Long-serving Sky News journalist Jeremy Thompson has announced he will be retiring at the end of the year following his sixth time covering a US Presidential election.
Thompson has worked in journalism for 50 years, including spells the BBC and ITV. He started at Sky as a foreign correspondent in 1993.
In 1999 he was the first TV journalist to broadcast live as British peacekeeping forces arrived in Kosovo. The channel’s coverage of the conflict won Thompson the Royal Television Society (RTS) award.
Thompson currently anchors Sky News’s early evening bulletin.
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He said on Twitter: “Just to let you know I’m retiring from @SkyNews at the end of the year. After 23 years at Sky & 50 years as a journo, time for a gap year!”
Just to let you know I'm retiring from @SkyNews at the end of the year. After 23 years at Sky & 50 years as a journo, time for a gap year!
— Jeremy Thompson (@JTtvnews) September 6, 2016
Thompson was named RTS Presenter of the Year in 2006. His work has seen him awarded three BAFTAs and three Emmys.
John Ryley head of Sky News, said: “Jeremy Thompson is a master of his craft. His career has been an extraordinary achievement that few journalists have equalled.
“I have learned much from him; his deft handling of the most sensitive situations, his gut instinct for what the real story is, and his mass appeal to our viewers who trust him to bring them the latest news from wherever he happens to be in the world.
“He leaves the strongest of legacies and I, along with all my colleagues at Sky, will miss him a great deal.”
Thompson covered the first Gulf War in 1990/91 and in 2003 he anchored coverage of the second Gulf War from Iraq, presenting every night for a month on the frontline.
He has also reported on the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Soham murders, the Indian Ocean tsunami, the Beijing Olympics, Tony Blair’s first election and the death of Nelson Mandela, to name a few.
Thompson anchored from Pakistan following the death of Osama bin Laden, presented live on the ground in Tripoli during the uprisings in Libya and covered the conflict in Syria from Damascus.
During his time at Sky News he has also set up two bureaux – the first in South Africa in 1994 and a second a year later in Washington DC.
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