BBC World News anchor Laura Trevelyan, whose career spans 30 years, has announced that she is leaving the BBC “to join the growing movement for reparatory justice for the Caribbean”.
Posting on social media, the presenter of the Emmy-winning show BBC World News America said: “A new chapter is starting for me. After thirty incredible years at the BBC, I’m leaving tomorrow—to join the growing movement for reparatory justice for the Caribbean. Thank you to my beloved colleagues and to our amazing audience. I couldn’t be more grateful to you all.”
Trevelyan’s decision comes just weeks after she apologised to the people of Grenada for her family’s links to slavery. “We apologise for the actions of our ancestors in holding your ancestors in slavery,” she said in a letter on February 27.
As per The Voice, the family owned six sugar plantations and owned more than 1,000 enslaved Africans at three plantations in the Caribbean country.
The family have pledged a £100,000 donation in order to establish a community for education and economic development for Grenadians.
The 54-year-old also shared a message from Paul Royall, the current executive editor of the BBC News channel, in which he congratulated her for her “outstanding” contribution to the BBC.
She is the latest BBC News presenter to quit as the broadcaster combines its international and domestic news channels. In January, Deadline announced that long-serving employees David Eades, Joanna Gosling and Tim Willcox had taken elective redundancy ahead of the news channel changes.
In February, the BBC told 10 of its most established news reporters that they have lost their presenting roles ahead of the channel’s relaunch next month. They include Jane Hill, Martine Croxall and Ben Brown.