Darren Jordon (born 23 November 1960 in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
) is a British journalist working for the
Al-Jazeera 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel,
Al Jazeera English. He is also a former officer of the
Jamaica Defence Force
The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) is the combined military of Jamaica, consisting of an infantry Regiment and Reserve Corps, an Air Wing, a Coast Guard fleet and a supporting Engineering Unit. The JDF is based upon the British military model, with ...
.
Early life
Born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
to
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
n parents, Jordon was brought up in the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
.
Jordon was trained at the
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, in the United Kingdom, and became a professional army officer. He spent eight years in the
Jamaica Regiment
The Jamaica Regiment is the main formation of land troops in the Jamaica Defence Force. It is a non-mechanised infantry regiment consisting of five battalions, three regular infantry battalions, one territorial infantry battalion, and a Combat S ...
, and was part of the 1983
American-led force in the invasion of
Grenada. He retired from the army as a
Captain.
Jordon became an accomplished military and sports
parachutist, setting a new record in 1983 for parachuting onto
Jamaica's highest mountain. After 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 network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...
,
Granada Television 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, ...
in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
.
Broadcasting career
Jordon started his media career as a sports broadcaster in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
.
He joined the
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 exam. ...
...
, 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
. He also later became deputy presenter of the ''
.
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."