Erik de Mauny
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- Journalist
- Author
Erik Cecil Leon de Mauny | |
|---|---|
| Born | 17 September 1920 London, England |
| Died | 18 March 1997 (aged 76) Lancaster, England |
| Occupations |
|
| Known for | BBC's first Moscow correspondent |
Erik Cecil Leon de Mauny (17 September 1920 – 18 March 1997) was an English journalist, author, and the BBC's first Moscow correspondent, working for them there from 1963, and as a foreign correspondent in other countries.
Erik de Mauny was born in London on 17 September 1920, to professional musicians.[1]
He obtained a degree in Russian at the School of Slavonic Studies.[1] He worked for the BBC from 1949, in External Services News (1949–1955), as foreign duty editor (1955–1958), correspondent in Vienna and Balkans (1958), Middle East (based in Beirut, 1958–1960), and Washington, D.C. (1960–1963).[1][2] He reported from Cuba following the Bay of Pigs episode.[1]
Moscow
The BBC had been attempting to secure permission from the USSR to base a correspondent in Moscow since at least World War II but had always been rebuffed.[2] They received permission in 1963 under the era of Nikita Khrushchev's presidency.[2]
The following year, de Mauny secured an interview with the exiled spy, Kim Philby, confirming the latter's presence in Moscow,[2] and covered the fall of Khrushchev.[1]
While in the USSR, his activities were severely limited. He was required to obtain permission to travel more than a few miles outside Moscow.[2] To communicate with London he had to book telephone lines hours in advance.[2] The bookings were not always honoured.[2]
He moved from Moscow to the BBC's Paris bureau in 1966.[2] He returned as the Moscow correspondent in 1972.[2] In 1974, he reported the arrest of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, writer and dissident.[2]
Later career
de Mauny finally left Moscow in 1974.[1] He was a BBC Foreign Duty Editor (1974–1977) and then Special Correspondent for working for Radio 4's The World Tonight (1977–1980).[1]
