Stephen McDonell is a journalist who has been

BBC's #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

correspondent since 2016. He is based in Beijing. He was previously the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

's China correspondent from 2006 to 2015.

Education

McDonell has a Master of Arts, Journalism degree from the

University of Technology An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from the

University of Wollongong The University of Wollongong (abbreviated as UOW) is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2017, the university had an enrolment of ...

Career

With ABC (1993-2015)

From 1993 to 1999, McDonell reported for the radio current affairs programs AM, The World Today and PM. He was a reporter for

Four Corners The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. The Four Corners area ...

, and worked with

Lateline ''Lateline'' was an Australian television news program which ran from 1990 until 2017. The program initially aired weeknights on ABC TV. In later years it was also broadcast internationally throughout Asia and the Pacific on the Australia Plu ...

for two years. In October 2006, he was posted to

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, China. As ABC China correspondent he has reported on the crash of MH17 and Uyghur Muslims in

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

, among other things. The latter led to a warning to the ABC by the

Chinese Embassy This is a list of diplomatic missions of the People's Republic of China. The People's Republic of China has the largest diplomatic network in the world, representing the country's significant economic, commercial, political, cultural, and milit ...

that there would be "wider implications" over its

Foreign Correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

report. He also worked for

The 7.30 Report ''The 7.30 Report'' is an Australian week-nightly television current affairs program, which was shown on ABC1 and ABC News 24 at from 1986 to 2011. In 2011, it evolved into ''7.30'', a revamped current affairs program. History ''The 7.30 Report ...

and Radio National's Background Briefing. He left the ABC in 2015. After spending

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

with his family in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, he returned to Beijing and joined BBC.

With BBC (2015-)

Significant events McDonell has reported on with the BBC include the 2019-20 Hong Kong pro-democracy protests and the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. While reporting on the Hong Kong protests in 2019, McDonell's face visor was smashed by a projectile. In January 2020, he reported on the outbreak of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

from inside

Hubei province Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

, where infections were first reported, before being quickly escorted out of the province by Chinese police. He returned to the site a year later in January 2021. During the

2021 Henan floods China's Henan Province experienced flooding between 17 and 31 July 2021 as a result of heavy rainfall. On July 20, Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, recorded of rainfall within an hour, the highest ever figure recorded since measurements bega ...

, as several foreign journalists at the location were confronted by angry crowds who accused them of negative portrayals of China, McDonell said on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that this was a "clearly orchestrated campaign of harassment" with a focus on the BBC.

Awards

McDonell has won several

Walkley Awards The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...

including one for investigative journalism in 1996, for coverage of the Asia Pacific region in 2008, and for Radio news reporting in 2008 about the

Sichuan earthquake This is a list of earthquakes that occurred in Sichuan province of China. Earthquakes with magnitude of 7.0 or greater Earthquakes registering magnitudes between 6.0 and 6.9 See also * List of earthquakes in Yunnan References {{Earth ...

. He won a Logie Award for Most Outstanding TV News Coverage in 2008.

References

External links

Stephen McDonell
on

BBC people Australian foreign correspondents Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Male journalists Australian television journalists Walkley Award winners {{Australia-journalist-stub