked for Thames Television's This Week between 1989 and 1993 where she covered a wide range of subjects filming all over the world.

While with This Week Margaret made the first western documentary on the Lebanon hostage crisis while the hostages were still in captivity, and was the first western reporter allowed into East Germany after the resignation of Eric Honecker. She witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her two-part special on the American mafia reached record audiences of nearly nine million people.

Margaret returned to the BBC as a reporter on Panorama in 1993, where her programmes included A Crime Unpunished (on race and the law) and Babies on Benefit. She has also travelled extensively for the BBC's Assignment. As a News Correspondent she covered the Newbury Bypass protests.

In 1997 she became the Environment Correspondent for BBC Television News, winning the top environment award - a BEMA, as Television Environment Journalist of the Year - for her work on global warming, and the developing BSE and CJD crisis.

In her role as Home and Legal Affairs Correspondent for BBC Television News Margaret's brief includes terrorism and homeland security, policing, asylum, crime and race relations. Most recently, she has reported on the aftermath of the 7 July 2005 London bombings, the new UK terrorism legislation and the proposed introduction of ID cards.