Lyse Doucet

Lyse Doucet was born in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada and is a senior BBC presenter and special correspondent. She works for both BBC World Service radio and BBC World News television, and also reports for BBC Radio 4 and BBC News in the UK, including reporting on Newsnight. She has a Master's degree in International Relations from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Arts Honors Degree from Queen's University at Kingston. She also has an honorary doctorate in Civil Law from the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from University College at the University of Toronto, an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of New Brunswick and an honorary doctorate in journalism from Universite de Moncton. She is a fluent speaker of English, French and Farsi. Lyse joined the BBC in the early 1980s in West Africa, and was based in Abidjan in the Ivory Coast for five years. She reported from Pakistan in 1988, and was based in Kabul from late 1988 to the end of 1989 to cover the Soviet troop withdrawal and its aftermath. She was the BBC Correspondent in Islamabad from 1989 to 1993, also reporting from Afghanistan and Iran. In 1994 she opened the BBC office in Amman, Jordan. From 1995 to 1999 she was based in Jerusalem, traveling across the Middle East. In 1999, she joined the BBC's team of presenters but continues to report from the field. Lyse is often deployed to anchor significant news events from the field, and to interview key players. She played a leading role in the BBC's coverage of the "Arab spring", reporting from Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. She has covered all major wars in the Middle East since the mid 1990s. Lyse has been a frequent visitor to Pakistan and Afghanistan since the late 1980s. Her work also focuses on the aftermath of major natural disasters, including the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 which took her to India and Indonesia. Her first overseas experience was with Canadian Crossroads International, when she volunteered in Cote d'Ivoire in 1982. She is now one of its honorary patrons. Doucet has been a Council Member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and is a Council Member of the International Council for Human Rights Policy (ICHRP) based in Geneva. She is also involved with Friends of Aschiana UK, which supports working street children in Afghanistan.