Chris Rogers (journalist)

Chris Rogers0055

Chris Rogers' is an award winning British television journalist. He is currently a news reader for BBC News and has conducted numerous investigations for the BBC, mainly exposing human rights abuses. Chris Rogers is often seen presenting various news programmes on BBC One, BBC News Channel and BBC World News and has also presented the main BBC Six and Ten o'clock news. He has recently been heard presenting "Drivetime" on BBC London 94.9. He is also a published author, many of his investigations have been printed in the Mail on Sunday Live magazine. In 2010 he released his first book called "Undercover" charting many of his investigations including his undercover trip to Turkey with the Duchess of York.

Career

His first television appearance was in 1991, when at the age of 16 he presented "PX" for BBC Schools television. By the time he was 17, Rogers was reporting for BBC Radio 5's youth programme, Vibe. He then went on to present various youth programmes on British radio including the popular 'School's Out' on Buzz FM in Birmingham in 1992, then in 1993 he presented on Hallam FM where he anchored the teen evening show 'No Limits' drawing in more than a million listeners a night and landed his own column, Teenage Vibes in the Sheffield Star. Chris Rogers presented on Saturday and Sunday afternoons on London's 95.8 Capital FM when he moved to London to present BBC Newsround.

In 1994, aged 19, Rogers became the youngest ever presenter of BBC's children's television news programme Newsround. In 1997 he was nominated by the Royal Television Society for Young Journalist of the Year for his reports in India on Child Brides, he was noted for his reports on the Sudan famine and investigations revealing the plight of child workers in Nepal. Each of these reports were also broadcast on the BBC Six O'Clock and BBC Nine O'Clock News.

In 1999 Rogers joined the Sky News reporting team and by 2001 he was one of the channel's main presenters alongside Kay Burley covering major breaking news stories including the 9/11 terror attacks; and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He remained with Sky News while reading the news for Channel 4's RI:SE, a Sky production.

In late 2003, he joined ITV News. Starting on the ITV News channel, Rogers became one of the main reporters and newscasters on ITV London News. He also regularly presented London's LBC Nightly News programme; including its Iraq war coverage; and then BBC Radio Five Live presenting many of the station's prime time programmes. In 2006 Chris joined the national ITV News team of correspondents and periodically presented London Tonight and ITV News.

During his time at ITN Chris Rogers also produced and reported a number of major investigations uncovering various human rights issues, many were shown across the world on CNN as well as ITV and led to a number of awards. But in 2009 Rogers left ITN and went back to his roots at BBC News where he is now a presenter on the main news and the BBC's domestic and global news channels. He has also been the producer and reporter of a number of major investigations and documentaries for the BBC. In 2011 Rogers launched his own production company, BlackandWhiteTV to produce documantaries and investigations for various broadcasters.

Investigations

His first major investigation for ITV: Kids Behind Bars exposed the cruelty thousands of young children experience in adult jails in the Philippines which led to a U.S Congressional hearing and a change in Philippine law which has since led to the release of thousands of children </ref>and in September 2006, Chris Rogers investigated Romania’s abandoned children, exposing shocking images of thousands of children living in appalling conditions in institutions just months before Romania joined the European Union. Chris also exposed an on-going trade in children, posing as a childless couple looking for babies and toddlers to buy from their parents. The investigations were shown worldwide. An EU debate followed and an independent monitoring committee was set up to put more pressure on Romania to make better progress. Rogers has since returned to Romania in on-going investigations in to the countries much debated adoption ban and its continued abandonment problem. In June 2007, Chris was presented with a One World Media Award, for his 'Romania's Unwanted Children' investigation. He was also nominated for Television Journalist of the Year at the Royal Television Society awards and a Broadcast Award for “Romania's Unwanted Children.” His series marking the anniversary of the London Bombings led to another Royal Television Society Award nomination for London Journalist of the Year and the special Edition of London Tonight also won RTS Programme of the Year. Rogers was awarded an Amnesty International Media Award for his series of provocative films on the treatment of Palestinian children by both the Israelis and Palestinians, which uncovered how children are being recruited as suicide bombers and how Israel is breaking international law by imprisoning young Palestinian children following military trial.

Closer to home Chris Rogers made a moving thirty minute film on the gun and knife culture among teenagers and he also made a special undercover investigation on Eastern European sex traffickers for the return of ITV's News At Ten which involved the journalist posing as a trafficker for nearly seven months.

Duchess of York

In 2008 he returned to Romania’s abandoned children, but this time with Sarah, the Duchess of York and her Princess daughters who reacted to Chris's original investigations by asking to see the situation for themselves. In two special editions of ITV’s Tonight Chris Rogers took the Duchess undercover in institutions for disabled children in Turkey, again revealing shocking treatment. The films have created a huge scandal in Turkey and an international diplomatic storm soon developed – which recently featured in government cables leaked by Wikileaks. Turkey continues to seek the extradition of Rogers and the Duchess for their arrest but the UK refuses to co-operate. In another investigation for the ITV Tonight programme, he exposed India's black market trade in British medical records.

BBC News

Since joining the BBC Chris has uncovered the inhumane treatment of Romanian adults in psychiatric wards and care homes after tracing what became of tens of thousands of orphans discovered in Romania in 1990 and he visited Brazil, posing as one of the millions of sex tourists who are travelling to the South American country in growing numbers in search for cheap sex with children. In an investigation called, ‘They’re dying to get to Britain’, Chris Rogers followed the entire 4000 mile journey millions of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers make from Afghanistan through Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy, France and finally the UK. He was nominated for a One World Award and won a special Human Rights Journalism Award. His most recent investigation for the BBC took him to Uganda where he exposed the shocking trade in children for Human Sacrifice Juju rituals in Africa and in the UK. His two special reports on the BBC Ten o’clock news, Radio 4 and his documentary for BBC World provoked a huge audience reaction and political debate in the House of Lords and the Ugandan parliament. In September 2011, Chris Rogers received a Special Award for Human Rights Journalism from the All Parliamentary Committee and Human Trafficking Foundation at the House of Lords.

Awards

Royal Television Society

Amnesty International

One World

Human Trafficking Foundation - Human Rights Journalism Award