Former BBC journalist and academic Colleen Murrell will come to Monaco in October for a talk exploring how women fought their way into foreign correspondence – one of journalism’s most prestigious and historically male-dominated fields.
The event will take place at the Princess Grace Irish Library on Thursday 1st October at 7pm and draw on Murrell’s latest book, BBC Women Reporting the World: Conversations with Foreign Correspondents.
Published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2025, the book profiles 10 BBC journalists of different generations and nationalities, including Kate Adie, Lyse Doucet, Orla Guerin and Shaimaa Khalil. Through their experiences, Murrell examines the institutional barriers and gender assumptions that once kept women away from reporting and presenting roles, often confining them to work behind the scenes.
The book traces the evolution of women’s foreign reporting from the BBC’s early decades through to the expansion of opportunities in the 1970s and 1980s, before turning to more recent questions surrounding pay inequality, race, class and power within international news organisations.
From the newsroom to academia
Murrell brings direct industry experience to the subject. Before entering academia, she worked as a producer, reporter and news editor for international broadcasters and news organisations including the BBC, ITN, Associated Press, TF1, CBC and ABC Australia. Her assignments took her extensively across Europe and the Middle East.
She has been Professor of Journalism at Dublin City University since 2020, where her research focuses on international newsgathering, crisis reporting, public-service broadcasting, news production and digital media. She was also research lead for the Reuters Digital News Report in Ireland between 2021 and 2024.
The Monaco talk will combine Murrell’s academic findings with her experience inside international newsrooms, examining how female correspondents secured access to overseas assignments and how the profession has changed between the 1980s and today.
It will also consider parallels with women working in entertainment during the same period. While female stars in Hollywood were often underpaid and controlled by powerful studios, Grace Kelly established an enduring career before becoming Princess of Monaco. The library says her ability to communicate on both sides of the camera provides a local point of connection with the evening’s broader theme.
The talk begins at 7pm at the Princess Grace Irish Library, 9 rue Princesse Marie-de-Lorraine in Monaco-Ville. Tickets can be purchased through the library’s event page.
Signed copies of BBC Women Reporting the World can also be pre-ordered for €20 by emailing info@pgil.mc. A limited number will be available at the event, with payment accepted in cash.
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Photo source: Princess Grace Irish Library