Events

James Mates, ITV 

As Europe Editor for ITV News, James Mates reports and adds analysis to the most significant stories and  complex events taking place in Europe. James also regularly presents ITV News programmes.

Previously, as Senior Correspondent, James covered a range of major foreign and domestic news stories. A multi-award-winning journalist who joined ITN in 1983, James has held a number of high-profile positions at ITN, at home and abroad, as Washington Correspondent, Diplomatic Editor, Moscow Correspondent, North of England Correspondent and Tokyo Correspondent. 

Between 1997 and 2002, he held the role of Washington Correspondent. In September 2001 James played a key role in ITV News’ coverage of the events of September 11th, reporting from New York.  

His many other assignments have numbered Kosovo, during the NATO invasion of the country;  former Yugoslavia where he covered the 1996 refugee crisis;  Moscow during President Yeltsin's attempt to put down the uprising in Chechnya; and Rwanda where he reported on the central African republic's genocidal civil war.  As the only television journalist left in the capital Kigali in 1994, James watched the city fall to the rebel army of the Rwandan Patriotic Front.  He also reported on the slaughter of countless soldiers and civilians and the plight of the 700,000 refugees who have fled the carnage. Just before covering the war in Rwanda, James had been in South Africa reporting on the first-ever democratic elections in the country, which culminated in Nelson Mandela's inauguration as President. 

During his time as Moscow correspondent one of James Mates' reports, on the use of ice as an anaesthetic in a Russian hospital, was awarded the Prix du Press Club de France at the 7th International Scoop & News Festival of Angers, France.  The same story, together with a report on the Russian economy, won James a Silver Medal at the 35th Annual Film & Television Festival of New York.   He also won a joint Silver Medal from New York for his 1996 coverage of the refugee crisis in former Yugoslavia.  In 2009 James spent several weeks researching and reporting on climate change issues from Mount Everest and the Himalayas, for which he was shortlisted for an Amnesty International Media Award.

Nicolay Doynov, Nova 

Nicolay Doynov is one of the most experienced and established presenters of Nova in Bulgaria. He is famous for his reports in the field of military, historical and aviation topics. He has visited some of the “hottest” and most turbulent areas in the world, in order to allow the viewers to witness the events there. He also has a great interest in aviation and airplanes; and he has been on board of fighter jets on several occasions. As one of the emblematic and proven personalities of the media, he regularly presents the commentary during elections.

He has been working in the media since 1997. Having started as a behind-the-camera speaker and reporter, he became the face of the morning Saturday-Sunday show “U nas” (“In our country”) and of “Zdravey, Bulgaria” (“Hello, Bulgaria”). Bulgarian viewers are familiar with him mainly as the regular presenter of the central news emission of Nova News.
As a journalist with vast and long-standing experience, Nikolay Doynov continues to win over the viewers with his strong on-screen presence, erudition and temperament.

Dirk Emmerich, RTL

Dirk Emmerich, born in East Berlin, has been working as a journalist after the fall of the Berlin Wall first for newspapers and since 1992 for TV. The main focus of his work was international affairs, especially Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. He covered the coup against Gorbachev in 1991, the October coup in 1993 in Moscow and the radical and complex changes in the post-communist society in Russia during the Yeltsin era. During the period between 1996 and 2000 he was head of the n-tv bureau in Russia. In 2000 he returned to Germany as executive news producer of n-tv.  In 2004, when n-tv became a member of the RTL Media Group, he was responsible for cooperation between the news shows of n-tv and RTL and since 2006 was the head of the n-tv Berlin-Office. At the same time he accompanied the revolutionary events in Georgia and Ukraine. 

As of 2011 Dirk Emmerich has been covering international affairs around the world. As an International Correspondent for the RTL Media Group he reported from Libya, Egypt, Syria, Israel, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa and Russia and as of November 2013 from Ukraine (Kiev, Crimea, Donetsk Region).

Andrew Wilson, Sky News

Andrew Wilson is a presenter for Sky News hosting prime time news programmes for the channel.  Over the past twelve months, Andrew has covered a range of news stories from the UK and abroad. Most recently, he presented live from Iraq on the rise of the Islamic State (IS), broadcast from on the ground in Israel during the height of the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, as well as reported on the Ukraine crisis. Andrew also fronted Sky News’ coverage of the severe floods that covered large parts of South West England in early 2014.

Formerly a foreign correspondent and bureaux chief in Russia, Jerusalem and Washington, Andrew has over twenty years’ experience in Foreign News, covering almost every major conflict around the world since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.

Andrew has presented in locations from Kuwait to Bosnia, and from Haiti to Chechnya. He has also covered two Presidential elections, watched Boris Yeltsin resign on Millennium night, and fronted Sky’s reporting of the Tsunami in Thailand.

Andrew was with the first wave of Western reporters to cross overland into Kabul in 2001, and sat out Hurricane Katrina in a Mississippi Motel. He also presented Sky’s Afghan coverage from Helmand Province, the uprising in Burma, the Russian invasion of Georgia and the Libya conflict from Ajdabiya.
Andrew has won multiple international awards for his foreign news coverage.

Méabh Mc Mahon (moderator):

Méabh Mc Mahon is an Irish journalist who has been covering EU 
affairs for over seven years. After graduation, she moved to Spain to 
report for a European Web TV – an adventure which saw her travel the length and breadth
 of Europe capturing the biggest issues for European youth through her camera lens. She arrived in Brussels in 2010 as the crisis gained momentum and began to report the twists and turns of the Eurozone debt crisis for international media outlets like France24 and EUobserver.