Darren Jordon (born 23 November 1960 in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

) is a British journalist working for the Al-Jazeera 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel,

Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; , ) is a 24-hour English-language News broadcasting, news channel operating under Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the government of Qatar. Al Jazeera introduced an English-language division in 2006. It is ...

. He is also a former officer of the Jamaica Defence Force.

Early life

Born in

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

n parents, Jordon was brought up in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. Jordon was trained at the

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academy, military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial Commissioned officer, officer train ...

, in the United Kingdom, and became a professional army officer. He spent eight years in the Jamaica Regiment, and was part of the 1983 American-led force in the

invasion of Grenada The United States and a Caribbean Peace Force, coalition of Caribbean countries invaded the small island nation of Grenada, north of Venezuela, at dawn on 25 October 1983. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury by the U.S. military, it resulted in m ...

. He retired from the army as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. Jordon became an accomplished military and sports parachutist, setting a new record in 1983 for parachuting onto Jamaica's highest mountain. Following his retirement from the army, he worked briefly as a parachute stunt double, appearing in the film ''Club Paradise.'' Upon leaving the army, Jordon sold TV advertising, and was a group sales manager for

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT; now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00&nbs ...

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...

with soap expert and TV critic Chris Stacey and

M-Net M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Broadcasting career

Jordon started his media career as a sports broadcaster in

. He joined the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

in 1998 as a

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

correspondent on BBC News 24, where he later presented the ''Sportsday'' programme. He became a regular newsreader on the channel in 1999, before moving to present the relaunched breakfast news programme ''Breakfast'' in 2000, working with co-presenters Sophie Raworth, Jeremy Bowen and Sarah Montague. He also later became deputy presenter of the '' BBC One O'Clock News'' and presented all types of bulletins on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

. Jordon left the BBC to join Al Jazeera at the end of October 2006, his departure having been announced on 5 October. In the announcement by Al Jazeera of his appointment, he was reported as saying "I think the world will benefit from a news channel like Al Jazeera English which will become the much needed channel of reference for Middle Eastern events with unique access to the region. We will set the news agenda rather than following others."Presenters – Doha
– Al Jazeera English Press Office He has become a regular newsreader based in

Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

References

External links

Al Jazeera English profile (contains other presenter profiles)
*
Independent Travel – Jordon returns to Grenada

Telegraph travel – Jordon returns to Johannesburg
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordon, Darren 1960 births Living people English people of Jamaican descent Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Jamaican military officers British reporters and correspondents British television newsreaders and news presenters Black British journalists BBC newsreaders and journalists Al Jazeera people Writers from London