James Mates

“I am hugely proud to support the work the Rory Peck Trust does – work that no other charity is doing – and believe it must only get stronger as the demand, sadly, increases.”

James began his career as an editorial trainee at ITN, and has held various roles, including Diplomatic Editor and Washington and Moscow Correspondent. His assignments have covered the refugee crisis in Yugoslavia, the NATO invasion of Kosovo, Yeltsin’s attempt to put down the uprising in Chechnya and the Arab Spring uprisings and Rwanda, where he reported on the Central African Republic’s genocidal civil war. As the only television journalist left in the capital Kigali in 1994, James watched the city fall to the rebel army of the Rwandan Patriotic Front. Together with his ITN/C4 News colleague Alex Thomson, James has been instrumental helping to generate significant funding support from the media for the Trust’s work.

“I got to know Rory and Juliet Peck well when we all lived in Moscow in the early 90’s. Our children are the same age and used to romp together for hours on the floor of the wonderful Peck ‘dacha’ on the outskirts of the city. The RPT continues to be a magnificent tribute to two very special people.”