Frank Gardner
Frank Gardner reports on how security threats shape power, policy and everyday life. He is the BBC’s security correspondent, focusing on terrorism, intelligence and conflict and how they intersect with government decisions and democratic institutions. His coverage tracks the way states, militaries and spy agencies respond to attacks, warnings and crises, bringing audience attention to the risks that sit behind headline politics.
Security agencies and the politics of threat
Gardner’s recent work often centres on formal assessments from security and intelligence agencies and what those assessments mean for domestic politics and public safety.
In coverage of Russia’s campaign against critical infrastructure and democratic systems, he translates technical briefings from organisations such as GCHQ into clear accounts of how cyber operations, sabotage and disinformation can disrupt everyday services and elections. His reporting joins the language of security professionals with the concerns of voters, framing questions such as energy resilience, digital networks and electoral interference as political decisions shaped by hidden conflicts. He draws on years of global security reporting, from Afghanistan to piracy off the Somali coast to Arctic challenges, to show how similar patterns of risk play out in very different theatres. The tone is sourced and explanatory rather than speculative, with attention to who is making decisions, what intelligence they have, and what trade-offs they accept in protecting infrastructure and civil life.
Middle East, terrorism and conflict
Gardner brings long experience in the Gulf and wider Middle East to stories about terrorism and regional power struggles. He has reported extensively on jihadist movements and the global “war on terror”, filing from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Guantanamo Bay and the Horn of Africa as governments and armed groups contest control.
That background allows him to set current security alerts in context, explaining how groups evolve, how states adapt, and how alliances shift over time. He reports on both the operational detail of attacks and plots and the diplomatic and military negotiations that follow, connecting events on the ground to cabinet-level decisions and international summits.
His dispatches often highlight the practical realities of counter-terrorism work, from intelligence-gathering and detention policies to the risks faced by security forces and civilians, keeping the emphasis on consequences rather than rhetoric.
Ukraine, NATO and shifting alliances
In his coverage of the war in Ukraine and wider European security, Gardner focuses on how military developments and nuclear brinkmanship affect alliances such as NATO. He has fronted a BBC News special examining President Putin’s nuclear threats, setting out how battlefield gains by Ukrainian forces could influence Russian calculations around tactical nuclear weapons and Western deterrence.
In pieces and on-air explainer segments from major summits, he explores the tension between public displays of unity and private disagreements among leaders over strategy, burden-sharing and escalation risks.
His reports analyse how decisions on sanctions, weapons supplies and defence postures are informed by intelligence assessments and contingency planning, and how these choices feed back into domestic politics in member states. The style combines battlefield and diplomatic detail, making clear what is known about capabilities and intentions while distinguishing that from political messaging.
Disability, resilience and public service
Gardner also reports on disability and the long-term impact of violence, drawing directly on his own experience of being shot and paralysed while on assignment and his return to frontline journalism. In his documentary “Being Frank: The Frank Gardner Story” and accompanying BBC coverage, he examines what he calls the “iceberg” of disability, looking beyond visible injuries to everyday barriers in transport, work and social life.
These pieces extend his security beat into the human aftermath of conflict, showing how a single incident can reshape a reporter’s life while leaving institutional expectations largely unchanged.
He approaches disability as a structural issue, reporting on how systems respond to people with life-changing injuries and how that response reflects wider political priorities and public attitudes. Across this work, resilience is treated not as a slogan but as a practical negotiation with bureaucracy, technology and the built environment, keeping the focus on what changes and what does not after violence.
4 more politics journalists.
Abbi Garton-Crosbie
Abbi Garton-Crosbie is a multimedia political reporter who treats independence as a live process shaped by Holyrood power struggles, party manoeuvres and grassroots pressure. She works at The National, a pro-independence newspaper, covering how political power is contested and exercised in contemporary Scotland, with a core focus on parties, parliament and the mechanics of constitutional change. She reports on parliamentary votes, government strategy around future independence referendums, and elections across Scotland in the wider context of devolution in Wales and Northern Ireland. Her work centres on party leadership, resignations and internal conflict, including long-form interviews with senior politicians and coverage of emerging and smaller parties. She examines far-right activity, protest politics and movement organisation, and runs policy-driven reporting on rent caps, AI data centres, health boards and public services, across written, video and podcast formats.
Abubakar Ahmadu Maishanu
Abubakar Ahmadu Maishanu is a politics reporter with Premium Times who treats politics as a system of rules, contests and consequences rather than personalities. He focuses on power struggles, security shocks and governance disputes shaping party competition in northern Nigeria, especially how violence, corruption investigations and economic strain intersect with political authority. He reports on Bauchi’s 2027 governorship race, APC primaries and PRP realignment, tracking defections, party constitutions and factional manoeuvring. His coverage of Jigawa and Yobe follows power-sharing fights, candidate substitutions and Tinubu reelection mobilisation efforts. He links banditry and local security crises in Kano and Zamfara to political structures, using precise locations and casualty figures. His investigative work on alleged shady dealings around the Dala Inland Dry Port and reporting on soaring cooking gas prices add a corruption and economic hardship lens.
Aisha Iqbal
Aisha Iqbal covers local and regional politics for the BBC, with a distinct focus on grassroots power and how local decisions shape trust, representation and public services. She reports on Bradford Council decisions, waste services, cultural funding, regeneration grants and the use of public money. She also covers grooming gangs, community safety, political trust, elections, Muslim voters, Gaza, ceasefire campaigns and the links between faith, foreign policy and representation. Her work includes culture and public figures when they intersect with civic identity, including a feature on David Hockney. She connects committee-room votes, neighbourhood disputes and national debates, showing who gains, who loses and how communities respond. She reports across broadcast and online platforms in a clear, explanatory style. Earlier, she covered politics, culture and consumer issues for regional newspapers.
Alessia Simona Maratta
Alessia Simona Maratta stands out for showing how political decisions, regulations and conflicts ripple through communities, pairing national and global stories with on-the-ground voices and clear policy explanations. She is a digital reporter, producer and editor with Global News’ network news desk, covering breaking news, crime, politics, public health, housing, labour, immigration, environment and climate, social issues and features. Her recent work spans politics, public health regulation, labour and technology, and human-interest features that ground complex issues in everyday experience. She reports on politics, policy and community impact, public health and social debates, and labour and regulation at the intersection of technology, globalization and worker rights. Alongside hard news, she produces features that use individual stories, straightforward narrative arcs and accessible explanations to connect history, science and policy to everyday life.