A HARTLEBURY man who has worked as a journalist in Africa for 20 years has been given an editor of the year award for his magazine launched two years ago.

Chris Bishop is managing editor of Forbes Africa, which is based in Johannesburg and linked with the CNBC television company.

Mr Bishop, who grew up in Hartlebury and was educated in Stourport and Worcester, was taken on as a reporter by The Shuttle at the age of 18. He went on to become chief reporter on the Stourbridge News and Dudley News before working on evening newspapers in Darlington and Plymouth.

He visited New Zealand as a tourist in the 1980s and was taken on by the Domination and Sunday Times in Wellington. During that time, he won the Sir David Beattie award for exposing the cover-up of an assassination attempt on the Queen.

Returning to Britain, he was with the BBC Breakfast news team covering the Canary Wharf bombings and the Windsor Castle fire. After a spell as the BBC man in Oxford, he decided to freelance in Zimbabwe.

Work came steadily for the BBC, SABC and the Daily Telegraph. In his more colourful exploits, he was tear-gassed in Harare , attacked with stones in Zambia and arrested in Mozambique for wearing the wrong type of sunglasses.

After a spell as news editor of SABC, South Africa's senior news programme, he was head-hunted to launch Botswana's first TV station. Its success was marred by government interference in news coverage and he resigned on principle.

After joining CNBC Television as a news presenter, he was asked to take charge of the Forbes Africa magazine. He has met most of Africa's leading politicians and is proud that Nelson Mandela always remembered his name.

Mr Bishop is bringing his wife and two children to stay with his parents, Tony and Sheila Bishop, in Harltebury over Christmas.