Orla Guerin MBE (; born 15 May 1966) is an Irish journalist. She is a correspondent working for BBC News. Early life and career Guerin was born in Dublin and attended a convent school. A journalism graduate from Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), she qualified in 1985 with a Certificate in Journalism from the College of Commerce in Dublin. She also holds a master's degree in Film Studies from University College Dublin (UCD). Guerin began her career working for newspapers in Dublin such as the Sunday Tribune before joining RTÉ News in 1987 and becoming its youngest foreign correspondent when she was sent to Eastern Europe at the age of 23 in 1990. She remained at RTÉ until 1994, additionally reporting from central Europe, the former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Sarajevo. Guerin's reports from eastern Europe for RTÉ Radio won her a Jacob's Award in 1992. She left RTÉ to run as an Irish Labour Party candidate in the 1994 European Parliament elections. A political novice, Guerin had been hand-picked by then Labour Party leader Dick Spring. Even though she was not selected at the party convention, Spring insisted that she be added to the ballot. She did not win a seat, polling seventh of 15 candidates with 6% of the vote. BBC career Guerin joined the BBC in 1995. She was based in Los Angeles from January 1996 and became the corporation's Southern Europe correspondent in July 1996 and was based in Rome until June 2000. During this period, Guerin reported from Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia and the Basque Country in northern Spain. In the second half of 2000, Guerin was based in Moscow, and covered the Kursk submarine disaster in 2000. Regularly reporting from war zones, in 2002 Guerin told Evening Standard contributor Quentin Letts about having to wear appropriate clothing: Guerin was appointed the BBC's Jerusalem correspondent in January 2001. At the beginning of April 2002, the BBC made an official complaint to the Israeli government after Israeli soldiers fired in the direction of Guerin and her team, forcing them to find cover, while they were recording a peaceful demonstration in Bethlehem in the West Bank. Almost two years later, the Israeli government wrote to the BBC accusing her of a "deep-seated bias against Israel" in a report on a teenage would-be suicide bomber. The BBC defended Guerin's reporting. Caroline Hawley succeeded her as the BBC's