ABC News promotes Ian Pannell to chief foreign correspondent

ABC News President Kim Godwin sent the following note to the news division announcing that Ian Pannell has been promoted to chief foreign correspondent.

I am excited to announce that Ian Pannell has been promoted to chief foreign correspondent, leading the news division’s foreign coverage.

Throughout his storied, 30-plus-year career as a journalist, Ian has been on the frontlines covering some of the most important and compelling stories across the world. As Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, Ian reported from Kyiv as the first missile strikes hit and has spent months on the ground there documenting the tragic developments and the devastating impact on the people inside the country.

During his tenure at ABC News, he has reported on the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, the battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the fight to retake Mosul, the killing of U.S. soldiers in Niger, the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico, and the fight and famine in Yemen.

Prior to joining ABC News in 2017, Ian worked at the BBC for over 25 years. When the Taliban fled Afghanistan in 2001, he was the very first journalist to enter the capital, Kabul, with the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance and was stationed there from 2008-2010 for the BBC. He was in Kabul the day it was liberated, and he was there for ABC News 20 years later when it fell to the Taliban once more. He reported from Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Syria on the Arab Spring uprisings and subsequent wars, the frontlines of Crimea and Donbas in 2014 and 2015, and extensively across the Middle East. He also covered the Israel-Lebanon War in 2006 and reported from Gaza during the Hamas-Israel conflict in 2014.

His reporting has won many major journalism awards, including the Prix Bayeux-Calvados Award for War Correspondents, the James Cameron Memorial Award for Foreign Correspondents, the Royal Television Society Award for International News Coverage, the David Bloom Award for Excellence in enterprise reporting and several Emmy and Peabody Awards.

Despite difficult and often dangerous situations, Ian continues to deliver powerful reporting, often setting the tone and pace for our international breaking news and ongoing coverage. I look forward to continued excellence from Ian and the entire foreign news team, led by Katie Den Daas and Kirit Radia.

Please join me in congratulating Ian on this well-deserved promotion.