Paraic O'Brien is a Foreign Affairs Correspondent for Channel 4 News.
Paraic's investigations include the multi-award winning "Bruce Lee, King of Romania's Sewers", a searing film about the subterranean life of Bucharest's drug addicts. His expose of how the global online game Habbo Hotel was putting children at risk, resulted in a mass exodus of investors. His investigation into the death of Alois Dvorzac in a British detention centre exposed serious flaws in the immigration system.
He was the first TV reporter on the ground in Brixton and Croydon as the riots broke out in 2011. He also once had a minor altercation with Russell Brand.
Before joining Channel 4 News he worked at the BBC as an investigations reporter for BBC London News and Newsnight on occasion. Prior to that he was a community worker in Ireland and south London.
First they pulled a seven-month-old baby alive from the rubble. Then firefighters found his two older brothers, working through the night to rescue the children after an earthquake damaged homes and buildings on the Italian island of Ischia. At least two people were killed in the quake, which struck yesterday evening on the popular holiday…
Prosecutors in England and Wales have been told to treat hate crimes committed on social media as seriously as any others. New guidelines from the Crown Prosecution Service say hate crimes have a “corrosive effect on society”, warning that the internet has provided new platforms for abusive behaviour.
He was the face of Saturday night television. His catchphrases, from ‘Nice to see you, to see you nice’ to ‘Didn’t he do well?’, were part of the national lexicon. Sir Bruce Forsyth has died at the age of 89. Colleagues immediately paid tribute to his warmth, his wit, his generosity and charm. He was, said the BBC director general, one…
Rail commuters are used to an uncomfortable journey to work, but today was something else. Passengers were told to avoid the country’s busiest station, Waterloo, after a points failure and a train derailment, a Tube station had to be evacuated during the morning rush hour, and to cap it all, a train hit the buffers at London’s King’s Cross. So…
Aid agencies are warning deaths in the Mediterranean will increase after they suspended migrant rescue missions in response to what they said were threats from the Libyan government. Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontiers and the German charity Sea-Eye pulled their ships back after Libya announced it was expanding its zone of control off the…
He will earn a cool half a million pounds a week. But the Brazilian forward Neymar says it’s sad that people think his record breaking £198 million transfer deal to join Paris Saint Germain was motivated by money. The 25-year-old player put on his new club colours for the first time in front of cheering…
England are through to the semi-finals of the Euro 2017 championships: the women’s team that is, after beating France this weekend in spectacular fashion. Thanks to unprecedented investment by the FA, female footballers say they’re getting further than ever before. In fact it’s been a summer of success across women’s sport, from cricket to tennis…
The House of Lords says that far from deterring people smugglers, Europe’s naval operation in the Mediterranean has actually encouraged it, putting migrants in even more peril. Meanwhile, the Human Trafficking Foundation has condemned Britain for failing to protect unaccompanied children who end up in Europe, often falling victim to traffickers. Paraic O Brien reports…
This week and last, we’ve been reporting on the migrant crisis across the Mediterranean and the political tensions faced by countries like Italy, where many of the arrivals are landed. The people smugglers are a major part of that desperate equation – both along the North African shores and as the migrants set off out…
We’ve been filming out at sea with migrants off the Libyan coast, and witness a tense stand-off between the coastguard and the charity rescue boat which our team was travelling on. We ask whether the charities who rescue people are effectively encouraging more to make that dangerous voyage by sea. A warning: there are distressing…
Italy has threatened to stop foreign boats carrying migrants rescued in the central Mediterranean Sea from docking in its ports unless other EU countries do more to help. It comes amid a surge in arrivals in recent days, as we reported last night from aboard a German rescue vessel. Tonight we hear from the migrants…
In recent days, calming seas in the Mediterranean have seen a huge rise in the number of people attempting the perilous crossing from north Africa to Europe. Aid agencies have rescued thousands of the migrants and refugees who have been crammed on to often barely seaworthy boats run by smugglers and criminal gangs. For the…
The US military has revealed that it killed three senior Islamic State officials in attacks this month. Contrary to what Jeremy Corbyn has said, a senior US Colonel has told Channel 4 News that in Iraq and Syria the war on terror is working. But as the noose tightens around IS strongholds, the number of…
The social media giant Facebook is facing new scrutiny over the way it moderates potentially harmful or dangerous content, after its secret guidelines for staff and moderates were leaked to the press, revealing huge inconsistencies over issues like violence, sexual images and hate speech. The company says with such a diverse global community there will…
Air Force One is about to take off tonight, carrying Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia on his first trip overseas since he became President – for a summit in Saudi Arabia with Arab and Muslim leaders. Iran won’t be there, though, nor its close ally Syria. Today relations were complicated still further, as the Syrians…