Mark Laity

{{Short description|British NATO spokesperson and news correspondent}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}

{{Use British English|date=January 2018}}

{{Morefootnotes|date=July 2010}}

Mark F. Laity (born 1955{{Cite web|url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/t9C3Ty338NBT7aIdA5h5stmsItw/appointments|title=Mark Franklyn LAITY personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK}} in Truro, Cornwall, UK) is a NATO spokesman and former BBC correspondent. He gained a BA(hons) and MA from the University of York. Laity later became a Senior Associate Research Fellow at the Centre for Defence Studies, at King's College London.

Laity became a Defence Correspondent from 1989 until 2000. During the first Gulf War, in 1990–91, he was based in Saudi Arabia and became a frequent voice on BBC radio. He covered later conflicts also - particularly the break-up of Yugoslavia, the war in Bosnia and the conflict with Serbia over Kosovo, where he reported from NATO's Brussels headquarters, before reporting from Kosovo itself. Laity commented on NATO actions in Afghanistan, and became Chief Strategic Communications at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.{{Cite web

|title=Strategic communications conference held in Portugal

|url=http://www.aco.nato.int/page272203921.aspx

|publisher=Allied Command Operations, NATO

|accessdate=2010-07-11}}

In 2003 Laity formally complained to the BBC about comments made to the Hutton Inquiry, which he interpreted as a slight on his tenure as Defence Correspondent.{{Cite news

|title=Correspondence with Mark Laity

|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/08_august/21/laity_correspondence.shtml

|publisher=BBC Press Office

|date=2003-08-21

|accessdate=2010-07-11}}