James Robbins (born 19 January 1954) is a British journalist who was 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 ...

's Diplomatic and Royal Editor, a post he held from January 1998 until his retirement on 9 October 2020. He previously served as its Southern Africa Correspondent (from 1987 to 1991) and its Europe Correspondent (from 1992 to 1998). He led the BBC's coverage of

9/11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, making the first report on that evening's ''

BBC Ten O'Clock News ''BBC News at Ten'' (formerly known as the ''BBC Ten O'Clock News'' or the ''Ten O'Clock News'') is the BBC's flagship evening news programme on British television channels BBC One and the BBC News (British TV channel), BBC News Channel, broad ...

'', a report lasting over 7 minutes. He was a regular contributor to BBC news programmes.

Early life

Robbins was born in 1954. He was educated at Eversley Preparatory School, Southwold, followed by

Westminster School Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as do ...

, an

independent school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

for boys in central London. In 1973, Robbins attended Christ Church College at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. During his time there he edited ''

Isis magazine Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

'', Oxford's student magazine, together with the soon-to-be venture capitalist

Michael Moritz Sir Michael Jonathan Moritz (born 12 September 1954) is a Welsh billionaire venture capitalist, philanthropist, author, and former journalist. Moritz works for Sequoia Capital, wrote the first history of Apple Inc., '' The Little Kingdom'' ...

. Robbins read

Politics, Philosophy and Economics Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in PPE was the Unive ...

(PPE), graduating with a BA(Hons) in 1976. He joined the BBC as a graduate trainee in 1977.

Career

Robbins was first properly hired by the BBC in August 1987, when he became the corporation's Southern Africa Correspondent, based in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

References

External links

BBC profile
1954 births Living people People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford BBC newsreaders and journalists {{UK-journalist-stub