Nik Keith Gowing (born 1951) is a British television journalist. He was educated at the Simon Langton Grammar School in Canterbury and Latymer Upper School in London, followed by Bristol University.
A foreign affairs specialist and presenter at ITN from 1978, Gowing became Diplomatic Editor for the flagship Channel 4 News from 1989. During his time with the BBC, Gowing has since presented The World Today (1996–2000), Europe Direct, HARDtalk, Dateline London, as well as Simpson's World.
At the time of the death of Princess Diana in 1997, Gowing anchored coverage for over seven hours, reportedly only having had 40 minutes sleep before being driven back to Television Centre to present.[1] BBC World was being simulcast for the first ever time with the BBC domestic channel BBC One, making up a global audience of around half a billion, to whom he announced her death.
His coverage of the aftermath of the September 11th 2001 attacks won the 2002 Hotbird Award.[2] He had been on air for six hours. He is also a Member of Council of the Royal United Services Institute.
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Nik Gowing is the son of Professor Margaret Gowing, author of the two volume work Independence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy, 1945–52, who died in 1998. After attending grammar schools in London and Canterbury, Gowing read geography at Bristol University.
At University he worked on local radio; he then joined Thomson Regional Newspapers in Newcastle.
He and his wife Judy have two children and live in west London.