Sunderland's Kate Adie lifts lid on early days as North East reporter as she is presented with lifetime achievement award

The Sunderland-raised broadcaster and journalist was celebrated with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Society of Editors’ 20th anniversary gala dinner this week after it confirmed its plans to recognise her in September.

Stories she covered during her years as a BBC correspondent include both Gulf Wars, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Tiananmen Square protest in Bejing and the final NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999.

The audience of the London awards event was packed, with Kate greeted with a storm of applause as she took the podium to respond to her award.

She talked of her formative years as a raw trainee with local radio in Durham, only entrusted in those days with tasks such as producing the weather forecast.

“As the budget was frugal, I would go into the studio, stand behind the presenter, open the window, and have a good look out,” she told the audience.

She then went on to relate the disastrous tale of going to interview someone, only to find the door answered by a policeman.

“I told him who I wanted to see. He said: ‘You can’t.’ ‘Why can’t I see him?’ I asked. ‘I’m from the local radio station.’

“I was rather disappointed. ‘He’s dead. Murdered,’ was the reply. I gasped and fled.”

She ended up getting sent back twice more by an increasingly exasperated editor before being able to get anywhere near covering the story properly.

Kate also gave insights into covering royal tours to her encounter with Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi.

She concluded by summing up the vital importance of journalism: “We are in a terrific profession. It is a pillar of democracy.

“It matters, and we will all work to keep it a strong, a vibrant pillar that reflects society, that informs people, and gives people the truth.”

Kate, who is a trustee of the Foundation of Light, Sunderland AFC’s charity organisation, received a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2018.