Mark Lowen
{{Short description|British journalist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name =
| image = Mark Lowen.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Lowen in Italy
| birth_name =
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| nationality = British
| education = Balliol College, Oxford
| alma_mater = University of Oxford
| other_names =
| occupation = Journalist
| years_active = 2005–Present
| known_for = BBC Correspondent in Greece, Turkey and Italy
| spouse = {{marriage|Pedro Penim|2018}}
| children = 1
| parents = Eve Karpf (mother)
| relatives = Natalia Karp (grandmother)
Josef Karpf (grandfather)
Anne Karpf (aunt)
| notable_works =
}}
Mark Lowen is a British journalist who works for BBC News as a correspondent in Southern Europe based in Rome. He was previously based in Turkey, Greece and Serbia. He moved to Rome in 2019 and is often deployed elsewhere on major stories.
Education
Lowen attended Sheen Mount Primary School in Richmond upon Thames from which he was awarded a Scholarship in 1994 to King's College School,{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/schools-1437921.html|title=Schools|work=The Independent|location=London|date=23 May 1994|accessdate=17 December 2012}}{{cite web|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104185719/http://www.okc.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=32|archivedate=4 November 2011|url=http://www.okc.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=32|title=O.K.C. Undergraduate Dinner at Balliol College, Oxford|work=The Old King's Club|accessdate=4 November 2013}} an independent school for boys in Wimbledon, followed by Balliol College at the University of Oxford,{{cite web|url=http://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate-admissions/history|title=History|work=Balliol College, Oxford|date=29 August 2009|accessdate=17 December 2012}}
where he obtained a First Class degree in History and French.
Life and career
Lowen joined the BBC's Paris bureau in 2005 as an intern, becoming a producer, followed by the BBC World Service in London in 2007 and BBC World News in 2008. He became the BBC Balkans correspondent based in Belgrade in 2009, covering the former republics of Yugoslavia and Albania, during which time he reported on the first elections in Kosovo since independence, the trial of Radovan Karadžić, and the arrest of the former Commander-in-Chief of the Bosnian Serb Army, Ratko Mladić.
Lowen became BBC Athens correspondent in autumn 2011, replacing Malcolm Brabant, who had become seriously ill following a routine inoculation against yellow fever.{{cite news|url=http://www.grnlive.com/apps/profile/51035348/info/|title=Mark Lowen|work=The Foreign Correspondents Network|publisher=Global Radio News|accessdate=17 December 2012|archive-date=8 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130608015631/http://www.grnlive.com/apps/profile/51035348/info|url-status=dead}} He covered Greece's financial crisis before moving to Istanbul in 2014. From there, he reported among other subjects on terror attacks, the attempted coup, the migrant crisis, the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Syrian Civil War. In 2019, he became Rome correspondent for the BBC, covering Southern Europe.
He was shortlisted for Young Journalist of the Year at the Royal Television Society awards, 2013.{{cn|date=March 2025}}
He is currently a presenter of OS on the BBC World Service.{{Cite web |title=BBC World Service - BBC OS |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01k2bx3 |access-date=2024-10-22 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}
Family
Lowen's mother is the British actress Eve Karpf and his grandmother was Natalia Karp, née Weissman (1911–2007), a Jewish refugee from the Nazis and Holocaust survivor, whose story he told in a BBC broadcast and online report.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15877299|title=Last survivors of the Holocaust keep memories alive|work=BBC News|date=27 November 2011|accessdate=17 December 2012}}
Lowen is married to Pedro Penim, a Portuguese actor and director of the D. Maria II National Theatre. In December 2022, Penim announced that he and Lowen had a daughter, born via surrogacy in Canada.{{cite web |title=Art Attack's Pedro Benim and his husband have become parents for the first time |url=https://www.bobfm.co.uk/art-attacks-pedro-benim-and-his-husband-have-become-parents-for-the-first-time/ |website=BOB FM |access-date=29 January 2023 |date=21 December 2022}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/news/?q=%22Mark%20Lowen%22 BBC News - Mark Lowen articles]
- {{Twitter}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowen, Mark}}
Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
Category:BBC newsreaders and journalists
Category:English male journalists
Category:English television journalists
Category:People educated at King's College School, London