Steve Rosenberg (journalist)

Steven Barnett Rosenberg (born 1968 in Epping, Essex) is a British TV and radio journalist. He is currently the BBC's Moscow correspondent.[1]

Steve Rosenberg
Born	1968 (age 51–52) Epping, Essex, England
Nationality	British
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Education	Chingford Senior High
Alma mater	University of Leeds
Occupation	BBC correspondent, journalist

Early life

Rosenberg grew up in Chingford, North London. He is Jewish.[2] In 1894 his great grandfather Haim Gnessin left the Russian Empire on a passport Rosenberg still has.[3] Following A-levels at Chingford Senior High, he attended the University of Leeds. In 1991 he achieved a first class degree in Russian Studies. After graduating, in August 1991 Rosenberg moved to Moscow and spent the next 15 years in the Russian capital.

Career

During summer holidays at senior school, he worked at the BBC's teletext service Ceefax.

After moving to Moscow in 1991 to teach English in the Moscow State Technological University STANKIN, Rosenberg secured work with CBS News in the network's Moscow bureau. He spent the next six years at CBS, working first as a translator, then assistant producer, and then producer. Between 1994-96 he was part of the CBS crew covering the first war in Chechnya.

In 1997, Rosenberg became a producer in the BBC's Moscow bureau. In 2000, he was appointed reporter for the BBC in Moscow. Three years later, he became Moscow correspondent. Among the stories he covered in that period was the Kursk submarine disaster (2000),[4] the Nord Ost Theatre siege (2002)[5] and the aftermath of the Beslan school attack (2004).[6] In 2003 he interviewed Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.[7]

Between 2006-10, Rosenberg was the BBC Berlin correspondent, covering stories in Germany and across Europe. In 2010 he returned to Russia for a second stint as Moscow correspondent.[8][9]

As a Eurovision Song Contest fan, Rosenberg covered the contest staged in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2012, where he demonstrated his piano playing skills when appearing on the Ken Bruce show the morning before the 2012 event. He played a short excerpt from every Eurovision winning song. Later in the show, he took part in a "Eurovision Popmaster", narrowly losing the competition to the author of The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History, John Kennedy O'Connor.

Rosenberg played the piano to former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev after an interview.[10]

In June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rosenberg and BBC North West Tonight weather presenter and drummer Owain Wyn Evans joined to present the Match of the Day theme.

In 2015, the government of Ukraine issued a decree banning several journalists, including Rosenberg, from entering the country over his coverage of the war in Donbass. The decree stated those banned were a "threat to national interests" or engaged in promoting "terrorist activities". The BBC labelled the ban "a shameful attack on media freedom".[11] The Ukrainians retracted the ban just a day later.[12]

References

1. Steve Rosenberg BBC pieces online
2. "Letter from Moscow - Steve Rosenberg on the changing relationship between Russia and Israel". BBC.
3. https://twitter.com/BBCSteveR/status/1151776733668024321
4. The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Murmansk "Inside the Kursk, visibility will be low, the risks high", radio report.
5. Moscow siege victims defend decision to sue
6. Mass funerals while Russia mourns
7. Chasing 'Mr Chelski'
8. Official twitter
9. Russo-British Chamber of Commerce
10. "BBC News - Duetting with Mikhail Gorbachev". Bbc.co.uk. 8 March 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
11. Ukraine bans journalists who 'threaten national interests' from country The Guardian
12. Ukraine allows BBC journalists to remain The Guardian