I grew up in north-east Scotland and set up a restaurant before completing a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford. In a BBC career spanning more than three decades, I have served as China correspondent and Beijing bureau chief, presenter on the BBC News Channel and host of the weekly BBC World Service programme The Interview. I have made many documentaries for TV and radio, winning prizes including a Peabody and an Emmy, and commentating at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In January 2018, I left my post as the BBC’s China editor in protest at unequal pay, publishing an open letter to BBC audiences and giving evidence before a parliamentary committee. In June 2018 I won an apology and pay parity from the BBC. I donated my back pay to the gender equality charity, the Fawcett Society, to help low-paid women facing pay discrimination. I then continued to serve as a BBC News presenter and chair of the weekly TV discussion show Dateline London while campaigning for a more equal, fair and transparent pay structure for women everywhere. In 2019 I published Equal, the story of the battle at the BBC and the wider struggle for women in the workplace. My last major China project was a Panorama documentary investigating Wuhan’s early coronavirus cover-up, and I left the BBC in August 2020 after a career spanning 33 years.

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