journalism

“From a young age, seeing Sir Trevor McDonald on the TV who looked like me and spoke a bit like me, I thought, ‘if he can do it and he’s black, maybe I could do it too,’” he explains.

Myrie’s heart was set on a career in journalism but that he had to have a “good degree” to fall back on for his parents.

“My parents are first generation immigrants from Jamaica, they didn’t travel 6,000 miles for me to be a bum,” he laughs. 

After completing a law degree, Myrie chose to pursue his childhood dream and earned a coveted place on the BBC journalism training course. 

Run by the BBC Academy, the event aimed to give the students an insight into working in the broadcasting industry.

The morning session on mobile journalism, taken by MoJo guru Marc Settle, gave them the skills to go out into the city and shoot and edit a film entirely on their phones. Grabbing lunch on the go, the completed films were reviewed and a Best Film award given.

Why he wanted to be a journalist: I was born in Somalia where my father was part of the independence movement and a businessman who spent a lot of time in the UK. He moved us to the UK where I was educated.

Around our kitchen table we’d discuss what was happening in the world. That was where I first became interested in international news and the day’s big issues such as apartheid and Nelson Mandela and revolutions in the Middle East.

The Glasgow-born, Yorkshire-based entrepreneur, who lost his sight at the age of 18, runs Traveleyes, a company that takes blind and partially sighted travellers on action-packed holidays around the world.

The new position has been created to demonstrate the channel’s commitment to reporting on climate change.

Thomas-Peter will leave her position as Sky News’s US correspondent, after covering hard-hitting stories across the US, including the #MeToo movement, the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the Trump presidency, the opioid drugs crisis and the rise of the far right.

The reporter also sailed around Britain as part of an expedition for a documentary analysing the effects of ocean plastics on the environment.