Mark F. Laity (born 1955 in

Truro Truro (; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England; it is the southernmost city in the United Kingdom, just under west-south-west of Charing Cross in London. It is Cornwall's county town, s ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, UK) is a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

spokesman and former

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 ...

correspondent. He gained a BA(hons) and MA from the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

. Laity later became a Senior Associate Research Fellow at the Centre for Defence Studies, at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

. Laity became a Defence Correspondent from 1989 until 2000. During the

first Gulf War The Gulf War (1990–1991) was an armed conflict between Iraq and a multinational military coalition led by the United States, triggered by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. Persian Gulf War may also refer to: * Shatt al-Arab conflict ...

, in 1990–91, he was based in Saudi Arabia and became a frequent voice on BBC radio. He covered later conflicts also - particularly the break-up of Yugoslavia, the

war in Bosnia The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incidents, the war is commonly seen as ha ...

and the conflict with Serbia over

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

, where he reported from NATO's

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

headquarters, before reporting from Kosovo itself. Laity commented on NATO actions in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, and became Chief Strategic Communications at the

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe The Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is the military headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) that commands all NATO operations worldwide. SHAPE is situated in the villag ...

. In 2003 Laity formally complained to the BBC about comments made to the

Hutton Inquiry The Hutton Inquiry was a 2003 judicial inquiry in the UK chaired by Brian Hutton, Baron Hutton, Lord Hutton, who was appointed by the Labour Party (UK), Labour government to investigate the controversial circumstances surrounding the death of Dav ...

, which he interpreted as a slight on his tenure as Defence Correspondent.

References

External links

Biography, NATO
1955 births Living people Academics of King's College London Alumni of the University of York British reporters and correspondents People from Truro {{UK-academic-stub