Reuters hires Farrell as new Jerusalem bureau chief

Middle East editor Samia Nakhoul of Reuters, and Simon Robinson, the regional editor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, sent out the following announcement on Tuesday:

Comrades:

We’re delighted to announce that award-winning foreign correspondent and video journalist Stephen Farrell has been appointed Jerusalem bureau chief, leading our coverage of Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Stephen has spent years covering the Middle East and joins us from the New York Times.

Stephen spent his early career as a news reporter in Britain. At The Times of London he covered Northern Ireland, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in Paris, and the Kosovo conflict in the Balkans. In 2000 he became the newspaper’s South Asia correspondent, reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan before and after 9/11, and covering the U.S.-led military operation against al Qaeda and the Taliban. He then moved to the Middle East, reporting extensively from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. He co-wrote a book about the rise of Hamas, from its roots in Gaza to its surprise 2006 victory in Palestinian elections, and its military takeover of Gaza the following year.

Stephen was in Baghdad during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and made numerous reporting trips to Iraq afterwards. In 2007 he joined the New York Times in Baghdad, increasingly adding visual journalism to his print duties. In 2008, he was part of the reporting team which won an Overseas Press Club of America award for a text, video and graphics reporting package which examined the effectiveness of the U.S. troop ‘surge’ in addressing Iraq’s underlying political and sectarian tensions. He also helped launch the NYT’s first foreign blogs, ‘Baghdad Bureau’ and ‘At War.’

In 2012 he moved to New York where he developed his filming skills as a member of the video teams which covered Hurricane Sandy, and the 2013 New York City mayoral election. He has spent the last two years on The New York Times’s cross-platform news desk in New York and London, familiarizing himself with digital-era techniques for showcasing text and visual journalism on web, mobile, social media and other platforms.

Stephen will report to Middle East Editor Samia Nakhoul. He will spend the next few weeks in the London office before moving to Israel in early 2018.

Please join us in welcoming Stephen.