Jon Leyne (28 February 1958 – 27 July 2013) was the

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

correspondent for

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

"BBC correspondent Jon Leyne dies at 55"
BBC News, 27 July 2013 and its 24-hour television news channels

BBC World News BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and ...

and

, as well as the BBC's domestic television and radio channels and the BBC World Service. He worked for the BBC for nearly 30 years, and was its correspondent in New York and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, followed by Amman in

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

and

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. He became the BBC's Cairo correspondent in June 2010.

Education

Leyne was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

, followed by the

University of Exeter , mottoeng = "We Follow the Light" , established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter) , type = Public , ...

and St Antony's College, Oxford, where he studied an MPhil in the international response to terrorism.

Life and career

Leyne joined the BBC in 1985, and provided commentary on the British rowing success at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. From 1992 to 1994, he was the BBC's United Nations Correspondent in New York. From 1994 to 2001, he worked around Europe and the Middle East, including

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

and

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

. In June 2001, Leyne became the BBC's State Department correspondent, based in Washington, D.C. and was less than a mile from the Pentagon when it was hit on 11 September. Whilst at the State Department, he travelled throughout the world, including trips with Colin Powell, the-then US Secretary of State, to

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, India, Pakistan,

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

and Israel. In July 2004, he was appointed the BBC's Amman correspondent, during which time he reported from Lebanon and Syria during the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah. He later became Tehran correspondent, in which he was reportedly expelled, and the BBC's Persian television service was disrupted by "deliberate interference" from inside Iran in the days following the 12 June election. He reported on the intifada in the Palestinian Territories, from

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

on the uprisings and personally witnessed a Palestinian militant attack on two Israeli soldiers in Ramallah which stalled the peace process and was in Libya to report on the 2011 civil war and the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, and on the later resignation of President

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in ...

in Egypt.Newswatch - Jon Leyne
''

''. 7 April 2004. Retrieved 7 December 2012. In 2013, he left his Cairo posting because of severe headaches and returned to Britain where he was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour; he died in late July.

References

External links

*
BBC News - Jon Leyne articles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leyne, Jon 1958 births 2013 deaths Alumni of the University of Exeter Alumni of St Antony's College, Oxford BBC newsreaders and journalists Deaths from brain cancer in the United Kingdom English male journalists English television journalists English television presenters People educated at Winchester College