Richard Lawson

• Position: Editor and producer, BBC World Service
• Date of fellowship: Michaelmas term
• Sponsor: BBC

Richard was educated at Southlands High School and Winstanley College in Lancashire, before going to University College, Oxford, where he gained a congratulatory first in History and French.  He studied for an MPhil in European Literature at King's College, Cambridge, graduating with distinction.  

He began his journalism career at Five News, before working as a politics producer at GMTV.  In 2005, Richard joined the BBC as a producer on the News Channel, Radio 5 Live and Radio 4 news programmes, including the World Tonight, the World at One and PM.  Since 2006, he's been at the World Service as a producer and editor on leading news programmes such as Newshour, World Update and the Weekend World Today.  He won a silver Sony award in 2008 for an investigative documentary exploring the corruption allegations around Benazir Bhutto.  

More recently, he produced several programmes from Japan looking at the economic and political impact of this year's earthquake and tsunami.  He's also spent time working in Islamabad, Brussels, Paris, Rome and Dublin (where one surreal highlight was asking the boyband Westlife for their take on Ireland's imminent bailout!).  

Research project

The Death of Osama bin Laden: Global TV News and Journalistic Detachment

Richard's research will examine the coverage of Osama bin Laden's death in May 2011 on CNN International, BBC World News and Al Jazeera English.